Cashierless stores are popping up at gas stations, stadiums and even Dunkin':
Pretty soon you might find Amazon Go-like concepts just about everywhere.
Mastercard on Friday said it's joining the effort to create more of these kinds of cashierless stores, unveiling a platform it calls Shop Anywhere. It teamed up with retail tech company Accel Robotics to create a handful of new test concepts that let customers check into a store, grab what they want and walk out.
[...] For instance, the team created a new self-service Dunkin' store that allows people to check in at a kiosk, get doughnuts and coffee, and leave without stopping at a cashier. The store will be staffed with workers to restock items and provide customer service, but there won't be a register.
[...] The payment network pitched these concepts as more flexible than Amazon Go, with Shop Anywhere capable of going into all kinds of locations and being retrofitted into existing stores -- something Amazon Go hasn't yet done. Both Shop Anywhere and Amazon Go are powered by a series of cameras that are kitted with computer vision and AI.
Customers will no longer have to interact with proprietors or employees.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday August 29 2020, @12:59AM (6 children)
3 people go into a store and crowd around a jewelry counter. They leave and the camera decides some valuable merchandise is missing... who do you stop? Here in Canada you can't just go around stopping people and saying "Please let me look through your bags and see if you have our merchandise".
Will they not let you into the store if you are wearing a PPE mask that hides your face?
As an autistic, i kind of like this concept.
As a person who wants to see others keep their jobs, i hate this concept.
As a human, this concept SCARES THE POO OUT OF ME. #Never
HillaryThis--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @01:11AM (1 child)
Is cashierless as autistic as buying everything online?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Saturday August 29 2020, @04:13AM
Sometimes it's nice to see and touch and you can't do that online... Just like I'd rather see my Korean wife-by-mail in person than just by a picture, lol.
But yeah: sometimes I just want no interactions with idiots. It's okay if they know what they are talking about, but how often does that occur anymore?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @04:52AM (3 children)
From the looks of it, or maybe my assumptions, you swipe your card as you go through the turnstile to get in. As long as the cameras can track you / your mask through the store it'll work fine.
But your points are basically why they still need employees - to make sure nobody gets in without being carded (credit carded here) or gets up to any shenanigans to defeat the cameras (crowding, vandalism, opening a bunch of umbrellas in the store, ...)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @05:27PM (2 children)
They will also always need employees to call the cops when black people come in. Machines don't get "scared" if more than one black male is present, but they could probably train that in with some machine learning, I suppose.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @06:59PM (1 child)
hopefully the robots will just handle the execution themselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2020, @12:20AM
Can I code the vivisection subroutine? I mean, sure I've killed off processes before, but now... muhahahahaha!