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It doesn't need to be a silver bullet. Just streamlining all the checkouts that don't involve cash or weighing stuff would be huge.
The problem I see is the security issue. Funneling people through checkouts deters shoplifting. Didn't Amazon lose a ton of money to shoplifting on those Amazon Go stores that tried to automate all this stuff?
security issue
shoplifting
In a high trust society these aren't a problem. Unmanned stores have been commonplace in Japan and Korea for many years already and are only growing in number thanks to technology , e.g. https://web-japan.org/trends/11_tech-life/tec202309_unmanned-stores.html. So, under the right circumstances OP is on the right track and if we can fix Western urban society then shopping apps should rule. In some countries in rural areas you have produce in baskets out in the streets and you can take and just leave money in a jar.
I have to admit, humans will instantly game the system, as soon as self checkouts were installed in our town, degenerates were putting bottles of whisky on the scales and weighing them as onions 🤣🤣🤣🤣
degenerates were putting bottles of whisky on the scales and weighing them as onions
Your whiskey bottles are sold by weight? They’re in bottles; they should all have the same weight.
That doesn't mean you can't put them in a produce bag and ring them up as onions
Correctomundo
Like all economists, I'm fascinated by cheating
a thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for
I see. Even as an aspiring social engineer, I hadn't considered this kind of criminal energy. I only tested once whether I could reuse a receipt to exit (our self-checkouts only let you exit with a receipt), but I couldn't because, damn, they thought of that.
And of course, it would have been just a mistake if anyone cared.
I heard about a serial TV thief who would buy a TV, get the receipt, bring the TV to his car, run back in and grab another TV on the same receipt. Then, he returned one of the TVs to get his money back.
This is the point, these self-checkout totems are a reality and a "problem" in big cities with high shopping traffic. As mentioned, they need to verify what's being taken out by checking the weight.
When you buy local products from local merchants in a less populated area, the bitcoin circular economy can shine.
That would be great. There are still high-trust places in America but they're becoming less common and tend to be small enough that stores don't need to invest in these kinds of marginal efficiencies.
The problem I see is the security issue.
Yeah, like all engineering challenges its just a series of tradeoffs. They would need more security staff to watch cameras of what was placed into carts vs what was scanned in app....so its just reshuffling staff around.
Another huge issue is: You have just placed your entire checkout process into the hands of Apple / Google for no apparent gain to your organization. Your entire business is now intimately bound up with them "approving each app version" and dealing with new iOS/Android versions, etc....
Its one of those ideas which sounds clever on the surface but the more you dig into it you realize why the world came up with the current solution.
Costco started experimenting with something promising, where a staff member comes through and scans all your stuff while you're waiting in line. That way, once you scan your membership card at checkout, you jump straight to the payment step.
It's nice because its an ad hoc use of free staff that just speeds things along.
I think one of the biggest gaps in current grocery store is the lack of a "over 30 items line". I mean there are express lines for people with 5 items, but why not the reverse?
Like it should be a double-staffed / double-conveyor belt line to process those that have lots of items....I mean on the surface its kinda crazy this hasn't developed.
The guy with a six pack of beer and sandwhich bread gets to zoom thru the line, but the mom with a $350 basket of goods waits the most.....
That had never occurred to me but it's a great idea. It could even be as simple as giving the baggers scanning guns and having them parallel scanning the easy stuff.
A few months ago I was at a Costco in Carlsbad (near San Diego), long line and one person was scanning everyone's items which made checkout go faster and smoothly.
I don’t know why they don’t always have someone doing that. It speeds everything up so much
Tangent...
There are two companies that make absolute BANK
McDonalds and Costco
Both have interesting stories
Good points 👉 you're right on the cash point primarily and the others are good pushbacks, gift card hmmm good point
All these things need to be solved:
You may not live in an area that tried exactly what you describe, but its never worked. I think the Walmart app actually allows you to scan-as-you-go like you describe but like 0.1% of users do that. The biggest hassle is separately having to weigh things at approved weigh stations, and print a ticket for those and then scan that ticket..etc and probably most importantly lack of cash processing.