Their systems for the just-walk-out technology never worked right, and they just ended up opening grocery stores in sketchy locations in an already-crowded market.
A lot of quality merch is no longer carried. Their deli and premade fridges are poorer quality now. I used to stop by there to pick up a healthy lunch from time to time. Not anymore.
Employees have complained online about working conditions being more like an Amazon warehouse now than a grocery store.
It was more accurately described as computer vision at the time, but your memory is right. They wanted to get to 5% of sales being human reviewed, but it was more like 70%.
What’s funny about Amazon’s efforts for Just Walk Out is that checkout free shopping already existed. Simply by letting customers carry a handheld scanner and payment terminal around the store with them.
I miss those hand scanners. I used to shoplift ~$50 worth of veg every trip. I wish I could get away with just burning Kroger to the ground, but that was all I could manage at the time.
7-11 theoretically already has it for their app; you scan with your phone and pay with Apple or Google Pay. The only thing is that you’re supposed to sort of wave the completed transaction at the cashier as you go, but the only reason you’d really need to use portable self-checkout is if the cashier is busy, and when they’re busy they don’t want you breaking in line or to stop what they’re doing to see that you’re showing them a plausibly legitimate checkout screen.
In a completely, utterly, definitely unrelated story, I got accused of shoplifting by a 7-11 cashier the other day.
That could work also, but not all shops have carts, and people don’t always need a basket. It’s common enough to scan things and pop them directly into a bag you brought, skipping the need for a basket altogether.
Wonder if ‘just walk out’ not scaling up had anything to do with it:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/amazon-ends-ai-powered-store-checkout-which-needed-1000-video-reviewers/
Or they got the behavioral data they needed and shutdown the project.
They already bought Whole Foods.
Their systems for the just-walk-out technology never worked right, and they just ended up opening grocery stores in sketchy locations in an already-crowded market.
Here’s hoping they selling Whole Foods next. They’ve certainly ruined it.
How did they ruin it? I don’t really shop there because I don’t want to spend eight dollars on asparagus water.
A lot of quality merch is no longer carried. Their deli and premade fridges are poorer quality now. I used to stop by there to pick up a healthy lunch from time to time. Not anymore.
Employees have complained online about working conditions being more like an Amazon warehouse now than a grocery store.
What sketchy locations? I’m guessing by your name that you’re in Seattle. I live in Seattle. There are no sketchy places here.
They never did work well, though, that’s true. It was more awkward than just paying normally.
Glaces at the entire length of Aurora Avenue
Did they ever get it to be actual AI?
Last time I heard about it they were just paying very low wages to people in India to watch everyone on webcams or something stupid
It was more accurately described as computer vision at the time, but your memory is right. They wanted to get to 5% of sales being human reviewed, but it was more like 70%.
What’s funny about Amazon’s efforts for Just Walk Out is that checkout free shopping already existed. Simply by letting customers carry a handheld scanner and payment terminal around the store with them.
I miss those hand scanners. I used to shoplift ~$50 worth of veg every trip. I wish I could get away with just burning Kroger to the ground, but that was all I could manage at the time.
7-11 theoretically already has it for their app; you scan with your phone and pay with Apple or Google Pay. The only thing is that you’re supposed to sort of wave the completed transaction at the cashier as you go, but the only reason you’d really need to use portable self-checkout is if the cashier is busy, and when they’re busy they don’t want you breaking in line or to stop what they’re doing to see that you’re showing them a plausibly legitimate checkout screen.
In a completely, utterly, definitely unrelated story, I got accused of shoplifting by a 7-11 cashier the other day.
7-11 doesn’t actually have this program, OC just shoplifts there all the time
Both things could be true.
It seems like it would work better to build the scanning tech into baskets/carts.
That could work also, but not all shops have carts, and people don’t always need a basket. It’s common enough to scan things and pop them directly into a bag you brought, skipping the need for a basket altogether.
AI stands for “actually, Indians”