Posted on 12/06/2016 8:56:13 AM PST by jcon40
There’s a term used to describe people who walk into a store, help themselves to a sandwich or a cupcake, and then promptly walk out: Shoplifters. But maybe not for much longer. Amazon just lifted the lid on its new Amazon Go technology, which looks to fundamentally transform the retail world.
Here’s how it works. You enter a store using Amazon’s propriety technology and flash your personal QR code to a reader. Then, you just pick up what you want and walk out. No dealing with infuriating self-checkout machines or cashiers. The money is automatically taken from a nominated credit or debit card. It’s the ultimate in grab-and-go retail convenience.
Amazon Go is powered by a combination of computer vision, sensors and machine learning, packaged up into something the company calls “Just Walk Out technology.”
(Excerpt) Read more at heatst.com ...
I have about a dozen years experience as a retail store manager that says otherwise.
I should have read the article! I thought from the excerpt that this was an App being rolled out to retailers.
And that assumes both Mom and Junior are honest. I’m picturing people using someone else’s account to get through the door, then walking out without them.
This sounds a lot like Real Time Inventory (RTI) and RDIF technology. The RDIF readers know what’s physically in the store. When you walk out with merchandise, it’s no longer in the store and no longer a part of inventory. How they scan a cart walking out the door is easily worked out, and the billing system is already in place. But in a nutshell, this is RTI and will lead to very lucrative shrinkage savings.
Your link turned me on to Amazon's new line of doormats and dog mats.
No need. By the time you leave, they already know what you have, and your departure simply prompts them to mark your stuff sold and total up the bill.
You might find this document informative. The abstract:
This disclosure describes a system for automatically transitioning items from a materials handling facility without delaying a user as they exit the materials handling facility. For example, while a user is located in a materials handling facility, the user may pick one or more items. The items are identified and automatically associated with the user at or near the time of the item pick. When the users enters and/or passes through a transition area, the picked items are automatically transitioned to the user without affirmative input from or delay to the user.
What’s the difference between having a CHIP embedded in your hand/forehead and having a smartphone in your hand or held up to your forehead ALL DAY LONG ?
When I worked as a store manager for Radio Shack I had a similar situation.
My store was so low volume that I could only afford one part time guy. He was already working at the store when I took over. Seemed nice enough. I did pick up through conversations that he was a close personal friend with the previous manager.
I would often leave at 6:00pm and the part timer would close the store at 9:00am.
One morning I come in and noticed that a receiver that was at eye level just as you walked in the back room was gone. I checked the tickets from the night before and there was no record of the sale.
I immediately called Loss Prevention and explained the situation. The Loss Prevention supervisor - a Mr. Nolan - arrived within the hour with the District Manager.
Upon sharing the story they asked if they could look in my car trunk. I was taken aback, but agreed.
They then asked if they could search my house - all the while telling me that I would have to produce receipts for any Radio Shack merchandise they found on my property. I was a pack rat and I knew that I had receipts for EVERYTHING I owned, so I agreed. That seemed to surprise them. I asked if they were going to question my part timer and was told that was none of my business.
I left the company not long after that. Later, I discovered that the previous manager of my store, the one I inherited the part timer from, is the long time girlfriend of the son of the District Manager and that my part timer was - surprise - his best friend!
It seems that the reason that the store hadn’t been profitable before I took it over was that they had been stealing from it regularly, with the District Manager turning a blind eye. When she - the previous manager - got a new store they decided to steal from both.
I found out years later that this particular District Manager was fired when his district had an overall inventory shortage of about $250K. Justice eventually prevailed.
Well if it’s a number of the beast chip that’s mandatory while the phone is voluntary. And the embedded chip is a lot more effort to replace. Which is probably the biggest reason why we never went to anything like it.
Score!
I was just explaining to the other poster that it wasn’t a system where the items were pulled out of stock for you. I wasn’t arguing for or against the system.
All the problems you mention are valid. But I am sure they also came up during the first five minutes of discussion when this idea was first talked about. And they don’t seem particularly difficult to solve.
Personally I love the self checkout lanes. I get checked out a lot quicker and don’t have to wait in line.
Eh - sounds like a relatively simple issue to address.
When you use a regular checkout at a store today you have to check your receipt to avoid being ripped off. Items ring up at the wrong price or as the wrong item all the time. If you don’t verify your receipt you are at throwing money away. So you would still have to do the same thing with this system.
Wells Fargo Bank, the largest bank on the West Coast has gone totally paperless. Forget deposit slips or withdrawal thingies.
You go in, slide your Wells Fargo Card. Give the clerk your check. Tell the machine’s a deposit and to what account and where you want your email receipt sent to.
Deposit at machine? Tell iy you want to deposit, it all scan your checks and give them all back to you.
I like it.
We always do. 100 percent of the time, the discrepancy is in the store's favor. We go back to the checkout and complain to get our money back. Real strange how the "mistakes" are in the store's favor. Almost the same thing for take-out/drive-through restaurants; almost always overcharges or missing food items are in the restaurants favor. We always double-check before leaving.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.