Meh - I was excited by JWO but it now looks like self-checkout will win because it works pretty well these days, and it handles all the corner cases including product sold by weight, large items, identical-looking items (common in grocery), etc.
With self-checkout, you don't need an account which is crucial for travelers. Self-checkout also supports cash for the unbanked.
I've tried SC in multiple countries, just hit the button for English, scan, scan, scan, weight, scan, scan, scan, checkout, touch my credit card, go.
Late night in Stockholm train station, I bought one bottle of fizzy water and checkout added 30 seconds or so.
Obviously, from place to place you sometimes get "rough edges" with mis-scans etc but JWO has its own problems.
I'm not even sure how much floor space JWO saves vs self-checkout.
I've stopped using self-checkout because I always run into troubles. In one store when I accidentally double-scan an item, I have to press the button to call someone, and it takes 5 minutes for someone to show up.
In another store you need to place your groceries onto a weighing shelf, and somehow I couldn't figure out what to do to make the machine happy.
For produce and pastries that don't have a bar code you have to navigate through a stupid hierarchical menu and I just couldn't find some of the items...
At some point these machines hopefully will improve (just like automatic ticket machines have improved), but for now I still prefer waiting in a normal checkout line.
I can't really fathom how you can include "scan, scan, scan, weight, scan, scan, scan, checkout, touch my credit card, go" in your comment and consider that comparable to "leave." For routine grocery shopping the technology is incredible.
That said, I'll grant that it's also creepy AF. The bigger issue for me, though, is that Amazon is so fucking awful at physical retail inventory management (both the selection of items that should be there and the selection of items actually available for purchase) that the Go Grocery in Seattle went from being "this is how I buy groceries" to "there is zero chance they'll have most, let alone all, of the items on my incredibly boring grocery list."
Amazon still wins, though... I end up walking the other direction and going to Whole Foods...
> With self-checkout, you don't need an account which is crucial for travelers.
At non-Amazon branded JWO locations you insert a credit card in the machine when you walk in, no account needed. I recently encountered one like this at an airport.
> I'm not even sure how much floor space JWO saves vs self-checkout.
Not sure JWO is about saving floor space. It's more about saving the customer time. A grocery line on a Saturday afternoon is frustrating. Imagine Costco having this.
JWO works with products sold by weight (like produce -- it uses sensor fusion with weight sensors), large items and identical-looking items too. I tried it last week at Amazon Fresh. It works.
What's wrong with the usual check-out process? It also creates extra jobs for people that, most probably, would have difficulties finding new ones (some of the lady cashiers at the super-market close to me are well into their 50s). Plus, it forces you to have a little human interaction, that hasn't killed anyone, quite the contrary. More human interactions, even with strangers, less "what pills should I take to make my life less miserable".
Expect to have to install an app for every store you want to go into over the next few years with all the accompanying snooping. This tech is a wet dream for retailers.
Who needs store cards when they can just see in realtime what you're picking up and putting back, along with your demographic data.
You mean like trying to drive through Germany in an electric car and having multiple standards/vendors for the chargers each with their own app, no cash, no maestro or credit card option. Especially funny when in an area with poor mobile reception (basically rendering the charger somewhat useless).
Having these competing non-standards is a pita for customers as well as for adoption. I would think that it would be the same for jwo.
I used to resist getting a store card for this very reason, until I realize that they can track me through the credit card that I used anyway. This requires the self checkout machine to record the credit card number from the POS though - does the POS expose this information?
> 60 percent of respondents state that long wait times to check out are a major concern while shopping in a store. The report also revealed that 80 percent of retail executive respondents believe that smart checkout is one of the most important solutions to invest in over the next five years.
The local Kroger instances here have these handheld things you can use to scan items as you put them in your cart rather than at a checkout station.
I don't exactly see a large number of people using them. Like, I think I might have seen one, once?
Walmart+ app allows you to scan items with your phone as you pick them up. Then, when you reach the self-checkout, you just scan a QR code and you are "checked out". I wish you didn't need to do the self-checkout thing, and could just finalize the transaction entirely from your phone, but other than that it is pretty good.
This is extremely popular in the UK - all of the major supermarkets offer it.
Some of them also let you use your own smartphone to do the scanning.
It became more popular in the pandemic, as only interacting with your own device reduces the amount of contact you have with other people and things they have been touching.
> 60 percent of respondents state that long wait times to check out are a major concern while shopping in a store.
There is an easy fix: hire people to ensure that wait time is minimal by opening as much checkout isles as possible. But in the economists wet dream the automated, humanless solution wins by being cheaper.
> The report also revealed that 80 percent of retail executive respondents believe that smart checkout is one of the most important solutions to invest in over the next five years.
Absolutely, because you have no need to pay additional squishy meat sacks when people/shoppers can do the work themselves with self checkout. Externalise the cost onto the customer.
I've been impressed by the Amazon Go stores. They seem to work pretty well. I'm glad to see Amazon at least trying to spread this technology. I enjoy using it.
I do think the palm reading thing will be a potential vulnerability in two regards. First, maybe as a "hack". Is there a way to fake the palm scan? Something you could put on your palm to assume someone else's palm print? If I use this service will I have to be concerned with thieves scanning my palm print? Second, I think it will also invoke a "creepiness" concern among the general population when Amazon starts wanting your palm prints.
I am also confused as to why this falls under the AWS umbrella. It seems very unlike other AWS offerings. This requires adding hardware to your store.
AWS appears to be an umbrella for all the B2B stuff that is not B2C/Amazon itself, and in many cases is not directly "web" (see private 5G networks, Snow, Ground Station, etc.)
I'm 90% sure Amazon paid SNL to make this ad (SNL does paid brand integration in various skits, see Tom Scott's video on product placement for other examples https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-x8DYTOv7w). It's a spoof commercial where the product advertised isn't what's being made fun of. The set is unusually authentic to actual Amazon Go stores, down to the "just walk out" logo signage, and the loud and clear message of the ad is that you should stop worrying and trust Amazon. They're lampshading people's distrust of automation, especially in a liberal context of racial equity, and demonstrating that actually Keenan was really silly for thinking a computer would be racist.
Many commenters haven't read the blog post. A retailer app or Amazon One account is not necessarily required. From my understanding, you can simply enter with a credit or debit card.
> Consumers can enter a Just Walk Out technology-equipped store using one of three methods—method types available can vary by store: (1) Amazon One, a contactless identity service that uses your palm to pay; (2) credit or debit card; or (3) app-based entry, using retailer-branded apps.
As I read this title, for whatever reason, I imagined Walk Out Technology as being some kind of worker’s union SaaS and had to do a double take.
I’m not intending to be unproductively facetious mind you, those types of specialized SaaS offerings that let workers operate and organize and educate should exist, and if AWS ever wanted to spend PR money in the right place… eh? Eh?
asah|3 years ago
With self-checkout, you don't need an account which is crucial for travelers. Self-checkout also supports cash for the unbanked.
I've tried SC in multiple countries, just hit the button for English, scan, scan, scan, weight, scan, scan, scan, checkout, touch my credit card, go.
Late night in Stockholm train station, I bought one bottle of fizzy water and checkout added 30 seconds or so.
Obviously, from place to place you sometimes get "rough edges" with mis-scans etc but JWO has its own problems.
I'm not even sure how much floor space JWO saves vs self-checkout.
newaccount74|3 years ago
In another store you need to place your groceries onto a weighing shelf, and somehow I couldn't figure out what to do to make the machine happy.
For produce and pastries that don't have a bar code you have to navigate through a stupid hierarchical menu and I just couldn't find some of the items...
At some point these machines hopefully will improve (just like automatic ticket machines have improved), but for now I still prefer waiting in a normal checkout line.
jsolson|3 years ago
That said, I'll grant that it's also creepy AF. The bigger issue for me, though, is that Amazon is so fucking awful at physical retail inventory management (both the selection of items that should be there and the selection of items actually available for purchase) that the Go Grocery in Seattle went from being "this is how I buy groceries" to "there is zero chance they'll have most, let alone all, of the items on my incredibly boring grocery list."
Amazon still wins, though... I end up walking the other direction and going to Whole Foods...
eightysixfour|3 years ago
At non-Amazon branded JWO locations you insert a credit card in the machine when you walk in, no account needed. I recently encountered one like this at an airport.
wenc|3 years ago
Not sure JWO is about saving floor space. It's more about saving the customer time. A grocery line on a Saturday afternoon is frustrating. Imagine Costco having this.
JWO works with products sold by weight (like produce -- it uses sensor fusion with weight sensors), large items and identical-looking items too. I tried it last week at Amazon Fresh. It works.
thaumasiotes|3 years ago
This seems like a situation that would be improved for all concerned parties if there was a vending machine in the station.
unknown|3 years ago
[deleted]
paganel|3 years ago
ojhughes|3 years ago
unixhero|3 years ago
moltar|3 years ago
Maybe in select stores?
I personally experience more headache than great UX using self checkout in most stores.
unknown|3 years ago
[deleted]
nprateem|3 years ago
Who needs store cards when they can just see in realtime what you're picking up and putting back, along with your demographic data.
sdoering|3 years ago
Having these competing non-standards is a pita for customers as well as for adoption. I would think that it would be the same for jwo.
willio58|3 years ago
tuankiet65|3 years ago
trollied|3 years ago
Not just that - also track your eyes to see what else you've anticipated.
im_dario|3 years ago
Retailers hate Amazon up to the point to avoid AWS - there are exceptions - to any of their cloud infrastructure.
reidjs|3 years ago
SteveNuts|3 years ago
tbrownaw|3 years ago
The local Kroger instances here have these handheld things you can use to scan items as you put them in your cart rather than at a checkout station.
I don't exactly see a large number of people using them. Like, I think I might have seen one, once?
ALittleLight|3 years ago
daveoc64|3 years ago
Some of them also let you use your own smartphone to do the scanning.
It became more popular in the pandemic, as only interacting with your own device reduces the amount of contact you have with other people and things they have been touching.
wenc|3 years ago
It's the wrong UX. I'm not sure I would scan my cart items -- that's making me do extra work.
sdoering|3 years ago
There is an easy fix: hire people to ensure that wait time is minimal by opening as much checkout isles as possible. But in the economists wet dream the automated, humanless solution wins by being cheaper.
> The report also revealed that 80 percent of retail executive respondents believe that smart checkout is one of the most important solutions to invest in over the next five years.
Absolutely, because you have no need to pay additional squishy meat sacks when people/shoppers can do the work themselves with self checkout. Externalise the cost onto the customer.
ALittleLight|3 years ago
I do think the palm reading thing will be a potential vulnerability in two regards. First, maybe as a "hack". Is there a way to fake the palm scan? Something you could put on your palm to assume someone else's palm print? If I use this service will I have to be concerned with thieves scanning my palm print? Second, I think it will also invoke a "creepiness" concern among the general population when Amazon starts wanting your palm prints.
I am also confused as to why this falls under the AWS umbrella. It seems very unlike other AWS offerings. This requires adding hardware to your store.
throwaway290|3 years ago
londons_explore|3 years ago
KerrAvon|3 years ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS9U3Gc832Y
kn0where|3 years ago
deepdriver|3 years ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1FUMdHU29c&t=332s
bushbaba|3 years ago
outside1234|3 years ago
Yeah, no thanks.
Guthur|3 years ago
topicseed|3 years ago
> Consumers can enter a Just Walk Out technology-equipped store using one of three methods—method types available can vary by store: (1) Amazon One, a contactless identity service that uses your palm to pay; (2) credit or debit card; or (3) app-based entry, using retailer-branded apps.
awill88|3 years ago
I’m not intending to be unproductively facetious mind you, those types of specialized SaaS offerings that let workers operate and organize and educate should exist, and if AWS ever wanted to spend PR money in the right place… eh? Eh?