Vox:
On Monday, Amazon introduced a new self-checkout technology that — if it works as advertised — could totally transform the retail sector. Called “Amazon Go,” the technology literally allows people to walk into a store, select items they want to purchase, and walk out. There’s no checkout process at all.
Those of us familiar with Apple’s Retail Stores implementation of this will understand how this might be a huge change in the way retail works.
I’ve been wanting Kroger or Publix to do something like this for a while. Why not just have an app that lets you scan your items as you go, then just pay within the app and walk out. Seems like the simplest way. Make the “self checkout” mobile.
It is funny to see how differently these things work in different places. The one thing that would improve the Apple Store here in Frankfurt, Germany would be checkout lanes and cashiers. Since most people pay cash, the chaos they create with not having those is priceless. One employee can’t handle reserved items, the one who can has no authorization to open the cash drawer, then they disappear with your cash and the wait for the change is longer than the entire shopping process.
And, as nice as it is when it works, it is really a legal gray area, since the change of ownership is not transparent at all. The entire record of the transaction is on a device made by the merchant, using software made by the merchant and stored on servers owned by the merchant. Not good from a consumer standpoint when it comes to disputes. And since Apple always cheats (not a single device I bought from them in the last decade had the correct start of warranty in their system, it is always 2-3 days before they even deliver the device), I do want my paper receipt with a date on it.
So it is still ‘news’?