It was a video that went completely viral, and rightly so: Amazon’s cashier-less supermarkets. However, now it seems to be coming back to that. It is removing Just Walk Out technology from Fresh supermarkets in the United States. This puts an end to something that many supermarkets have tried to imitate.
Walking away without a payment process
Some supermarkets in the Netherlands were also inspired by this technology: Albert Heijn tested an AH to go for a while that used scanners to check what you took with you when you shopped in the store. However, after a test period at our own head office and at Schiphol, we have heard nothing more about this hypermodern supermarket. Perhaps for a reason: Amazon will not choose to stop this shop-and-walk technology for nothing.
The Information writes that the technology had too many problems. Some even call it an illusion of automation. What turns out – and sit down for a moment, because this is quite shocking – is that it is not AI that does all the work. There seem to be 1,000 real people watching the cameras to check what someone is taking and whether it matches the bill. So you think that an intelligent camera system is watching you, but in reality it is a hardworking Indian: it is not processed in your own country, but in India.
Amazon Go
However, that is not the only problem that Amazon’s cashierless shops face. It is also an expensive sport. Installing and maintaining the technology costs a lot of money, which is why many Fresh stores would not have adopted this walk-out-without-checkout process in the first place. About half the stores would only have it. And yes, then of course there is the most obvious problem: incorrect customer receipts. This will undoubtedly sometimes be to their advantage, but also often to their disadvantage. This in turn means that customer service has to work and in the end this ‘convenience’ has proven to be an expensive joke.
Also one that did not come without legal problems: Amazon was sued in New York because it used cameras to map people’s bodies to see what they took with them. Not okay, people thought, who then started a lawsuit. Amazon would use this without informing customers. It has probably become a no-go for Amazon for all the existing reasons and this legal wrangling, although it may still exist in a few supermarkets in the United Kingdom.
Amazon Dash
Without this technology, will the stores now become stupid? Nope, Amazon already has its next showpiece ready in the form of the Dash shopping cart. That is a smart shopping cart that has been tested in Whole Foods. Successful, as it turns out, because these carts with scales and sensors to be able to draw up the receipt are being rolled out to more Amazon retail locations, it said.
