6 ms·
It's hard to imagine Amazon actually starting a bunch of retail locations. They'd probably buy Whole Foods or something…
by sarah180 7y ago
It's hard to imagine Amazon actually starting a bunch of retail locations. They'd probably buy Whole Foods or something…
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- vl 7y agoOr Borders...
- derefr 7y agoSurprising to me that Whole Foods still doesn't have this tech integrated. You'd think that'd be the "beta" step after the Amazon Store's "alpha" step.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- mkolodny 7y agoMaybe they don't want to draw attention to how many people are going to lose their jobs because of this yet. Cashier is the #2 job in the US (by number of people employed) [0]. If they released this at Whole Foods, I'd guess they'd fire all the cashiers there. That would make this rollout a lot less exciting for a lot of people. I hope Amazon comes up with an awesome way to help the cashiers this technology replaces. Then if self-driving cars end up working out, that industry can learn from what Amazon did. [0] https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/rudy-takala/top-2-us-jobs-number-employed-salespersons-and-cashiers https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/rudy-takala/top-2-us-jo...
- dragonwriter 7y ago> If they released this at Whole Foods, I'd guess they'd fire all the cashiers there Since Whole Foods sells alcohol, I doubt that. There are things that lots of governments won't let you have customers “just walk out” with.
- rolltiide 7y agoSounds like a job for Bezos Expeditions: municipal lobbying. As I wrote that I realized they could even employ cashiers to do that instead.
- mandelbrotwurst 7y agoThey could keep just a few per store to handle that.
- jsolson 7y agoI did my most recent liquor run at the nearby Amazon Grocery. They check ID entering the liquor section (and it is a human that checks), but otherwise it is bag it and just walk out.
- pnutjam 7y agoWonder what happens if there is a dispute between what you take and what they think you took?
- owenmarshall 7y ago> I hope Amazon comes up with an awesome way to help the cashiers this technology replaces. They can be retrained to work in fulfillment centers. Amazon will provide the piss bottles.
- raldi 7y agoWhat percentage of cashiers are employed at stores big enough to install this tech? I would think the majority would be employed at little restaurants, small shops, etc.
- hunter2_ 7y agoThe third-last FAQ entry speaks precisely to your comment: > Will people still be working in stores with Just Walk Out technology? > Yes. Retailers will still employ store associates to greet and answer shoppers' questions, stock the shelves, check IDs for the purchasing of certain goods, and more - their roles have simply shifted to focus on more valuable activities.
- thunderrabbit 7y agoI wonder what percentage of people will still have a job there?
- TremendousJudge 7y agoDo we need to have people working soul-sucking, unnecessary jobs so they can bring food to the table?
- noisy_boy 7y agoIdeally no, but since Universal Basic Income isn't prevalent, yes.
- airstrike 7y ago1/n where n is the current number of cashiers in a given store
- behringer 7y agoThe thing we need to come up with is a basic income allowing robots to take over our work. Not because it's the right thing to do or a kind thing to do, but because the alternative is civil unrest on a scale few of us are familiar with.
- panarky 7y agoAmazon Go stores have plenty of employees, I'd bet they're not saving anything on labor. The benefit is a much better customer experience, not labor savings.
- JohnFen 7y ago> The benefit is a much better customer experience, not labor savings. The primary benefit is access to a lot better data about shoppers, not a better customer experience.
- panarky 7y agoI'll choose the store where I can grab what I want and walk out over the store where I have to wait in a dumb ass line while the cashier yells for a price check and the customer in front of me can't remember her PIN so slowly counts out nickels and quarters. It's a massive competitive advantage far beyond whatever data they get by watching me roam the store.
- billmalarky 7y agoWell, it's the option. Retailers that compete on "experience" like Target etc will reinvest into a better customer experience. Retailers that compete on price like Aldis will focus solely on driving cost down.
- airstrike 7y ago> I hope Amazon comes up with an awesome way to help the cashiers this technology replaces. I'm not sure why this should be on Amazon. It's on all of us to better train people to have the jobs of the future. Our education system hasn't really changed in 100+ years. It needs to.
- zepto 7y agoIs it on all of us? Why should Amazon reap the benefit of this innovation while the rest of us pay for the consquences?
- airstrike 7y agoAmazon doesn't rip the benefits alone, all of us do. Just like Apple doesn't benefit alone from having invented touch-screen smartphones. And if these companies profit, they do so as a reward for spending the capital (dollars and manhours) in creating new technologies that improve productivity. Specifically total factor productivity in https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobb%E2%80%93Douglas_production_function https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobb%E2%80%93Douglas_product... It's on all of us because it really isn't on anyone in particular, surely not on Amazon. I can take your statement and flip it around just as easily: why should Amazon bear the costs of paying for many R&D ideas that may or may not pay off? We should all share that cost if we're all going to benefit from those innovations
- altec3 7y agoWe're already most of the way there with self checkout. My local Home Depot only has self checkout now, with 1 person managing something like 10-15 registers. They left the person running the "Pro"/lumber checkout area, but that area looks like it's being set up for self checkout too. They also seem to have removed the Garden Center checkout. I'm not saying it's a great thing, just that the jobs Just Walk Out will be replacing are already being replaced by self checkout.
- jvagner 7y agoI frequent Whole Foods, and I digital nomad a bit, so I visit a lot of Whole Foods-es. Recently came back to the East Bay (SF) and the Whole Foods I'm staying near, more than the others, seems like a staging store for Buy Online & 1) Get Delivered, 2) Pick Up In Store. There are often more WF employees shopping for pick-up orders than customers walking around the store. Navigating aisles that are full of these WF shoppers gives the store a pretty signficantly different feel than the other stores that I'm a regular at. Plus, the staging/storage area at the front for ready-orders is much bigger than at other stores. Not as true at SF city WFs, or the ones in Reno, LA, Park City and Phoenix/Scottsdale that I'm familiar with. I'm guessing this dynamic, plus "Just walk out" is where they're headed, at least in certain densities. And that's where some of the cashiers may be transitioned.
- milesskorpen 7y agoI think some parts of Whole Foods are hard to solve (produce, in particular). I’m sure they’ll get there though.