Editor's Blog3 mins ago
Amazon Is This The Way We Will Shop
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Tesco in the UK already have a similar system. You pick up a scanner as you go in and scan the barcode on the items as you put them in your basket. At the moment you then pay at a dedicated till before leaving. It only needs the addition of reading & verifying your card details onto the scanner and the system will be fully automatic.
"No service."
As youngmaf mentioned, no service is precisely what you get in most shops. Staff are too busy talking to their colleagues about their forthcoming holidays to bother with tiresome customers. I visited a well known supermarket chain only yesterday (I won't name it but it begins with 'T' and ends with 'O'). I only had half a dozen items. The checkout girl did not acknowledge my presence at all, preferring instead to rabbit to her colleague on the adjacent till. When she'd finished she looked at me:
"Well how much do you want then?" I asked her.
"Oh, er [looks at till display which I cannot see because it's turned round towards her]..£8.29. I fought you were payin' by card."
"How would you know that? You barely know I'm here at all."
She turned away. I imagine most people in that position would have been embarassed, but I don't think she did embarassment.
She grudgingly handed me my receipt and I left with "I'm terribly sorry to have interrupted your morning by coming here to do my shopping. Next time I'll use the self-service checkout [which I hate because they don't work properly]. Hopefully by then you and your mate next door will have been handed your cards and you can spend all day every day rabbitting to each other."
Shops like that are not long for this world - I'm pleased to say
As youngmaf mentioned, no service is precisely what you get in most shops. Staff are too busy talking to their colleagues about their forthcoming holidays to bother with tiresome customers. I visited a well known supermarket chain only yesterday (I won't name it but it begins with 'T' and ends with 'O'). I only had half a dozen items. The checkout girl did not acknowledge my presence at all, preferring instead to rabbit to her colleague on the adjacent till. When she'd finished she looked at me:
"Well how much do you want then?" I asked her.
"Oh, er [looks at till display which I cannot see because it's turned round towards her]..£8.29. I fought you were payin' by card."
"How would you know that? You barely know I'm here at all."
She turned away. I imagine most people in that position would have been embarassed, but I don't think she did embarassment.
She grudgingly handed me my receipt and I left with "I'm terribly sorry to have interrupted your morning by coming here to do my shopping. Next time I'll use the self-service checkout [which I hate because they don't work properly]. Hopefully by then you and your mate next door will have been handed your cards and you can spend all day every day rabbitting to each other."
Shops like that are not long for this world - I'm pleased to say
It's quite obvious that such an establishment hires far, far fewer people than a conventional supermarket does. It or something like it is probably the future, yes. A far more credible vision than drone-delivery.
Over my lifetime I fully expect automation to advance to such an extent that it is no longer possible to employ 30-40% of the population, perhaps even more.. Indeed, this is already starting to happen. Unless we want society to collapse we need to figure out some way to run an economy in which not everyone can be employed.
Over my lifetime I fully expect automation to advance to such an extent that it is no longer possible to employ 30-40% of the population, perhaps even more.. Indeed, this is already starting to happen. Unless we want society to collapse we need to figure out some way to run an economy in which not everyone can be employed.
