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Amazon Go

• jakozaur 10y ago
  Wow. So groceries without checkout. I thought that at some point RFID would replace barcodes providing similar experience. However, this system claim to be based on cameras and image recognition.
  • gamegoblin 10y ago
    If it truly is based on cameras and image recognition, that would allow them to roll out to already-existing stores pretty easily. That way they could market the infrastructure rather than build their own stores, which I imagine is less risky and more lucrative.
    • rtkwe 10y ago
      It could but it looks like it might require the shelves to be well organized and relatively static. It also can't really deal with fresh produce and other unpackaged goods or by weight items.
  • comboy 10y ago
    I've been wondering about RFID too. But I guess if you have too many items in one place (shopping bag) it can be tricky.
  • notheguyouthink 10y ago
    I'm absolutely shocked big chains aren't doing this already. I hate the lines at my local grocery, it's fucking annoying as hell, a terrible UX and everyone always seems upset (i try to be chill, fwiw.. for the cashier sake lol). I sort of doubt i'll ever see these Amazon stores though, Brick and Mortar is quite hard. I suspect i'll see someone (Amazon or otherwise) add this to the big chains i already use, though. Either way, lets get rid of lines please.
    • elicash 10y ago
      I wouldn't be shocked. Remember the now-shut-down retailer payments app CurrentC? And this seems even MORE difficult.
    • giarc 10y ago
      You are shocked big chains aren't doing this? What big chain has a robust R&D department working on image recognition? The profit margins at major grocery stores won't support anything like this.
    • jerf 10y ago
      "I'm absolutely shocked big chains aren't doing this already." They don't have the money. It's a very competitive business and margins are not high enough to be doing that level of cutting-edge computer science research. I've seen them try just to build software that allows you to shop from home and get it delivered either curbside or to your home. They can. But in my opinion, it's also clearly at the limit of their capability, and with all due respect to the programmers involved, also clearly just barely staffed adequately.
• teaearlgraycold 10y ago
  Am I normally unaware of Amazon's new products, or have they been releasing an abnormally high amount of new offerings recently?
  • iyn 10y ago
    Most of the announcements were from AWS re:Invent event: https://reinvent.awsevents.com/ https://reinvent.awsevents.com/
  • jonlucc 10y ago
    I believe they are having a conference, so that explains the batch of releases in the past week or so.
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  • zhan_eg 10y ago
    They had AWS re:Invent 2017 last week, so that is the reason for so many announcements :)
  • kejaed 10y ago
    Amazon's had their conference, reInvent 2016, going last week https://reinvent.awsevents.com/ https://reinvent.awsevents.com/
  • deleted 10y ago
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• acomar 10y ago
  I wonder how they plan to deal with fraud... some kind of check-in process instead?
  • viktorelofsson 10y ago
    > With our Just Walk Out Shopping experience, simply use the Amazon Go app to enter the store, take the products you want, and go! No lines, no checkout. (No, seriously.) Yes, seems like you check-in with an app.
    • acomar 10y ago
      I saw that, but it sounds vague enough that there a few different scenarios I can think of to attack this service. Like what are they going to do if multiple people are sharing an account, but they only have photos of one? edit: I just realized how they can deal with that -- take a picture when the person walks in and tie it to the account they scanned. There still seem to be a bunch of fraud issues, but this is certainly interesting.
      • ReverseCold 10y ago
        Just don't share the account. That may already be part of their ToS.
      • dandr01d 10y ago
        They don't need to remember photos at all. Just track the person beginning at the point of scan.
    • VLM 10y ago
      It should be easy to MITM victims of powned phones unless they pay extremely close care to ping times or RTT in general. All I have to do is pown someone's phone and use an app on my phone to make my phone look like its their phone, regardless of where they actually are. I can't imagine the facial recognition would be that good. Its a simple extension of physically stealing phones or cloning like people did in the 80s/90s on analog AMPS. cloning is interesting to think about, steal their amazon auth info, remotely brick their phone for good luck, walk in with a burner phone claiming to be their new phone, its all good.
• MatekCopatek 10y ago
  When I started reading the description, I thought: "someone finally delivered on that RFID pitch of just walking out of the store". Was surprised that it's actually computer vision.
  • mdorazio 10y ago
    Same. I remember predictions of RFID-based shopping becoming the norm 10 years ago, but it never happened. Does anyone know why the tech didn't pan out that way?
    • lis 10y ago
      RFID tags are still to expensive in the supermarket context. The margins are usually razor thin (at least in Germany) and the products are quite cheap. Even when buying RFID tags in bulk they are too expensive.
      • kalmi10 10y ago
        Disclaimer: I am more or less pulling this numbers out of thin air. Assume that having a single cashier costs $15 per hour. Assume that an RFID tag costs $0.05. Assume that in average a cashier handles 1 item for only 5 seconds (including payment). That means that a cashier can handle 720 items per hour, and that costs the supermarket $15. Having RFID tags for 720 items would cost $36. That's still a ~$20 dollar difference, which still amounts to ~$0.028 per item. I would be willing to pay that if that means i can forgo the checkout lines.
        • lis 10y ago
          That sounds about right. Depending on the store, though, the cashier will handle a lot more articles. E.g. at Aldi, a cashier is expected to process at least 3k articles per hour. The big problem is: Most people are not willing to pay for that :) Depending on the product, 1-2 cents might be your whole margin.
      • mdorazio 10y ago
• colept 10y ago
  Shut up and take my money.
  • alfanhui 10y ago
    Please just exit the store, we don't take cash here.
    • Johnie 10y ago
      You joke, but when I was in Beijing a couple of months ago, the juice vendor wouldn't take cash from me. She only accepted AliPay and WeChat.
      • mrkevinlui 10y ago
        Yup, mobile payment is so seamless in China
• tristanho 10y ago
  "Our checkout-free shopping experience is made possible by the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning." Very interesting choice of comparison ha... I suppose this is Amazon trying to attract the tech crowd? It almost sounds satirical. Not to downplay the tech -- this looks incredible.
  • r3bl 10y ago
    From the rest of the text and the video, I have absolutely zero idea how they are using deep learning here. And let me not even mention that they've used the AI word in the video. So, I highly doubt that attracting the tech crowd will work if they don't explain the damn thing about how they are using it.
    • swamp40 10y ago
      Most people here are assuming there are RFID tags on every product. But I think they are watching the shelves and visually identifying when a product leaves, what it was and who took it. And if they put it back on a different shelf, a different camera sees that and it is removed from the person's "shopping cart". They are using their internal employees to train the AI or AI's (maybe one per section of shelf). Imagine a Kellogg's employee assigned to watch each of their cereal boxes and make a list when someone takes one. That's how I think they are using AI here. Hundreds of them in the store.
• helipad 10y ago
  Technology aside, shoppers are going to feel so weird doing this at the beginning. There's already social anxiety when people pay for things and walk past a security guard, or a security barrier. Whether it's an airport, or a clothes store, or a ticket barrier, there's always a nervousness about being called out. It's bad enough in the Apple Store where you can pay and walk out, this will take some real getting used to.
  • draw_down 10y ago
    I imagine I'd get over it pretty quickly, especially since waiting in line for the checkout is so dreadful. I really, really hate it.
  • mememachine 10y ago
    think youre overestimating how "challenging" this will be for 99% of people
  • intrasight 10y ago
    What they should feel weird about is the battery of security cameras that will watch your every move.
    • deleted 10y ago
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    • rtkwe 10y ago
      Why? You're already recorded pretty heavily in every chain store you go into for loss prevention.
      • iainmerrick 10y ago
        Right, but it's not typically tied directly to your online account (as far as I know!) Retailers are definitely pushing in that direction with things like Bluetooth LE beacons that talk to your phone. Plus store loyalty cards and the like, which have been around for decades. But those schemes have mostly been opt-out, apart from those weird stores that require membership cards.
• Someone1234 10y ago
  Companies have been discussing "checkout-less" stores since forever, but nobody has been brave enough to do it due to the perceived threat of shoplifting. And while shoplifting is a legitimate threat, are non-shoplifters going to be turned into shoplifters without a checkout? Are normal shoplifters stopped by checkouts? These are the core questions, and until it is tested nobody will know for sure. Target is getting awfully close to this. With their Cartwheel app you're meant to scan all your items as you shop (so it auto-applies coupons and discounts); but they haven't taken it to the next logical step and allowed you to provide your Cartwheel output at the checkout for checking out. I will say that the way Target has implemented smartphone barcode scanning makes me think that there might be a future in all this. It is extremely painless, they just need to stop kicking you out of the scan screen when it finds a discount (i.e. it doesn't kick you out if no discount is found, but does when a discount IS found, that's problematic for efficiency reasons).
  • bbrks 10y ago
    In the UK, Tesco have been running a 'Scan as you Shop'[0] thing for a couple of years now. Customers pick up a scanner as they enter, scan their items as they go into their cart, and they have special checkouts which read your scanner. There's a random chance that your scanner will be audited by a human against the contents of your shopping cart. Usually the first time you use it, then it backs off. [0] http://www.tesco.com/scan-as-you-shop/ http://www.tesco.com/scan-as-you-shop/
    • xd1936 10y ago
      Sam's Club has been doing similar for the last year[0], as well. They already have a built-in "check your receipt at the door" flow that customers are used to, so it wasn't that hard to offer an electronic tweak to the existing system. [0] http://www.samsclub.com/sams/pagedetails/content.jsp?pageName=scan-and-go http://www.samsclub.com/sams/pagedetails/content.jsp?pageNam...
      • geekamongus 10y ago
        I used this for the first time two days ago. I was pleasantly surprised, and it felt really awesome --almost to a point of guilt-- skipping the checkout lines. However, once I reached the exit where the man was inspecting receipts, things screeched to a halt. I showed him the bar code on my phone, and he looked at it, exclaiming, "Oh no, Scan and Go. You used Scan and Go." He then turned to find a powered-off scanning device that he couldn't get to start up, as he muttered, "I wish they'd never started that." I replied, "As a customer, I love it." He had to call over a manager, who used her scanner to scan my barcode, blindly scroll through my purchased items list to get to the green button, and declared me good to go. Meanwhile, I had held up all the people trying to exit behind me. It was still faster than checking out, but hopefully they get proper training for their employees implemented.
• jonlucc 10y ago
  It already feels very weird to me to walk into an Apple store, check out on my own phone, and just walk out with product. This will take some getting used to.
  • ksec 10y ago
    I think it works for grocery, but for luxury products I do expect someone to do some basic checkout.
• Roritharr 10y ago
  Interesting, i've read about these Store Concepts for years as Test Projects from Rewe in Germany, but they never rolled them out widely. Probably sticking RFID on everything was too expensive. This camera based solution might be better suited for a wide rollout.
  • pimeys 10y ago
    I remember having a discussion with a developer doing these RFID based solutions. He said one tag was back in those days about 10-15 cents each, which is way too much for supermarkets. Talking about Rewe and German supermarkets, it's unbelievable how horrible the whole experience of doing grocery shopping is here in Germany. You almost always need to queue a lot, there is no space to pack your groceries and the cashier don't give you any time to pack until pushing the next customer's groceries to the small space. They try to be efficient here, but the reality is quite chaotic.
    • DominikPeters 10y ago
      If you're talking about discount supermarkets (Aldi, Lidl, etc), then note you're not supposed to pack your groceries at the cashier, but rather put them back into your shopping cart and pack up by the packing tables behind the cashiers. This way, checkout proceeds much faster compared to almost all other countries.
      • pimeys 10y ago
        Also Rewe and Real enforce this behavior. And I don't see anybody doing this. The next customer's groceries are mixed up with yours and everybody seems to be ok with that.
• learned 10y ago
  I got excited when I thought this would be about Go usage on AWS, but this is way cooler.
• ocdtrekkie 10y ago
  My first thought is: I don't have a supported smartphone. The current checkout process entails the acceptance of common legal tender, but this process will require I have their app, and presumably allow it quite a bit of tracking permission. A cool demo, sure, but I think I'll stick to shopping like the normal folks.
  • JorgeGT 10y ago
    It's interesting that they talk abut a supported smartphone. If it was just computer vision looking at what you grab you would only need a printed card with the QR that the folk in the video uses to check-in. So, probably there's something needed from the phone as well: NFC, low energy Bluetooth, inertial location tracking? I guess that we will see when we look at the supported devices list.
  • gdulli 10y ago
    If there's two things I get uneasy about, it's (1) giving up privacy in a whole new category of being filmed/monitored/tracked and (2) being guided into behaviors that encourage me to consume more and consume more casually.
    • giarc 10y ago
      If you've ever entered a grocery store, both of those things have already happened.
      • gdulli 10y ago
        It's imperfect and unable to be completely avoided, but worse to move the line further in the wrong direction.
  • TulliusCicero 10y ago
    The left-wing viewpoint on this is going to be that it's an economy that increasingly works against low-income/homeless people (who are less likely to own a smartphone or always have it charged and on them). Sure when it's a one-off, no big deal, but if it lets a store have lower prices and provide a better customer experience, then more and more stores will adopt it.
• halotrope 10y ago
  So technically they built something to automatically detect shoplifting (but charge to customer in the process). If this worked in generic stores they could make a killing with theft detection services.
  • swalsh 10y ago
    Amazon makes a bigger killing by having a competitive advantage of not having to worry about theft. Just like Kiva gave Amazon an edge in warehousing, this gives them an edge in meat space stores.
• blackaspen 10y ago
  Here's an ad from IBM circa 2006 predicting(?) this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eob532iEpqk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eob532iEpqk Crazy to think we're actually here now. And even sans-RFID.
  • chinathrow 10y ago
    "Sensor fusion" could very well imply that RFID could be within the picture.
    • rkangel 10y ago
      Or even just a strain gauge weight detection on the shelf combined with computer vision.
  • space_ghost 10y ago
    Came here to post this, as I immediately thought of IBM's ad while I was reading Amazon's bumf. I think I would trust IBM's RFID tags vastly more than Amazon's visual tracking.
  • softbuilder 10y ago
    It's actually from the 90s [1]. So much so that I thought it was one of the AT&T "You Will" commercials [2]. [1] http://digest.dx3canada.com/2015/05/12/retrofuture-ibms-1999-forgotten-receipt-commercial-imagines-rfid-matrix-style/ http://digest.dx3canada.com/2015/05/12/retrofuture-ibms-1999... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2EgfkhC1eo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2EgfkhC1eo
    • blackaspen 10y ago
      Glad to know I wasn't alone in thinking it was an AT&T one...that's what I searched for first. Those were the 80s though, right?
      • softbuilder 10y ago
        1993. I had to look: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Will https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Will And David Fincher? Wow. No idea.
• vyrotek 10y ago
  They will most certainly be tracking a lot more than just you picking up your item. The data they collect about shopping behavior will be interesting. Like, how long I hesitated before I picked up something, what I had already in my "cart" at the time, what deals I looked at but passed on, etc.
  • TurboHaskal 10y ago
    Insurance companies will love it the most.
    • intrasight 10y ago
      explain
      • the_duke 10y ago
        So you eat lot's of unhealthy stuff? While we are covering your high blood pressure medication? Well, I guess we'll just increase your rates then...
        • jerf 10y ago
          That's no change. Between customer loyalty cards and the easy ability to tie purchases to credit cards, if they wanted to do that they already could. I'm not sure it buys them anything, though. That's a very noisy signal against the loud-and-clear signal of what the measurements say when you come in to the doctor. Who cares what your shopping habits say when you come in with high blood pressure and morbid obesity, or good blood pressure and normal weight? The change is specifically in in-store behavior. And even that's more because Amazon has the money and skillset to fund the software; the supermarkets already have the data in the sense that they have the video streams, they just don't have the money to fund people running beyond-cutting-edge vision research on it to get that level of analysis.
          • the_duke 10y ago
• deleted 10y ago
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• TurboHaskal 10y ago
  Do they really need "Computer Vision" and "Deep Learning Algorithms" just to scan a product and assoc it with your id? The AI meme is getting ridiculous. PS: I love how the video is based on the US and displays a multicultural, young and health conscious folk, yet not a single obese person is shown :) And how the protein section has chicken, beef and tofu, but no pork products :))
  • scrollaway 10y ago
    If you simply watched the video instead of trying to find a range of shit to complain about in it, maybe you'd notice customers are not scanning anything. The difference between scanning and not scanning is pretty important. https://xkcd.com/1425/ https://xkcd.com/1425/
    • strictnein 10y ago
      The funny thing is that the bird identification isn't 5 years any more. It's just an API call away https://cloud.google.com/vision/ https://cloud.google.com/vision/
      • scrollaway 10y ago
        XKCD 1425 was in September 2014. Randall was a bit pessimistic but it roughly checks out :)
    • aembleton 10y ago
      Funny how that cartoon hasn't aged. There are now APIs such as the Microsoft Computer Vision API that can handle the bird detection: https://www.microsoft.com/cognitive-services/en-us/computer-vision-api https://www.microsoft.com/cognitive-services/en-us/computer-...
• deleted 10y ago
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• elicash 10y ago
  I worked at a grocery store for several years, and one thing I recall is customers CONSTANTLY putting items back in a random aisle, rather than where they found it. I wonder how this tech deals with that? Maybe they figured that out, too. But I was amused in the video when I saw the customer putting it back where it belonged, because that's not how I remember that going... All that said, this is fantastic and exciting. Edit: I also hope they're already thinking about EBT cards and WIC.
  • golergka 10y ago
    I guess tech like this could collect this information and then create an optimized "garbage collection" path for a single employee to put all the stuff back on the shelves once in a while.
  • sqeaky 10y ago
    Knowing Amazon they will charge the first few customers for the products, claim it was a glitch the do something panicky to either fix or prevent the problem.
  • Cthulhu_ 10y ago
    I really wouldn't trust 'picked up off the shelf' detection, not without the whole thing looking like a giant vending machine. RFID tags on products probably works better.
    • jpalomaki 10y ago
      RFID has some privacy concerns, since the tags continue work when you are outside the store and somebody can scan what you are carrying. Using these as EAN barcode replacement also has the problem that the system can't tell if you bought the product from Amazon GO or if you just happen to be carrying it with you when you enter the store.
      • Natanael_L 10y ago
        Bring a Faraday's cage, or rather Faraday's bag. Use it once you've paid to store your goods.
• tdaltonc 10y ago
  Is the basic idea that there are cameras everywhere and they watch and record everything you touch? Now I can't stop thinking about the behavioral analytics. Can they get rough pupil dilation data? I'm sure they can get facial expressions and maybe gaze tracking. Next step is using kiva bots to rearrange/restock the isles when no one is looking.
  • quadrature 10y ago
    My guess is that its a mixture of indoor position tracking of your phone and infrared/computer vision for the products that detect a product being taken.
  • camtarn 10y ago
    Ha, that's a great idea. Partition purchases by hour, figure out which products are bought disproportionately often in particular hours, and for the top three of those products, Kiva their shelves either to the front of the store (if you want to optimize for greatest throughput) or the back of the store (to optimize for longest time-in-store to increase impulse buys) ;)
    • ccostes 10y ago
      Oh god, "Now where did the bread aisle move itself to today?"
• SCHiM 10y ago
  Haha yes, hackers are going to have a field day with this!! I'm sure it's good enough for users which don't actively try to game the system through technical means, but I suspect it won't stand a chance against someone who's taken the time to understand and undermine the system. On another more on-topic note, what an awesome time to be alive! :) When I was younger concepts like this were usually paired with flying cars and space travel in cartoons, but now it's real.
  • TulliusCicero 10y ago
    Ah yes, I'm sure there'll be legions of hackers stealing groceries in meatspace for kicks while being watched by multitudes of cameras.
    • SCHiM 10y ago
      Heh your definition of the word hacker is way too narrow if you think all we're doing to sitting around behind screens all day spouting 31337 sp34k on the interwebz. No, you're wrong. If it can be done it will be done. It's just too much reward versus the risk. Stealing this way scales too well. In a normal shop the risk of detection is variable, and therefore higher on average. Sometimes people will be alert, sometimes not, sometimes there will be guards sometimes not. Now this is different, it's all down to following the correct number of steps to get the desired results. If you replace these two stickers, now scan this then switch this... It'll be down to a few bits in some chip somewhere that decides how much you need to be billed. I'm sure it won't hurt adoption or even lead to a significant increase in lost merchandise, but I'm equally sure it will happen.
      • TulliusCicero 10y ago
        Sure a few will do it for fun. Most won't though, because it's still stealing things and there'll be a non-trivial chance of getting caught.
    • VLM 10y ago
      The assumption is hackers will steal for their own use. The reality is they'll change store inventories of zucchini such that they appear as dragon dildos on the receipt, put 65536 rolls of TP into random victims carts, zero out other people's shopping sessions for the pure hell of it, DOS the vision systems using IR blasters during rush times, frame any customers in uniform (cops, for example) as shoplifters, add negative 2,147,483,648 cans of pepsi to random carts, sign up as username "little bobby; drop table *;" or equivalent, stick RFID tags for embarrassing products to people's shoes so they're billed over and over every time they visit, take things out of and add things to other people's carts when they're not looking, all kinds of fun. As for plain old physical theft: Oh here is an interesting exploit. Buy or steal a $20 "VISA gift card" register an account with that as the payment option, walk into the store, grab $500 worth of steaks/liquor, walk out. I worked at a food store as a starving student and we had interesting problems with people loading up carts and shoving them out the fire safety doors into a waiting pickup truck and driving off. If you allow people with false ID into the building, you will get ripped off. I can assure you police are completely uninterested in video footage of shoplifters, probably due to the near infinite volume. If you can physically get away, unless you achieve felony levels of theft value, you're simply free. This might have interesting long term implications for whats for sale as fewer and fewer people have higher and higher paying jobs and everyone else is perma-poor, such as this tech might scale for 80 pound bags of rice and flour even when almost everyone is poor, but not jars of caviar and $300 bottles of liquor and rare wines and jewelry stores. Salt and pepper, sure, saffron threads probably not.
• highprofit 10y ago
  This is impressive. How did it know which products were inside the woman's shopping bag? As customer grabs items how does it associate the items to that customer's virtual cart instantly? Aren't customers supposed to scan the products?
• pjc50 10y ago
  So it's a surveillance scheme good enough to track every product on every shelf?
• losteverything 10y ago
  The packaging or company that creates products conducive to "go" (cashierless) will be required for chains like walmart.
• bluelu 10y ago
  Maybe they also weight you when enter and leave the store. They can then cross check your weight with the weight of the items you have bought.
  • eroiusghs 10y ago
    You just had a strike of genius
  • giarc 10y ago
    I can't tell if your comment is tongue in cheek or not, but I highly doubt they will make people weigh themselves when they walk in. If they aren't confident in their image recognition technology they would improve it rather than throw in an additional method of tracking.
    • deleted 10y ago
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    • bluelu 10y ago
      I'm pretty sure you can weight persons when they pass the entrance and exit automatically, by adding sensors to the floor.
  • huherto 10y ago
    They could weight the contents of the shelves. Based on that you may know what you took out. I actually looked into that for a retailer.
  • Neliquat 10y ago
    Many systems already do this for controlled access. Would be a useful bit of data to have if easily implemented. Problems are when access is not 1 by 1. You could get useful, but not consistent suggestive data.
  • MAGZine 10y ago
    and if you use the restroom?
• Merad 10y ago
  I hate it when companies offer a "how this works" section that doesn't actually tell you a damned thing about how it works. * How does my Amazon account get associated with the items I take? * How are items detected when leaving the store? If my friend and I walk out side by side, how does it know (if it does) which items are mine and which are hers? * What happens when someone picks up an item and leaves without first doing whatever check-in/registration/setup is necessary?
  • masthead 10y ago
    Exactly. They say, it uses Deep Learning, Computer Vision and blah blah.. (Add 2 more buzzwords). But, for christ's sake, say how!
  • bjornlouser 10y ago
    Sensor Fusion. Duh.
    • mxfh 10y ago
      So will they have weighing scales to walk over? And also register eaten candy bars and toilet visits?
    • TeMPOraL 10y ago
      > Sensor Fusion I wonder, when did the obvious way you use sensors become a buzzword?
  • binaryanomaly 10y ago
    RFID, image recognition with cameras... what is it? Can someone go and check it out? ;)
  • gerardnll 10y ago
    * What happens when someone throws a product in my bag. Who pays it?
    • Barrin92 10y ago
• excalibur 10y ago
  What happens when you don't have enough money available to Amazon to cover all the things you grabbed? Do they give you a window to return items before banning you from the store and/or notifying police?
  • wehadfun 10y ago
    Wonddered the same thing. Also what if you dont want your purchases to end up in the cloud. Can you still pay with cash?
    • maxerickson 10y ago
      And does paying with cash matter in a store using advanced image recognition? Or do they also use the image recognition to build a profile of the purchaser?
    • notatoad 10y ago
      if you don't want your purchases to end up in the cloud, probably don't shop at amazon.
    • ccostes 10y ago
      Considering there are no cashiers or checkout counters, cash seems like a no-go.
      • CaptSpify 10y ago
        I'd be interested to see if they have manual-fallback in case "the system is down"
  • CorpOverreach 10y ago
    I'm assuming your Amazon Go account is tied to a credit card. In which case, it's not Amazon's problem. They got their money - you now owe your credit card company.
    • pat2man 10y ago
• lexap 10y ago
  Selfycart's valuation just skyrocketed.
• deleted 10y ago
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• jtcond13 10y ago
  Your periodic reminder that 'retail salesperson' is the most common job in America (~4.5 million). http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-10-most-common-and-10-least-common-jobs-in-america-today/274526/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-10-m...
  • eggie5 10y ago
    I always thought some type of driver was more common...
  • gech 10y ago
    It's just a starter job, people shouldn't rely on them as a career, it's their fault, bootstraps, etc. etc.
    • mtrn 10y ago
      > people shouldn't rely on them as a career Nobody thinks of that as a career, but 4.5 million people seem to rely on it for income nonetheless.
    • mabbo 10y ago
      For the large percentage of Americans who don't have a degree or maybe not even a high school diploma, there is no such thing as a 'starter job'- there's just 'a job'. Heck, for a growing proportion of the population the degree doesn't even help. We in the tech industry would be wise to remember that we live in an incredibly privileged bubble where careers are real things, where it's easy to find new opportunities.
      • protomyth 10y ago
        Actually, there are starter jobs for folks without degrees or even a high school diploma. People gain experience and there are plenty of companies that don't hire via a HR checklist. Plenty of people work their way up from cashier to management. The big danger is external factors that remove those first rungs of work that allow people to climb up.
      • 10y ago
• HillaryBriss 10y ago
  I like the video. But I wonder where they put all the middle aged and elderly customers. Probably in the food.
  • elicash 10y ago
    There are zero children in the video, as well.
    • Grue3 10y ago
      I don't think there are many children (or elderly for that matter) among Amazon employees.
      • HillaryBriss 10y ago
        Yes. Not any more.
• deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
• mooveprince 10y ago
  This is cool. Interested to know how customers can return their product once they come out of the store. Just place it back ?
• 20tibbygt06 10y ago
  What happens when parents walk in with kids? Does little Bobby need his own account for everything he's going to touch and pickup? What if I walk in with a friend on our way to somewhere else and they don't have an account and I'm just getting something quick, do they not get in and wait outside? Everybody in the video was just one person or all had an account/phone. Overall, I hope this works and expands. Checkout lines can be a hassle at times.
• koolba 10y ago
  How do they know you're you? Do you scan your phone on the way in / out and get tracked via RFID or do they do facial recognition? If it's the latter there's no way I'd use something like this. I love Amazon (as a retail customer) and AWS, but no way I'm self registering my face with them.
• JackFr 10y ago
  What do you do with your children? What about your non-Amazon co workers who came out with you to get lunch? Do they stand on the sidewalk while you shop? Do you swipe them in? Do they get swiped in as guests (who then shoplift cupcakes?) Don't get me wrong -- this is exciting and impressive -- but needing to swipe in to enter a store is, I think, a very significant change to how we think of stores as public places.
  • Shanea93 10y ago
    > but needing to swipe in to enter a store is, I think, a very significant change to how we think of stores as public places. CostCo rule #6: Your membership card must be shown on entering the warehouse and at the tills. I don't think it's really that much of a change, this is already par for the course when it comes to bulk-purchase stores. Another one of CostCo's rules: > Parents are responsible for their children. They must be kept with them at all times. And one last one: > Members will be required to purchase any packages opened or damaged by them or their guests. These are all pretty ubiquitous rules for this kind of store and I can't imagine people will really notice the difference. You'll use your card to swipe in you and your guests, when you leave as a group, your card will be charged. If you come with someone who also wants to buy things, you jut enter one after the other instead of as a group.
    • gohrt 10y ago
      it's unclear how the act of purchasing a product works -- it might require the buyers phone to be near the item when it leaves the shelf
      • rtkwe 10y ago
        It's not spelled out but it doesn't seem like it'll be a requirement. The only additional thing they could get from the phone without really limiting the number of supported devices is a rough location and that information can be replaced with tracking customers through security cameras.
    • JackFr 10y ago
• sndean 10y ago
  Other interesting possible implications of this: 1) The inability to pay with cash (or debit, or check, etc..). 2) No need to carry any form of money in the store. Taken to an extreme where every store runs this way, will people have a need for cash, credit cards, or anything else? Why not just have your bank account attached to your Amazon (and every other account) and have money taken out directly?
  • Neliquat 10y ago
    As a security guy, that is terrifying.
• clifanatic 10y ago
  So, you drive around trying to catch Amazons on your phone?
• mholmes680 10y ago
  I would have liked to be in the scrum meeting, and proposed the David Blaine use-case.
• agentgt 10y ago
  I know this is fairly impossible in urban areas but I find myself shopping much more frequently in what I call grocery farms. If you live in affluent suburbias I'm sure you have seen them. They are basically high end grocery stores that sells the produce they grow along with other things they buy from other local farms. Some of the produce is grown inside and seasonal things are grown outside. Yeah some of them are just for show and an excuse to sell high end stonewall kitchen stuff but others actually grow their own stuff or sell other farms stuff. The problem with local food (produce and meat) is that they are often not in plastic containers (which I prefer). It looks like Amazon Go requires very prepackaged stuff. I really would love to see someway to have more farm+grocery stores (that is grow right in the store or very near by). Figuring out a way (even if it requires some GMO) to grow food right in the store would be an amazing thing for the environment, health, and food quality. The other things is I know people are in a rush with everything but over the last few years I find grocery shopping rather cathartic and I think people used to enjoy grocery shopping (you know go to the butcher and then to the baker kind of european lifestyle). It is shame we have to make something even more "on the go" that I'm not sure needs to be.
  • heliumcraft 10y ago
    > (even if it requires some GMO) You say that like if it's a bad thing, you might want to better inform yourself on GMOs as there are A LOT of myths and misconceptions out there.
    • agentgt 10y ago
      > You say that like if it's a bad thing, you might want to better inform yourself on GMOs as there are A LOT of myths and misconceptions out there. And you might not want to assume what I know and don't :) I say it because GMOs are not open source. Local farms don't get access to GMOs and it can create an unfair advantage to big farms. As for health reasons I don't believe that GMOs are bad for you but they may have lower nutrients since you can now grow on the same plot of land over and over (and soil depletion of nutrients is a real thing) [1]. I'll assume you didn't know about soil depletion... as there are lot of people that don't and you know its better to inform yourself :) That being said I do agree that GMOs get mostly unfair sentiment. [1]: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soil-depletion-and-nutrition-loss/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soil-depletion-an...
• Blue3Wheeler 10y ago
  This encourages consumerism. It will be hard to take a count of what you're spending. While I wait in the line I always rethink about what I'm buying, sometimes I realize I'm buying something I don't need.
  • pshc 10y ago
    Amazon hates consumerism.
• masthead 10y ago
  If there's an Amazon employee who has visited the store, please tell us the experience.
• Blue3Wheeler 10y ago
  I think this technology is something our society doesn't need in this moment. Reducing jobs only because people can't wait in the line is not a big step to humanity. We need to see what are the consequences for future generations instead of trying to look "futuristic".
  • darpa_escapee 10y ago
    Get ready to be called a Luddite for thinking about the consequences of embracing the new shiny without question.
• CodeSheikh 10y ago
  Guys this is not good. As much as I love the convenience of pick-and-go, this eventually will prove out to be drastic for a variety of bad socioeconomic reasons, that most of us are already aware of. Small businesses were already suffering at the hands of Amazon Prime. Now Amazon Go wants to not only kick out those businesses out of the block but it also wants to take away jobs of small retail salesperson. Unacceptable. This can perhaps work at Amazon headquarters but I hope, I really hope it does not make its way to major metro cities like NYC and if it does then Amazon should promise to create certain number of jobs and revenue that it intends to displace. Just because an average reader of HN does not do such jobs or had held such jobs for only a brief period in his/her life, this does not mean that lot of people don't rely on such small time jobs for their livelihood. Places I can see this working are with low footprints such as cafes at hospitals etc. Amazon Go, please Go away. Updated: Grammar correction.
  • manuelflara 10y ago
    Wether we like it or not, automatization is going to eat many, many millions of jobs over the next few years. Taxi/bus/truck drivers (self driving cars), fast food staff[1] and thanks to tech like Amazon Go's, also regular store employees. Trying to stop this from happening is futile. What we need to figure out is how are we going to prevent society from exploding once most people are out of a job forever. [1] http://newsexaminer.net/food/mcdonalds-to-open-25000-robot-run-stores-by-2016/ http://newsexaminer.net/food/mcdonalds-to-open-25000-robot-r...
  • zaargy 10y ago
    Like it or not, this is the future. If Amazon don't do it then someone else will. People want cheap goods and this will give them cheaper goods. The solution to your worries is a universal basic income.
    • CodeSheikh 10y ago
      Try to become a part of the solution not part of the problem. As an engineer, this is a mesmerizing and a very appreciative tech. Kudos. As a (selfless) neighbor, I can never be happy to see unemployed neighbors. Sure we can create these autonomous technologies, but we also should be active in policy-making for our cities e.g. if 10 jobs are being displaced then collectively what are we doing to create 10 more jobs. Profits earned from Amazon Go are not going to get reinvested in cities. A small portion of it would be divided as payrolls among engineers and people who would manage these Go stores but a large chunk would go in deep pockets of Bezos' and Amazon investors'.
• sytelus 10y ago
  Amazon app currently already has barcode scanning. My guess is that they are replacing POS with app. If you think about it no one needs those arcane point of sell machines because smartphones can do scanning as well as payment processing. The only thing left is detecting unscanned items which is fairly well solved problem using RFIDs. May be later can be combined as well with measuring weight of person identified when entering. This is brilliant as-in how no one else thought about it. Lot of small shops have limit on their open schedule because of staffing issues. I am assuming Amazon will set up few experimental shops and then sell technology to other stores. This can certainly revolutionize retail if they persist on executing right.
• kowdermeister 10y ago
  RFID alone is not enough. It must have some kind of video tracking component to it, otherwise I could easily fabricate a Faraday cage inside my bag and just leave with the goods.
• mr_gmc 10y ago
  So it can identify what items you are picking up but still needs a QR code to assign you to your amazon account?
• oaktowner 10y ago
  Interesting that they say "Amazon Go is currently open to Amazon employees in our Beta program, and will open to the public in early 2017." Generally "beta" implies that non-employees are using it. This is more of a dogfooding program (though maybe they wanted to avoid that term since they're selling human food this way!).
  • flyt 10y ago
    Amazon in Seattle is a large enough org that they can "beta test" something like this with 10k+ employees that don't work on anything related to it, and get basically the same feedback as opening to the public.
  • Raphael 10y ago
    closed beta
• oaktowner 10y ago
  Interesting that they say "Amazon Go is currently open to Amazon employees in our Beta program, and will open to the public in early 2017." Generally "beta" implies that non-employees are using it. This is more of a dogfooding program (though maybe they wanted to avoid that term since they're selling human food this way!).
• makecheck 10y ago
  I wonder how much extra revenue a typical store can expect from the “impulse buy” sections at checkout counters? Unless the entire exit to the store is littered with impulse-buy displays, they might be losing that chunk of revenue and have to make up for it somehow. Also, it already seemed more convenient to not go to the store in the first place (ordering online), especially for the kinds of items in packages that would work well at this type of store. The missing convenience was one that store employees could give you: let you pick out the fresh things you want (like produce and baked goods) and have someone box those up for you and even ship them to your house.
  • Jpoliachik 10y ago
    Amazon didn't build this to generate extra revenue on 'impulse buys', they built it to collect a fuckton of data. And while they own the retail space, delivering fresh food isn't easy with their infrastructure. I'm guessing they'll Beta the Amazon Go system for a few years, then offer it as a service to existing Grocery chains. THEN fresh food delivery will be a snooze, since Amazon will have access to the Whole Foods down the road.
    • shawabawa3 10y ago
      > delivering fresh food isn't easy with their infrastructure Don't they already have pretty widespread grocery deliveries?
• carrja99 10y ago
  Oh lame I was expecting this to be an announcement of Go support on AWS Lambda.
• pierre_d528 10y ago
  1984 anyone?
  • redsummer 10y ago
    What a grim and desolate idea.
• owenversteeg 10y ago
  How has nobody mentioned the worry that you'll get overcharged? I'm sure computer vision isn't perfect, however close it may be, and once you've left the store (presumably when you'd check your receipt) there's no way to prove you didn't take whatever you were charged for. I'd be pretty worried about accidentally "buying" something I didn't actually take, even if that's statistically unlikely. (Yeah, I know, it doesn't make sense to worry about a 1 in 10,000 event, but people aren't rational.) Or, if they decide to side with the consumer and give you your money back, then that opens them up to theft - go in, buy stuff, "oh I didn't buy $expensive_item!", get money.
  • losteverything 10y ago
    I would go further and say that static pricing will not be exclusive. No prices on the shelves but prices as you scan. Person 1 purchasing at 8am Tuesday will not pay same as person 2 Friday at 534pm.
    • ryanwaggoner 10y ago
      I doubt it. I don't think many people would go for it if there are no marked prices. Not to mention that's probably illegal in many jurisdictions.
  • tejaswiy 10y ago
    The whole thing is driven by camera input. If they have a reason to be suspicious, they can just rewind the tape.
  • cryptozeus 10y ago
    They will just refund you...they do that all the time with online shopping
  • CaptSpify 10y ago
    Thats the same problem current grocery stores today have though. As the buyer, it's currently my job to make sure I'm not overcharged
• sevmardi 10y ago
  Someone cares to explain the technology behind this?
  • dandr01d 10y ago
    1. Scan your personal barcode with your phone when you walk in. Camera associates your physical self with your code. 2. Cameras track every item you pick up. 3. Cameras note when you leave the store and charge you.
    • ajeet_dhaliwal 10y ago
      Do you know this for sure or is it a guess? I was wondering if it might be your phone proximity to the items for a period of time but I guess that would be easy to tamper with.
• kesor 10y ago
  About time.
• anonbanker 10y ago
  Thank you for this idea. I will be doing this every time I set foot in a wal-mart from this day forward. "Two pounds of ham, please. Can you slice it really thin? I have a date with the household appliance section of the store"
  • mkopinsky 10y ago
    Wow. That really makes you feel morally superior, doesn't it?
    • anonbanker 10y ago
      Oh, lord no. I get no moral superiority from it. I'm just opposed to Wal-Mart. If you have lived in a rural community that had their economy decimated by Wal-Mart's arrival, you might employ similar tactics in the future. Some people actively sabotage large corporations because they're opposed to their business practices. I could tell you stories about retail sabotage, but I will instead invite you to read AdBusters[0] sometime. 0. http://www.adbusters.org/ http://www.adbusters.org/
  • justusthane 10y ago
    Because increasing food waste is a great way to express your displeasure at Wal-Mart?
    • anonbanker 10y ago
      Making Wal-mart a party to food waste is a great way to harm the corporation. Any animal rights activist will agree that a cow or pig dying for schadenfreude is only marginally worse than a cow or pig dying to feed someone.
      • uw_rob 10y ago
        Wal-mart doesn't care about waste - I doubt any big corporations do. What Wal-mart does is just pass along that cost to every other customer, and in the end that is the only person you are hurting.
• MertsA 10y ago
  So what happens when someone asks a good samaritan to help them get some expensive item off of a high shelf? How does this deal with things like a couple shopping together, one with an Amazon account and one without where both of them are getting items off of the shelves? Even if all of the video was monitored by a human I can still envision several pitfalls to this where it's hard to know who to bill for what without interacting with the customer.
  • ccostes 10y ago
    People shopping with children would also be a big issue, it seems. Somehow it seems they will need to deal with the multiple-shopper case (no idea how to solve the "Have someone else get the item off the shelf for you" case).
  • joezydeco 10y ago
    See my theory above. There's no real inventory of your items until you walk out. What the vision system is doing is matching up your account (scanned upon entry) to the lane you choose when exiting (where the items are scanned).
    • jaypaulynice 10y ago
      So the food tags have disposable rfid/bluetooth enabled? Or the computer vision is to be able to scan the bar codes even when they're not visible? Any issue with the amount of radiation in that store?
      • joezydeco 10y ago
        That's my guess. RFID in the labels or packaging somewhere. RFID radiation is no different than the radiation coming in and out of the phone in your pocket.
• smcg 10y ago
  So how long before someone starts claiming this is the mark of the beast?
• junke 10y ago
  A lot safer than the "Just Run Out" low-tech approach.
• deusofnull 10y ago
  What happens if someone sneaks into the store without an amazon account and walks right the hell out with whatever they want? Not a criticism, just curious what we speculate the theft prevention systems used here might be.
  • ncallaway 10y ago
    > What happens if someone sneaks into the store without an amazon account and walks right the hell out with whatever they want? This is also a perennial concern at any tradition grocery store as well. Presumably, in a system that operates primary off of computer vision, you would: A) Be able to quickly detect an unrecognized person in the store and alert security, and B) Have very good video evidence of the person committing the shop-lifting to provide to police. It sounds like they actually end up in a better position relative to a tradition grocery store from a security perspective.
    • ncr100 10y ago
      This requires "Amazon Man Trap", too. Person can blip in and blip out with one of those baguettes unheeded otherwise.
    • deckar01 10y ago
      "On the charges of shoplifting from Amazon Go, you have been found guilty. You are hereby sentenced to 3 years of Amazon Prime membership."
• superuser2 10y ago
  The futuristic supermarket I imagined as a kid was a warehouse-scale vending machine. Robotic carts roll down the aisles on tracks, and the shelves push the requested items out onto them. You show up after that's done and collect your cart. Probably need some human labor for the produce section. This is interesting but the checkout line is nothing compared to the time in the aisles.
• zouhair 10y ago
  Nice and all but I don't want a store to get my personal info just so I can shop at their place.
• malditojavi 10y ago
  Now the question is: would Bezos keep this tech for himself or give access to it to other big retailers?
• SonicSoul 10y ago
  I think this could work if cart or your app confirms your selection before checkout. Otherwise people would be too stressed out / unsure about discounted items to roll the dice.
• deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
• estrabd 10y ago
  What Would Glenda Do?
• mrfusion 10y ago
  This is really exciting. I've always wanted to see this. It makes me wonder someday if money will be completely invisible.
• estrabd 10y ago
  "Alert, alert you are too poor to be in here."
• delegate 10y ago
  Look, I know this might not be a popular view here on HN, but I think this is useless. And bad. I'm not talking about the technology behind it (I think it's an amazing achievement).. I live in Barcelona and I have at least 5 medium-sized supermarkets within 5 minutes walking distance from my home. Plus there are several smaller shops that sell fruits and vegetables. I know all the people who work in these supermarkets. The cashier in the supermarket downstairs always sings a quiet song while she scans my products, she knows my daughter and she's always nice and friendly. The cashier in the other store talks to the customers. She stops scanning and starts talking while the line waits. Some customers might join the conversation. I know she has an old cat that eats an unlimited amount of food if allowed to do so... There are similar stories about other shops in the neighbourhood - they come to work, they serve the people in the neighbourhood, they go home. They do this until they retire. These people like their jobs because we respect them for what they do, so they feel useful and they work hard. I don't mind waiting in line for 3 minutes. Or 5. It's never longer than that, even if the cashier discusses the latest news with the old lady. The humanity of it has value for us here and that value is greater than the time we'd save by removing the people from the shops.
  • IanDrake 10y ago
    I would love to live in your bubble. Checkouts in my area are either super slow self checkout machines or done by a super slow unmotivated clerk. I could do without either.
  • de_Selby 10y ago
    Like it or not, those jobs are on the way out. Every supermarket around here has self service checkouts already, it's just a matter of time before something like this comes in. I don't like it, for the reasons you outline. I think we'll lose something. I'm especially thinking of old people who might be living alone and see their shopping trip as an opportunity for social interaction. Unfortunately that's the way things are going though.
  • mememachine 10y ago
    This is neither useless nor bad. This is a convenience and there are literally no downsides to it. If you think the extra human interaction is worth it, do as you please, but i guarentee you are setting yourself apart from at least 80% of the general population. I'll never understand the view that superior technologies mandate removal of the "old" ways of doing things. No one is forcing you to change, but dont be surprised when most people dont share the nostalgia you have.
• thesimpsons1022 10y ago
  this is great! since the election my one purpose in life has been to automate every job of the "white working class" because of what they've decided to do to us. With this and Otto and Uber it won't be long.
• kristofferR 10y ago
  It's really weird that the prices are printed on paper labels. Why aren't they digital? I guess it's not that big of an issue though, since this is a single store and not a chain. The employees need stuff to do.
  • VLM 10y ago
    There was/is an old scam where the store puts up a tag with a false low price and the UPC barcode scanner reports a different (higher of course) price and much like long distance cramming hope the customer doesn't notice. If the store is falsely accused its simple to hold the receipt up against the paper label. There are digital price labels but they're unidirectional protocol so every time a product comes off sale the store risks substantial trouble if the digital update protocol is merely 99.9% successful. You'd need a successful bidirectional verifiable digital price tag system. It could be as simple as sweeping a very high resolution camera up and down the aisles.
• deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
• 8draco8 10y ago
  Looks cool but one major question: Who can go in to the store? If only people that have phone + app then technically I can't go in with my wife, allow her to pick and choose her yogurt while I'm looking for a coffee, put our groceries in to one bag and pay for it from my account.
• alvil 10y ago
  I'm going to be depressed. Stamped Sheeps.
• deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
• ta11ey 10y ago
  1 million Merits.
• Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago
  I only run open source software on my phone. I can't wait for the day when I can't even buy groceries without a proprietary app.
• vlunkr 10y ago
  As someone who regularly takes kids to the grocery store, this would be a nightmare. You'd get charged for every random thing your kid decided to pull off a shelf and stuff somewhere else. Unless their AI ignores kids or something.
  • n0b0dythere 10y ago
    So basically you're saying that you let your kids run rampant through stores, pulling items off shelves and placing them randomly around instead of back where it should be on the shelf. So your bad parenting and bad kid behaviors will suddenly be a nightmare for you, since you'll be charged for this misconduct instead of simply ignoring it like before? Sounds like a win for everybody, except the problem maker.
    • vlunkr 10y ago
      Well it was a joke, but you can be a dick about it and insult my kids, that's fine.
• bennettfeely 10y ago
  What happens when my phone battery runs out while shopping in the store? What happens if I don't replace an item in the exact same place I picked it up? I'm charged for it I assume. How do you purchase produce or vegetables, all these thing need to be packaged individually I assume. So much for concern for the environment... Is the occasional line in a store really worth having your every movement tracked by Amazon and your image taken throughout your time at this store? Sounds like a store straight out of 1984. Are you poor or without "a supported smartphone"? Forget about it. Amazon is a company that tries new things and that's good, but here we have yet another example of tech nerds "solving" a problem that doesn't exist.
  • dimino 10y ago
    What if they've solved every one of these problems? Would you like this technology then? What does it take for you to be on board? Would you ever be on board, or would you keep coming up with problems you think you have with this?
  • zenware 10y ago
    "Phones don't die" You're probably right. "Weight removed from vegetable bin, vegetables are $x/lb" This already happens at... most stores. I think Bluetooth enrollment would be good enough or they'll send you a barcode on a PVC card stock maybe even with RFID, but sure poor people can't shop at the nice grocery store, that's always been true right? I sort of agree, but I also think there is a real market for it. Blah blah capitalism blah. "The market will show whether the problem was real." I'm pretty sure it's going to work out and be profitable for Amazon like always.
  • rtkwe 10y ago
    > What happens when my phone battery runs out while shopping in the store? From the look of the video the phone isn't required for checkout. The flow looks like you scan in then camera's and other sensors track you through the store then you just walk out and the items are scanned and totaled. > What happens if I don't replace an item in the exact same place I picked it up? I'm charged for it I assume. Then just put stuff back where you got it. You shouldn't just leave items randomly strewn throughout the store already. > How do you purchase produce or vegetables, all these thing need to be packaged individually I assume. So much for concern for the environment... It's not a full grocery store, it looks like it's all packaged foods and fresh daily kind of prepared foods. > Are your poor or without "a supported smartphone"? Forget about it. Judging from the video, any Android or iOS device should be able to function, all it needs to do is display a QR code and a receipt no RFID or even a decent camera. > Amazon is a company that tries new things and that's good, but here we have yet another example of tech nerds "solving" a problem that doesn't exist. Why does everything have the address some deep underlying problem. Some things just make life a little easier or more convenient and that's ok.
• kennystone 10y ago
  The queues at stores have always been the worst part of the experience. You put stuff in a bag, which is effectively a queue, then you wait in a line - a human queue, then you de-queue your cart on a belt, which is another queue, it gets scanned item by item and then placed right back into a similar bag to where it started. Good job Amazon for finally working to eliminate the queues.
• hellbanner 10y ago
  Does it use a phone app & GPS/NFC for knowing when to charge the customer?
• retube 10y ago
  why is "deep learning" and "computer vision" required here? Surely a RFID tag on each item would suffice?
  • shawabawa3 10y ago
    Presumably it works if your phone runs out of battery while in the store When you exit it needs to match the items scanned (with RFID) to your account (using phone proximity/computer vision)
  • LeanderK 10y ago
    RFID tags are way to expensive to scale. The margin for one of the products might be just a few cents, so with RFID tags they might have to sell at a loss or rise prices. This would eliminate the cashier, but at least in germany the wage/item scanned is way cheaper then RFID tags.
• tom_pei 10y ago
  So it seems that most people assume that this kind of shop is a replacement to major grocery stores. I dont think that this is what their initial customer base is going to be. I see this more inline with "Fresh & Easy" kind of markets where on the go customers can just stop by for a quick bite or a quick pick up of resources like a 7/11 or something similar. I can see that they may want to expand to supermarkets but I think this is more addressing the quick easy supermarket market and focusing on easy pickups rather then full fledged supermarkets for all grocery needs. I may have missed something but that would be the most logical and successful way for Amazon to introduce this technology.
• anonbanker 10y ago
  Are you saying that someone's homework was incorrect? perhaps you should break out your red pen and correct the mistakes you've found. There are few things more amusing than when people ask for evidence for the sole purpose of discounting it at any cost. Thanks for being that person. Do you think Wal-Mart will pay you for your downvotes? I know CTR paid $0.10 per comment, but that was for an election. What is the going rate for defending megacorporations on social media?
  • LyndsySimon 10y ago
    > Are you saying that someone's homework was incorrect? I'm saying that I asked for evidence and got opinion. Grading an assignment is not my responsibility. > There are few things more amusing than when people ask for evidence for the sole purpose of discounting it at any cost. Thanks for being that person. My purpose in asking for evidence was to examine it. I didn't "discredit" it, most of it wasn't relevant, while some of it made assertions that were counter to the ones you were asked to support. I read the links you posted, and even tracked down the paper that one of them referenced and verified the authenticity of the academic publisher that printed it. I quoted it in my comment, which you failed to address. To be honest, I'm not convinced that you read the links you posted. > Do you think Wal-Mart will pay you for your downvotes? I didn't downvote you - I'm not sure I've ever downvoted a comment on HN. > I know CTR paid $0.10 per comment, but that was for an election. What is the going rate for defending megacorporations on social media? Where is my defense? You assertions struck me as improbable on their face, so I asked for evidence of them.
    • anonbanker 10y ago
      If my assertions seem improbable, you have two options: * Research and decide, based on evidence you find. * Ridicule and discredit the evidence you asked for. It seems you picked Door Number Two. You mentioned you're from the heart of Walton-ville (You lived by Store #002? how interesting!). Have you spent any time in the midwest ghost towns surrounding their local Supercentre?
      • LyndsySimon 10y ago
• sytse 10y ago
  This is amazing, I admire Amazon for their boldness. It seems very practical for users. I assume that you can dispute charges with the app and that they store the footage of you to resolve disputes. I'm sure they'll need some times to tune the algorithms. But disputing a charge via an app is better than to wait in line. Kudos to Amazon for innovating.
  • Ph0X 10y ago
    It's definitely an interesting technology and a bold idea, but personally I have far more issues with grocery stores than just a 2m line. For me, the far more time consuming part are: 1. Finding where something is (yes, after months you'll slowly memorize it all, but when you're new to a grocery shop, this easily takes 3-4 minute per item you need. 2. Choosing between the dozens of options. The other day I went in this new store just to buy a shampoo and a mouthwash. For each there were over 30 near identical products and I spent way longer than necessary deciding which to go for. With amazon fresh, I can at least search for a specific product, and also read reviews and specifics right there on the page. Amazon Go doesn't solve any of those problems... It feels silly to me to create a whole store just to solve a tiny little problem that is grocery lines.
• throwaway77127 10y ago
  If the merchandise is as bad as the books they ship (faded pages, water damage, ..), no thanks. I don't need Deep Learning[tm] when I go to a supermarket. Also, they should really have integrated The Blockchain[tm] in the buzzwords. Nevertheless, this is good for Bitcoin.
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• syphilis2 10y ago
  This has been in the eye of retailers for a long time (such as the bar code scanner guns some stores let shoppers use) in part because it makes it very easy for shoppers to (over)spend. Retailers are always looking to eliminate barriers to customers purchasing things. Amazon has a few convenient innovations that make shopping faster: one click purchases, subscription services, the dash button, and possibly one day a grab-n-go grocery. This post doesn't intend to demonize Amazon, these are all innovations that make shopping easier, but I think it's good financially for customers to be cognizant of how this convenience impacts behavior.
• deleted 10y ago
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• slaveofallah93 10y ago
  Luddite fallacy.
  • base698 10y ago
    The guillotines will be warmed by those uttering this--"let them eat cake" for the modern world.
    • Apocryphon 10y ago
      "Let them learn to code"
      • RamshackleJ 10y ago
        https://medium.com/end-homelessness/fighting-poverty-with-code-d1ed3ebd982d#.p9kepjt53 https://medium.com/end-homelessness/fighting-poverty-with-co...
  • tspike 10y ago
    > In 2013, professor Nick Bloom of Stanford University stated there had recently been a major change of heart concerning technological unemployment among his fellow economists.[61] In 2014 the Financial Times reported that the impact of innovation on jobs has been a dominant theme in recent economic discussion.[62] According to the academic and former politician Michael Ignatieff writing in 2014, questions concerning the effects of technological change have been "haunting democratic politics everywhere".[63] Concerns have included evidence showing worldwide falls in employment across sectors such as manufacturing; falls in pay for low and medium skilled workers stretching back several decades even as productivity continues to rise; the increase in often precarious platform mediated employment; and the occurrence of "jobless recoveries" after recent recessions. The 21st century has seen a variety of skilled tasks partially taken over by machines, including translation, legal research and even low level journalism. Care work, entertainment, and other tasks requiring empathy, previously thought safe from automation, have also begun to be performed by robots Technological unemployment is far from a settled matter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_unemployment#21st_century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_unemployment#21s...
• yalogin 10y ago
  This is what people expected when RFID technology came up. They somehow thought its going to be this panacea but quickly realized its not. Amazon might have the solution but I can't say unless I see the implementation.
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• jedberg 10y ago
  I suspect during the beta they've asked their employees to try and steal things amd move things to the wrong place -- really push the software. At least I hope they did. I assume they are going into this expecting a loss while they work out the kinks.
  • dimino 10y ago
    Based on comments in here, one would suspect they implemented this entire thing without trying to break it even once.
    • vigrante 10y ago
      So much negativity and pessimism.
    • pwinnski 10y ago
      No company or government in the history of humanity has managed to foresee the myriad ways dishonest people will try to get away with dishonest things. Many, many, many, many, many companies have severely underestimated the high cost of fraud. Also, employees trying to break the system are not likely to bringing young kids shopping with them. The only question I have is who's liable when things are fuzzy: right now, the store bears the liability for things eaten within the store, destroyed while in the store, snuck out, etc. It's easy to see that this technology leads to the liability being pushed onto the shopper for all of those cases, but that will definitely lead to some serious customer-service arguments.
      • jedberg 10y ago
        Customers has always been liable for these things. It's only because of customer service nightmares that they aren't. It's really not much different except now they store has slightly better data.
• glup 10y ago
  If the justification for merging the produce stand, bakery, fishmonger, butcher, etc. into one is the efficiency of a shared POS and delivery system, this could provide the justification for splitting them back out, at least in upscale markets. Rather than cashiers, you would have "consultants." And you get richer data for supply chain decisions.
• rad_gruchalski 10y ago
  "Four years ago we asked ourselves: what if we could create a shopping experience with no lines and no checkout?" And yet they're not first doing this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3465767/Now-s-self-service-24-hour-unmanned-shop-Sweden-lets-shoppers-unlock-doors-scan-items-pay-using-just-app.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3465767/Now-s...
• lsiebert 10y ago
  I think this potentially ignores the needs of disabled shoppers who rely on supermarket workers. What if you have mobility issues and need someone to grab items for you? What if you have vision issues and need someone to read an ingredient list?
  • spuz 10y ago
    There will still be staff. Amazon were obviously careful to include a shelf stockist in the promotional video. Staff will still be needed to stock shelves and solve problems with the automation systems and most likely, to answer customer questions and help customers with their needs.
• vit05 10y ago
  What I do not understand is: Why do they need to know that it was me who got something off the shelf? They need to know when something has left the shelf, so they can refuel, and they need to know when something leaves the store, so they can charge. But do they really need to know when you pull out an item and then give up buying it?
  • rtkwe 10y ago
    It's kind of the only way to do it without having an RFID tag on everything which would be expensive because they'd have to either special order the items from the manufacturer or apply them themselves both of which are costly. That's one of the major sticking points that has prevented this from showing up in normal grocery stores for years.
    • vit05 10y ago
      I read a bit more about, it seems that following the whole process, not just check in and check out, it becomes harder to steal an item. "Because it works by watching actual items come off the shelves — instead of reading a tag or RFID chip, for example — you won’t be able to steal items by removing or altering tags."
• josephby 10y ago
  Why announce this 3 months ahead of the scheduled opening?
• iainmerrick 10y ago
  It's amazing how this combines just about every cutting-edge trend and hot topic in technology, both good and bad: - Elimination of low-level jobs - Elimination of cash - Deep surveillance (cameras everywhere, online tracking) - Assuming it works, it will seem pretty magical! (edit: formatting)
• hourislate 10y ago
  I like to take my time shopping. Look around read labels, check what are people are buying. The part that kills me is checking out. I have always wondered why the cart can't scan your items and when you push it through a reader at checkout it just has everything totaled and charges you. The cashier can now bag your groceries. You could even have the cart recheck your purchase amount when the items are removed to be packed. Someone out there hurry up and figure out the details :)
• rewrew 10y ago
  A bunch of grocery stores here on the West Coast are replacing their self checkout lines and going back to checkers. They're saying that it's to "improve the customer experience" but people in the industry know (due to tests done by other retailers who bypassed the technology once they tested it, like Costco), its because of product loss/shoplifting. I know it's not apples and oranges but I do think that the loss margin is going to be so high on this that only Amazon will be able to eat this -- and I think they know this.
• dingdongding 10y ago
  How does this scale. Would camera be able to follow 100 people at the same time?
• deleted 10y ago
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• anacleto 10y ago
  Software is eating the world and Amazon is eating software.
• cwkoss 10y ago
  Can I wear a Jeff Bezos mask into the store to get free groceries?
• 31reasons 10y ago
  Amazon "All Store Jobs" Go! Not sure how new administration going to respond to this.
• microDude 10y ago
  Ok Amazon, why not do this? Skip the whole stocked shelf thing entirely. Have a website setup that customers can build a shopping cart, then just show up and pickup their "pre-bagged" groceries. The benefits to this are obvious. 1) No shop lifting. 2) Car friendly (you could have multiple drive-thru pickup lines) 3) Convenience for the shopper (saved lists, common items, don't have to walk around the store) 4) The store, could just effectively be a warehouse. 5) Possible to automate almost all of the work. And before you say "what about produce?". Well, you could have a automated "imaging" station upon goods receipt that customers could use when building their cart. Or, offer really good return policies. Either way, the convenience would far outweigh the produce problem.
  • Consultant32452 10y ago
    They're 90% of the way there with primenow. You can order frozen chicken, deli meats, etc. No fresh fruits and veggies yet, but you can order eggs. There's no drive-thru though, they just deliver it to your house within 2 hours of ordering, 1 hour if you pay a premium.
  • kevan 10y ago
    Amazon Fresh already exists[1], but they deliver instead of you picking it up. [1] https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=Fr_Gr_Sft_Nv1_learnmore?ie=UTF8&bbn=10329849011&node=11782817011 https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=Fr_Gr_Sft_Nv1_learnmore?ie=UTF8...
• samstave 10y ago
  So... What if I have a large shopping run, like for Thanksgiving? I have a ~$400 cart worth of loot. Where will I sort and bag my goods? They should make Amazon Go like a 7-11 rather than a Whole Foods. Are the item prices any less?
• celticninja 10y ago
  im not sure this is a problem that needed to be solved. The issue of ordering groceries has been solved by existing supermarkets, in my case i can order everything I need on a weekly basis from Tesco for a small delivery fee. The last thing i want to do is go back to shopping in store, there are smaller local shops for little items but i cant see me using Amazon go in lieu of my existing grocery store that delivers.
• spyckie2 10y ago
  Here's my speculation on the technology behind it: Tracking. A lot of tracking. You don't need deep learning and car sensor technology to do simple rfid tag pick up/drop offs to detect what you have in your cart. No, this technology probably fully tracking your every movement in the store. It may use rfid tags to detect what you have, but that is not the main tech. When you walk in and scan your phone, a camera array will scan you to create a footprint on who you are and link it to your ID. Then your every movement will be tracked by various cameras throughout the store. You walked 3 steps, took a step back and looked at the advertising on the right? We recorded it. You went to the cereal aisle first? Picked up a box of cereal and then put it back in favor of another one? Yup, we recorded it too. If this is indeed the case, then the correctness of what is in your shopping cart is going to be very, very high and there will be no need for an honor system, randomized checks, or other mechanisms to prevent inaccuracies. Shoplifters will probably get away with the first shoplifting but will probably get profiled immediately and unable to do it multiple times.
  • nawitus 10y ago
    Here's my rough sketch on how this could work: a) You track every person from multiple camera angles, it should be "relatively easy" to track the position of every customer at all times. I'm not sure if it can handle people in very close proximity (or e.g. after hugging in store) - maybe Amazon actually uses facial recognition to resolve the identities afterwards b) Only one person can enter the gate at once, and it's easy to authenticate the person at the starting point c) Leaving is also a one-way gate, and at that point the system can simply mark the shopping as complete and mail the receipt d) The shelves are specially designed and can sense (maybe with RFIDs) when an item is removed from the shelf, and match that with the person closest to the item. A possible difficulty is handling people who take an item from the back of the shelf (e.g. to get a fresh item).
    • spyckie2 10y ago
      for d) it could be a combination of rfid, closeness, and cameras detecting who grabbed it.
• jaypaulynice 10y ago
  I'm guessing it's not as simple as they make it look in the video...unless the food tags have some kind of RFID/Bluetooth to communicate with the phone in your pocket...maybe the grocery bags? Even with cashiers sometimes they don't know what the price is...also some things are sold by the pounds...where is the scale? What if you pay then walk back in again? You get double charged?
  • rtkwe 10y ago
    No need for them to talk to your phone or a smart bag. They just funnel you out through a lane and scan them there if they're using RFID. They can also do this theoretically without using RFID at all if they can solidly determine what product you're taking off the shelf, maybe by using good cameras to see where you're reaching and if you're placing or replacing the item that's assigned to that slot. They've been tracking you since you entered the store so they know what Amazon account each person is associated with so they just combine the 2. As for loose weighed items it doesn't look like they're selling those. /Everything/ in the promo shot of the store is already packaged and they look like they're going for more of a convenience store food source than a traditional grocery store.
    • jaypaulynice 10y ago
      It would take many cameras working together to pull this off...what happens when you drop out of sight? Feels like a big vending machine...If they're not competing with big grocery stores, then this won't scale well...right?
      • rtkwe 10y ago
        If the system relies on tracking you constantly from the moment you enter they'll have as many cameras as they need to cover the whole store. For just tracking the person you really don't need too high of detail just decent coverage and if the system is using CV to determine what you're taking off the shelves instead of RFID(ish) tags (which makes sense given the cost of applying tags to every item) then they've already got way better camera coverage than they need to just track you around the store. Really this whole thread is all just rank speculation that'll be mostly confirmed or denied once a store actually opens and people can look around and see what's going on. Also as for scaling it's a fixed cost to cover a larger area compared with a variable cost if they're using RFID to scan when you pass through the turnstiles so really a camera based system probably scales better than a tag based system.
• dmvaldman 10y ago
  Why is this a machine learning problem? Why not use some low-power tag for items, and scan all items on customer exit? Personal opinion: Amazon is not interested in creating supermarkets/wal-marts. Instead it wants to sell an ML solution to other brick & mortar stores, and this current effort is to prove plausibility. Selling an ML solution, with cameras and software, is harder to compete with than a tagging solution (especially if based on open and accessible hardware).
  • rtkwe 10y ago
    You're basically describing the old idea of 'tag everything with RFID' for the checkoutless grocery store. It didn't really catch on because it's a fairly expensive way to attack the problem given the small margins on most items and would require that EVERY manufacturer implement the tags or for the stores/distribution system to add tags to non compliant items which would also be fairly expensive. So to get around needing to tag everything you can throw computer vision and machine learning at the problem to determine where the person is grabbing an item from and combined with well organized shelves you now know what they just grabbed off the shelves.
• xaduha 10y ago
  Supermarket retail has razor thin margins, last I heard. If it's going to save money in the long run, then it's the future.
• patrickg 10y ago
  Not many comments about privacy. This is how I see it: You are identified when you enter the shop and amazon knows exactly the products you buy. If you have the choice to buy or not to buy at the shop, that's fine, it is your decision. But let's imagine that in the not so far future, all shops in your neighborhood are like this. No way to go shopping whithout given exact trace of you, your location, the stuff you buy, the time you buy, the amount of food etc. We all know that too much data is not good for us (yes, I am looking at you, my government). While I like the idea of not standing in a line and wait, I really wish that these shops offer a prepaid anonymous card for those who don't want to be totally tracked.
  • spuz 10y ago
    I think the privacy implications for a shopper at Amazon Go are the same as a shopper who shops at Tesco with a credit card. The company can use your credit card to track exactly what you buy already and many people seem to be happy with that (even going so far as to sign up for loyalty cards).
    • patrickg 10y ago
      But it should be possible to a) use a prepaid credit card or b) pay with good old cash. That way it is still possible to buy without getting tracked (while all the others that don't care use the loyalty card).
      • spuz 10y ago
        I agree it should be possible but unfortunately the technology doesn't allow it. In this case I would give the analogy of online vs offline shopping. Ideally we would be able to buy goods on amazon.com with cash (or perhaps bitcoin) but the technology doesn't make this feasible.
      • mirceal 10y ago
        don't know about tesco, but I know about Costco. You need to provide your membership card every time you buy. So Costco definitely knows your complete shopping history. Also any online shop (Amazon included) has a complete history of everything you've ever bought. For brick&mortar shops you would be a fool to assume they don't mine your shopping history based on your credit card (or some sort of hash that's computed from your CC#).
• jefe_ 10y ago
  amazon go skydive - just hop on the plane! amazon go swim - just dive right in! amazon go kennels - just drop and drive! amazon go restoration hardware - good luck! amazon go lite - just grab and checkout and go! amazon go guns - just grab and go! i assume they will eventually open this up to other retailers / service providers?
• throw7 10y ago
  This is bad. I can't really support this because it requires a smartphone. And it literally looks like you must have the Amazon Go app to enter the store. No.
• edward 10y ago
  How does Amazon Go handle alcohol sales?
• ChaseT 10y ago
  NPR's Planet Money podcast did a story two months ago with the inventor of the self checkout machine, Howard Schneider. At the end of the end of the episode he was asked what his "dream" supermarket would be, and he said one where people don't have to check items out. They walk in, grab something, walk out, and are automatically charged. This seems to be exactly what Amazon has done. Pretty amazing to see the realization of his dream be announced only two months after his interview.
• mrcabada 10y ago
  This seems easy to outsmart or confuse. What if I go with someone that doesn't have an Amazon Go account grabs some stuff for me and throw it to me? Or how about I go with someone that has an Amazon Go account too and we divide in two, he goes for the milks I go for the cereals. We meet just before the "check-out" and he gives me my milk I give him his cereal. I'd need to know more about the technical stuff to know how it could be confused, or to know if it's even possible to.
• bhewes 10y ago
  I can see this being useful by freeing up staff to provide value added services instead of being stuck at the register. I can see stores having category experts.
• edkennedy 10y ago
  What I like about this is it encourages the European style of grocery shopping. That is, visiting a grocery store daily to make dinner with fresher foods. The longer the lines, wait, and commute, the larger grocery orders will get and the further people are pushed towards Costco style grocery purchasing.
• warrenmiller 10y ago
  The future is now! This advert 10 years ago: https://youtu.be/pmAr23yZP9Y https://youtu.be/pmAr23yZP9Y
• Keverw 10y ago
  I love this idea! I hate how stores only have like 1 or 2 registers opened. I wonder how it would react to a family shopping, is it tracking people or the bag? Hopefully it'd bill who ever has the bag in case your kid puts in a bunch of junk food. Supporting carts for larger purchases seems like somthing is missing. But yeah I love this. I hope we move towards the future when repetitive jobs are all automated and we have some sort of basic income. So the human race can be more innovative and everyone can unlock their true potential instead of being a corporate drones for a job they never liked and can't figure out how to get out of it. Edit: Wanted to add real quick - as things do get more automated. I do hope there's a easy way to get ahold of human in case of things acting up or if you just need some help. I know tons of sites seem to not even provide support or make it super hard to even find a contact. Amazon itself seems to have good support from what I've heard, never really had to use it but in general companies should focus on support also, with or without automation. Just seems like somthing generally lacking to me in the tech industry.
• shaydoc 10y ago
  Seriously, this will basically make lots of low skill workers redundant. Yes it fabulous innovation, but surely automation along these lines is dangerous for the fabric of society. When I say this, I mean, whats the plan for dealing with all the lay offs caused by tech automation ?
• nether 10y ago
  That dreadful music... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11286858 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11286858
• xs 10y ago
  If I bring the whole family shopping with me, does everyone need a phone app and stuff?
• ISNIT 10y ago
  "No lines" I'm just imagining a huge group of people standing by the door waiting to download the app so they can buy eggs.
• ISNIT 10y ago
  "No lines" I'm just imagining a huge group of people standing by the door waiting to download the app so they can buy eggs.
• deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
• rmurthy 10y ago
  What happens if my smartphone is switched off after I enter the retail warehouse?
• richartruddie 10y ago
  I embrace and trust all that Amazon does. As Jeff Bezos is proud of saying (not direct quote): you're not failing you're not trying enough difficult things.
• nihonde 10y ago
  This strikes me as yet another over-engineered workaround for a problem with society. In Japan, I rarely wait in line at a grocery store or convenience store. If I do, it's a short wait, and my interactions with the staff often brighten my day a little bit. Why is Japan different? For one thing, they use a checkout system that is designed to move lines quickly. Two employees can work concurrently, one ringing up a customer and the other handling money exchange with another customer. Customers do their own bagging in a seperate area. The POS system takes cash in and spits out the correct change, and also handles IC cards, credit cards, Apple Pay, etc seamlessly and usually without requiring anything more than a PIN at most. And of course, customers can prepare exact change or get their cards out and place it on the tray while the cashier is still ringing them up. And the final, most important element is the people--polite, attentive, careful, and professional. Cashiers are trained to call out every item and price, and offer extras such as ice packs for cold items, dry ice for ice cream, utensils for ready to eat items, and so on. A quick, efficient, pleasant interaction that ends with a bow and a gracious thank you goes a long way toward encouraging everyone to treat each other well. And, by the way, the money that would be sunk into Amazon's infrastructure and inevitable support services goes to keeping people in jobs.
  • literallycancer 10y ago
    I pay with a contactless card when I do my shopping, so the money transaction takes about a second. It's still too slow, because you have to put your stuff in the bag/backpack etc. (admittedly, this is the shop's fault - they don't have the separator so people can load stuff while the next person is being ringed up). But in most countries, it's not that the shops can't make it faster, it's that they don't want to. They make the biggest margins on the impulse buy merchandise along the queue and people won't stop going there just because they have to wait 3 minutes. >And of course, customers can prepare exact change or get their cards out and place it on the tray while the cashier is still ringing them up. Good luck putting your card on the tray in poorer countries :D :D, good way to get it stolen. >And, by the way, the money that would be sunk into Amazon's infrastructure and inevitable support services goes to keeping people in jobs. Keeping people in jobs is of dubious value, especially since Amazon's infrastructure would create jobs too, it's not just money disappearing and things materializing out of thin air.
• richartruddie 10y ago
  This is the future of the world. Great innovation that we're excited to see. Whats not to love about this?
• tmnvix 10y ago
  If I enter the store with a product I purchased elsewhere or even earlier in the same store (say some bottled water), will I be charged for it when I leave?
• kreisel93 10y ago
  communism is on the way and everyone is happy :)
  • kreisel93 10y ago
    unconditional basic income is the next step
  • kreisel93 10y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7reIMSpBNA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7reIMSpBNA
  • 234dd57d2c8db 10y ago
    Sweet, can't wait to be put in a forced labor camp. Wonder how many millions will die this time.
    • kreisel93 10y ago
      or Kuomintang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_camp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_camp
• kreisel93 10y ago
  Will be useful in Amazon package centers for pickers