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posted by janrinok on Sunday February 25 2018, @09:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the got-to-give-it-a-try dept.

Amazon's much-heralded convenience store of the future, Amazon Go, may seem like a crazy experiment. But the company plans to open as many as six more of these storefronts this year, multiple people familiar with the company's plans have told Recode.

Some of the new high-tech stores are likely to open in Amazon's hometown of Seattle, where the first location is based, as well as Los Angeles, these people said. It's not clear if Amazon will open up Go stores in any other cities this year.

In Los Angeles, Amazon has held serious talks with billionaire developer Rick Caruso about bringing a Go store to The Grove, his 600,000-square-foot outdoor shopping Mecca, two of these people said.

And in Seattle, Amazon had identified at least three locations for additional Go stores as of last year, according to one source.

[...] News of the planned expansion of the Amazon Go concept is sure to set off fresh concerns about the great societal challenges that come with the type of automation that Amazon is inventing. Since the Amazon Go model does not involve customers checking out, there are no cashiers working in the stores.

Source: ReCode

Also Amazon reportedly plans to open more of its futuristic, cashierless stores this year


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2018, @11:04PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2018, @11:04PM (#643626)

    Except it's not more convenient than cash, you see.

    At any store which has self-checkout, I can walk in, grab what I want, scan my purchases, shove cash into the machine, and walk out. I know for a fact what amount I owed, I know for a fact what amount I paid, and I know for a fact that the transaction was concluded before I walked out. The self-checkout machine cannot overcharge me because it only has the amount of money which I give to it.

    At a cashless inconvenience store, the transaction won't be concluded until after I walk out, after the store bills me, and I won't be sure what amount I was charged until after I check my bank account to see exactly how much the inconvenience store actually took from me.

    The only way to make a cashless convenience store which allows shoppers to walk out without paying first is to make every item in the store free. Somehow I doubt Amazon is in the business of conveniently free stuff.

  • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 25 2018, @11:06PM (1 child)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday February 25 2018, @11:06PM (#643628) Homepage

    See my comment below regarding Self-checkout and booze sales in California. If you don't mind me asking, you're not from these parts, are ya?

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @03:03AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @03:03AM (#643717)

      See my comment below regarding Self-checkout and booze sales in California. If you don't mind me asking, you're not from these parts, are ya?

      I can't speak for the other AC, but no, I'm not from "around these parts" (California). And thank goodness for that.

  • (Score: 2) by arslan on Monday February 26 2018, @02:24AM (2 children)

    by arslan (3462) on Monday February 26 2018, @02:24AM (#643692)

    i dunno about you, but in this neck of the woods, even self-checkout counter can have a queue - and more often than not I run into problems with the weight scale and have to hand wave a store rep over.

    With the amazon app you can see exactly what you're charged if you want to in the app and get a receipt after you pass the scanners. You are paying before you walk out, just not directly into your bank account but your amazon account much like a credit card account.

    The credit card model have been working for decades, this is no different, just no need to do explicit scanning as their tech does continuous scanning while you're in store and no actual person and machine to feed in a physical token like a credit card as it is done remotely via the app in your device in your pocket.

    Yes, there's a small chance you may be billed incorrectly, though haven't seen any news reporting that yet. Yes this is a big leap if you're still on cash, but that can be said of moving from cash to cashless via credit card. From credit cards to this? I'd say this beats the experience of credit cards.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @02:52AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @02:52AM (#643711)

      You speak of cash as though all other forms of payments are upgrades.

      Cash is to sysvinit as credit card is to systemd.

      If I have a credit card, MasterCard or Visa can prevent me from paying any vendor they don't like, and I have no recourse.

      When Amazon accepts bitcoin (openrc or runit), I might consider going to their store.

      • (Score: 1) by Woosh on Monday February 26 2018, @05:08PM

        by Woosh (6715) on Monday February 26 2018, @05:08PM (#644025)

        I agree a little. Cash has benefits. For example lower income families can more easily control their budgets when they have cash. If you have $20 in hand and the bill is $20.01, you put something back. On debit/credit you you pay $20.01 plus interest, overdraft fees, etc. However card service companies aren't activists. Certain vendors get better rates to accept Visa, Mastercard, etc. but its based on the volume and value of transactions, not whether or not they like them. I bet Planned Parenthood and the NRA both accept Visa payments. You can always go prepaid if you like that certain degree of anonymity.

  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Monday February 26 2018, @03:02AM

    by frojack (1554) on Monday February 26 2018, @03:02AM (#643715) Journal

    If you look at how these stores work [techcrunch.com] there is none of the issues you worry about. Everything you pick up and put in your cart is instantly on your phone with no need to do any math, or even scan it with your phone. Just shop till you have what you want or approach your limit and walk out.

    You don't even have to bring your wallet, flash your cash or anything. Of course you't probably have to trust a bank or an app, own a smart phone and a data plan, and any body who sings the virtue of cash is probably not going to be caught dead in that camp.

    But given you have all those things, (play along with me here) what could possibly be easier that walk in, pick up, and walk out like it was your own private pantry?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @05:02PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @05:02PM (#644022)

    At a cashless inconvenience store, the transaction won't be concluded until after I walk out, after the store bills me, and I won't be sure what amount I was charged until after I check my bank account to see exactly how much the inconvenience store actually took from me.

    To be fair this is a solvable problem and the only reason it is not solved here is because Amazon doesn't care about purchases that they can't link to an Amazon account.

    All that is needed is a point of sale system that takes the same information, displays an invoice for the customer to review, then the customer pays (possibly with cash). This has the potential to massively speed up the point of sale process because it may completely eliminate the need to scan items one at a time.

  • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday February 27 2018, @06:05AM

    by darkfeline (1030) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @06:05AM (#644504) Homepage

    You have a rather odd definition of "convenient".

    1. Walk into store. Take item. Walk out of store.
    2. Walk into store. Take item. Go to cashier. Hand cashier exact cash. (optionally receive change from cashier.) Walk out of store.

    The intended clientele aren't worrying over being charged 0.10 extra over what the label on the shelf said, and in any case I don't expect that to be a very common complaint.

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