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1247 points mangoman | 2 comments | 05 Dec 16 14:57 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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delegate ◴[05 Dec 16 17:27 UTC] No.13107158[source]▶
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.

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des429 ◴[05 Dec 16 17:38 UTC] No.13107316[source]▶
Capitalism says if the majority of people agree with you they will spend their money at the supermarkets w/ the friendly clerks.
replies(2): >>13107365 #>>13107673 #
1. problems ◴[05 Dec 16 17:42 UTC] No.13107365[source]▶
Not necessarily majority - it's an interesting ability of capitalism over many other systems - multiple solutions to a problem can co-exist. As long as enough people still demand it to make it economically viable.

With "just walk out" the friction is extremely low. It might see less pushback than other technological approaches. However I have to think security will be a major issue. If I can rob the store by just leaving my phone in my car or leaving a cheap phone in the store while I walk away with the products. Tap-in/out gates are probably the best bet, but can still be tailgated, so you'll need to have pretty tight security and monitoring ready to beat anyone down who doesn't pass the checks or looks fishy at the gate or in store attempting to fool the system into believing they're another person. Or write those off as losses, I suppose most retailers today already do a lot of that.

replies(1): >>13107481 #
2. mememachine ◴[05 Dec 16 17:53 UTC] No.13107481[source]▶
A lot of security concerns are resolved by just hiring a person or two to monitor the entry. Still far cheaper than cashiers and so on