The #FightFor15 crowd should enjoy this. Amazon cashierless stores are on the way. These stores are right on the cusp of going prime-time. The future of automation is now inevitable.
The new stores will be called "Amazon Go." Individual shoppers will be charged when they remove items from the shelves in the store. The stores are being marketed as grocery stores without lines or checkouts or cashiers who are demanding way more money than they deserve. It's kind of funny that the stores are being tested successfully in downtown Seattle, which is where the fight for $15 minimum wage originated.
"It uses cameras and shelf sensors to track what shoppers pull from shelves and then charges them for what's in their carts when they leave the store, all without the use of cashiers or physical registers," said Business Insider.
Here's an official video from Amazon on the new stores.
Amazon Cashierless Stores Coming Soon
Per Daily Wire:
The technology is apparently so high-tech that Amazon employees tried wearing Pikachu costumes to fool the system and failed. The only Achilles heel not yet fixed is the tech's inability to charge large groups of shoppers such as families.
Bloomberg reports that "engineers have been studying families shopping together and are tweaking their sensors to recognize when a child eats an item while wandering around the store. Engineers are also figuring out which person to charge when a couple goes shopping together. Amazon has encouraged employees to enter the store in pairs and buy lunch."
Though Amazon Go stores were supposed to go nation-wide this year, technical difficultieskept that from happening. Amazon has now hired construction managers with the expressed intention of building the first stores.
"Analysts expect a version of Amazon Go technology to be rolled out eventually at Whole Foods," reports Bloomberg. "That’s a far more challenging prospect because Whole Foods locations are much larger than the 1,800-square-foot convenience store and carry thousands more products. Amazon, which says it currently has no such plans, would need a lot more testers wearing Pikachu costumes to pull that off."
Huge companies like Amazon will find a way to be successful whether or not minimum wage is $15 per hour. The thing about this is the #FightFor15 further incentivizes large companies to find ways to bypass hiring workers that will be way overpaid at $15 per hour.
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