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'Amazon Go' Stores Will Let You Grab Groceries and Go, No Checkout Needed
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This would be an absolute game changer in NYC. Anyone who has ever been to a Manhattan Trader Joes knows...
Quite right.
What's happening is that technology and other advancements are eliminating low-skilled, entry-level jobs, while shifting those jobs into the higher-skilled, more advanced fields.
There aren't less jobs, as you correctly noted. There are less low-level jobs and more in the mid to higher-level fields.
This is good in general because the jobs being eliminated are also the ones that pay the least, and the jobs added pay more, so the overall pay rate increases.
The snag is that some people will never have the ability to do the higher jobs, though we can help this to an extent with training.
I don't have an answer for that one, I'm afraid.
as shopper, I do not like to wait 10 minutes or more in line just to pay. even self-checkout counter has snaking queue in Singapore.
but Amazon Go just seem to unreal at this moment.
Same here. I use an ATM once or twice a year, and I use a teller about the same.
Now that I can deposit checks with my phone (and even that is a rarity), and use a card or my Apple Watch for most purchases, I almost never have to deal with a bank or bank machine. $100 in my wallet can last for months.
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The unreal has a way of becoming commonplace.
I remember how odd it felt the first time I used an unattended self-service gas pump. This would have been in the early 90s, I think. I stopped, swiped my card, and filled my tank. Then I decided I wanted a soda, so I went to the door, but it was locked up tight.
Somewhat more recently (around 2005), I ran out of gas in the middle of the night driving my Prius on a lonely stretch of I-40 in western Tennessee. The engine coughed, and died. Thankfully, there was an exit in sight, and enough juice in my batteries to glide up the ramp on electric power, and park in the amber glow of a gas pump's LED display of an otherwise dark station. I swiped my credit card, filled the tank and continued my drive to Bethesda.
And if entry level jobs go away how are people supposed to get work experience, working for free in internships? Even if we are somehow able to create enough non service sector jobs for everyone what employer will hire someone who is fresh out of college and has no experience even having to show up on time for a job?
That's when working society have to change as well.
Envision a society where machines do most of the work, leaving people free to do what they want to do instead of being bogged down with mundane, soul-crushing, mindless work. The government would give everyone a livable income.
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3056483/welcome-to-the-post-work-economy
I'd definitely be open to that idea, but I don't see it working well with human nature.
I'm glad you guys have low gas prices, but comparing your gas prices to other states is comparing apples to oranges. Within your state, if there was option between full-service and self-service, the latter would be cheaper. And consumers deserve a choice.
It would actually be better if Google developed this software as a way to enable all grocery stores to track shoplifting.
In other words, the minute you enter a supermarket, the in-house tracking robot knows your every move, knows every single item and produce you touch, which melons and avocados you feel, which bags of potato chips you put into your cart, etc. It also remembers how many minutes you spent reading the tabloid National Enquirer at the magazine rack. It knows what you take, knows what you browsed, and what you pay for. And it exactly knows what and when you shoplifted.
In other words, the minute you enter a supermarket, the in-house tracking robot knows your every move, knows every single item and produce you touch, which melons and avocados you feel, which bags of potato chips you put into your cart, etc. It also remembers how many minutes you spent reading the tabloid National Enquirer at the magazine rack. It knows what you take, knows what you browsed, and what you pay for. And it exactly knows what and when you shoplifted.
Agreed.
Delivery drivers will still be needed. Merchandisers will still be needed. Stockroom staff will still be needed. Customer service staff will still be needed (which cashiers can easily take over)
Custodial staff will still be needed. IT help will definitely be needed.
Delivery drivers = drones and automated cars can replace them in the future
Merchandisers and item stocking = robots can be programmed to do that (it's menial work)
Custodial staff = you can program a robot to clean toilets, clean up in Aisle #12
IT staff…. yeah, you still need a few IT experts and software engineers to make it all happen
One could argue that while jobs are being lost, new jobs are being created that are more technical, less manual and pay better. I'd rather be the guy that writes code and does data analysis for Amazon Grocery than working at the local store dragging items across a scanner. Which do you think would pay a better wage?
As much as I see the automated retail market happening, I also foresee a future where people want and demand the opposite, with small stores being operated by people offering a more personal shopping experience.
Frankly, I think that there are a lot of people who would like things to go back to how they were when downtowns were filled with smaller shops, operated by your friends and neighbors, that know you and what you like and need. I get that it is a generational thing, with some people knowing nothing other than mega stores and strip malls, but everyone benefits when your experiences are personalized, in a way that mass retail just cannot provide.
Frankly, I think that there are a lot of people who would like things to go back to how they were when downtowns were filled with smaller shops, operated by your friends and neighbors, that know you and what you like and need. I get that it is a generational thing, with some people knowing nothing other than mega stores and strip malls, but everyone benefits when your experiences are personalized, in a way that mass retail just cannot provide.
You don't know what merchandising entails. Trust me, robots will not replace that.
Right. That's why we have all these stores with this IBM technology everywhere. Oh wait...
IBM had vaporware.
Now THAT concept made sense: instantly scanning every item in a cart only at checkout, instead of watching you all the time you're in the store, to see what you pick up or put down.
KISS principle at work.
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Exactly! And since most products have those stupid magnetized security sensors hidden in them anyway, why not just put RFID tags on/in everything so you can use it for checkout AND security?