[mulletboy]

> 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.

[mxfh]

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.

[gnopgnip]

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.

[sornaensis]

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?

[elicash]

True. And maybe they also figured out a technical solution, too. If not, I'm sure they will eventually.

But I'd also have been more impressed with the video if they showed stressed-out parents with crying kids and their hands full as they've got their cell phones tucked between their heads and shoulders, rather than young people quietly grabbing a single item and leaving.

This can actually HELP with those problems because a lot of those problems happen while in a line. Maybe they expect their customers to be like the ones in this video, but certainly my store was a little more chaotic. They should design for that chaos -- and maybe they did, but the video doesn't show it, is all. Presumably because they wanted to stress how easy it was, but to me that comes off as alien to the real world, based on my experience.

[jonknee]

> But I'd also have been more impressed with the video if they showed stressed-out parents with crying kids and their hands full as they've got their cell phones tucked between their heads and shoulders, rather than young people quietly grabbing a single item and leaving.

It's an 1,800 square foot convenience store in a yuppie area stocked with what appears Whole Foods like take and go food, not a Wal Mart Supercenter. It will be quite a bit different if they open a large store out in the suburbs.

[elicash]

That's fair. Although yuppies have kids, too!

[hx87]

It's not the kids that cause trouble--it's the carts with 250 items, the arguments over price, and the paying by check.

[exhilaration]

If that risk exists it will turn into a disincentive for people to even pick up items and look at them closely. If this gets in the way of people making impulse purchases it could significantly reduce the store's sales volume - after all few people stick to their shopping lists and retailers know this. I'm looking forward to seeing the results!

[mulletboy]

This. That 80$ champagne bottle over there? Better get my hands off it!

[beberlei]

Dont take the kids to that store :)

[xexers]

I can tell you've never worked in QA :)

you must assume you're users will do whacky things and they will have no idea how the system works.

[pastullo]

Would it be feasible solution to have drop-off basket at the counter for items that you do not want to buy? Also there could be refrigerated and non-frigerated baskets, along with a nice sign saying that it's ok to not change your mind.