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Amazon Go

(amazon.com)
1247 points mangoman | 3 comments | 05 Dec 16 14:57 UTC | HN request time: 0.725s | source
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elicash ◴[05 Dec 16 15:31 UTC] No.13105963[source]▶
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.

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mulletboy ◴[05 Dec 16 16:01 UTC] No.13106276[source]▶
> 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.

If the incentive is reducing the chances of being charged by the system for an item they didn't buy, you bet people will put stuff back where they found it.

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1. mxfh ◴[05 Dec 16 16:46 UTC] No.13106714[source]▶
If they were trained on normal shopper, how long does it take for the first exploits to appear, like some ML-equivalent of tag switching.

Like I heard from HEB Central Market employee, that they had a hard time with their bulk self-portion coffee beans, where the price range is quite large yet the beans look pretty identical.

Like most bigger shops, I think amazon will just tolerate the loss without enforcing it too much, if it stays manageable and under enforcement costs, which includes a too negative impact on the general shopping experience.

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2. gnopgnip ◴[05 Dec 16 18:24 UTC] No.13107809[source]▶
Like self checkouts, these technologies will not work well in high crime areas. By requiring customers to have a cell phone and an amazon account they can avoid a lot of the higher risk customers at least.
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3. sornaensis ◴[06 Dec 16 17:04 UTC] No.13116174[source]▶
I'm curious, what about self checkouts does not work in high crime areas? Usually stores with self checkouts still have employees and cashiers in the store monitoring for theft.

What about the presence of self checkouts makes theft more likely?