Remember the Amazon stores, where a computer would track you, and ring up your groceries automatically?
A computer was supposed to identify you, and the groceries, and ring you up as you walked out the door.
It never worked. In fact they had to have a back office in India with people watching monitors in order to create the illusion that it worked, and now Amazon has ended its ill conceived experiment.
They are not closing the stores (yet), but they are adding cashiers:
Amazon is phasing out its checkout-less grocery stores with “Just Walk Out” technology, first reported by The Information Tuesday. The company’s senior vice president of grocery stores says they’re moving away from Just Walk Out, which relied on cameras and sensors to track what people were leaving the store with.
Just over half of Amazon Fresh stores are equipped with Just Walk Out. The technology allows customers to skip checkout altogether by scanning a QR code when they enter the store. Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. The cashiers were simply moved off-site, and they watched you as you shopped.
On Wednesday, GeekWire reported that Amazon Web Services is cutting a few hundred jobs in its Physical Stores Technology team, according to internal emails. The layoffs will allegedly impact portions of Amazon’s identity and checkout teams.
Instead of Just Walk Out, Amazon is moving towards Dash Carts, a scanner and screen that’s embedded in your shopping cart, allowing you to checkout as you shop. These offer a more reliable solution than Just Walk Out. Amazon Fresh stores will also feature self check out counters from now on, for people who aren’t Amazon members.
So, they will have self-checkout stations, with a cashier every 3 or so stations to fix the inevitable problems, and they will have portable scanners that allow shoppers to scan as they shop.
That is almost identical to what is down the street at Giant.
You grab a portable scanner, go shopping, scanning as you go, and check out at a self-checkout station.
BTW, that does not work too well either.
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