Amazon Fresh opens 1st till-less store in UK.

[SpeckledJim]

Gecko1978 said:

Venisonpie said:

This is the way forward for mainstream shopping. It will help the high street as it removes obstacles for avoiding it and allows niche outlets to offer value added experiences where time isn't a factor.

Its the future for sure and I like it, but I don't work in retail like millions of people who we are basically saying wont have a job. We are literally at the cusp.of a technology leap where robotos do the lot. Drive goods to the store unpack an shelve them. No need for humans then. Maybe to pick up trolleys but i can see a robot doing that. Maybe security and customer service but then what.

I think we should embrace tech but we have to accept there will be consequences

Technology has been steadily making job roles obsolete for hundreds and hundreds of years, but we still all have a job if we want one.

One man with a tractor can do the work of a dozen men without tractors, but the lanes aren't littered with bored unemployed ploughmen. As a job disappears, another arrives.

[Misanthrope]

SpeckledJim said:

Technology has been steadily making job roles obsolete for hundreds and hundreds of years, but we still all have a job if we want one.

One man with a tractor can do the work of a dozen men without tractors, but the lanes aren't littered with bored unemployed ploughmen. As a job disappears, another arrives.

Ah, the perpetual optimist. Maybe they should learn to code?

[Earthdweller]

SpeckledJim said:

Gecko1978 said:

Venisonpie said:

This is the way forward for mainstream shopping. It will help the high street as it removes obstacles for avoiding it and allows niche outlets to offer value added experiences where time isn't a factor.

Its the future for sure and I like it, but I don't work in retail like millions of people who we are basically saying wont have a job. We are literally at the cusp.of a technology leap where robotos do the lot. Drive goods to the store unpack an shelve them. No need for humans then. Maybe to pick up trolleys but i can see a robot doing that. Maybe security and customer service but then what.

I think we should embrace tech but we have to accept there will be consequences

Technology has been steadily making job roles obsolete for hundreds and hundreds of years, but we still all have a job if we want one.

One man with a tractor can do the work of a dozen men without tractors, but the lanes aren't littered with bored unemployed ploughmen. As a job disappears, another arrives.

No, they all emigrated to the new world

[SpeckledJim]

Misanthrope said:

SpeckledJim said:

Technology has been steadily making job roles obsolete for hundreds and hundreds of years, but we still all have a job if we want one.

One man with a tractor can do the work of a dozen men without tractors, but the lanes aren't littered with bored unemployed ploughmen. As a job disappears, another arrives.

Ah, the perpetual optimist. Maybe they should learn to code?

Maybe they could do whatever the lamp-lighters, typists and telephone operators did? Which is a non-specific 'something else' but it's not 'nothing'.

If every job holder ever made redundant by technology was never re-employed as something else, then about 50% of us would be unemployed. But we aren't, are we. So, yes, ructions in the job market. Twas ever thus.

Remember when supermarkets first became a thing and we were all up in arms about poor Arkwright, but then we all shopped in the supermarket anyway because we didn't actually really care very much? Turned-out fine in the end.

This is the new that.

[anonymous-user]

Misanthrope said:

SpeckledJim said:

Technology has been steadily making job roles obsolete for hundreds and hundreds of years, but we still all have a job if we want one.

One man with a tractor can do the work of a dozen men without tractors, but the lanes aren't littered with bored unemployed ploughmen. As a job disappears, another arrives.

Ah, the perpetual optimist. Maybe they should learn to code?

Another section of unskilled workers will slowly but surely be replaced by this technology. Wait until they have perfected automated cars/lorries or AI to replace call centres.

Slowly but surely these sort of jobs are going to vanish forever. What jobs do you suggest these people do instead?

[SpeckledJim]

Joey Deacon said:

Misanthrope said:

SpeckledJim said:

Technology has been steadily making job roles obsolete for hundreds and hundreds of years, but we still all have a job if we want one.

One man with a tractor can do the work of a dozen men without tractors, but the lanes aren't littered with bored unemployed ploughmen. As a job disappears, another arrives.

Ah, the perpetual optimist. Maybe they should learn to code?

Another section of unskilled workers will slowly but surely be replaced by this technology. Wait until they have perfected automated cars or AI to replace call centres.

Slowly but surely these sort of jobs are going to vanish forever. What jobs do you suggest these people do instead?

Typing as a career has vanished. There are people in the job market today who became typists at 16 and lost their typing job at 20...They just went and did something else. No bother.

I've no idea why people suddenly think this is a new thing that's going to destroy the economy. It's being going on for literally millennia.

The other day in traffic, I found myself behind a van advertising their services as a Wedding Dog Chaperone. A person you can hire to look after your dog, so the dog can be at your wedding. Maybe that person used to be a typist. I thought it was hilarious, but someone's making a living at it.

People make jobs. There aren't a set number of them, and when lost are not irreplaceable.

Edited by SpeckledJim on Thursday 4th March 14:34

[A500leroy]

alangla said:

Tankrizzo said:

How do they prevent theft?

As I understand it, if you've haven't checked in using the app, you don't get through the entrance barrier & once you're in, it knows who picked up what, so stuffing a bottle of Vodka up your jumper will have the same effect as putting it in your shopping bag, i.e. you'll be paying for it.

Presumably they'll have a security guard at the front that stops people jumping the barriers.

What if you check in using the app then turn your phone off when your in there?

[SpeckledJim]

A500leroy said:

alangla said:

Tankrizzo said:

How do they prevent theft?

As I understand it, if you've haven't checked in using the app, you don't get through the entrance barrier & once you're in, it knows who picked up what, so stuffing a bottle of Vodka up your jumper will have the same effect as putting it in your shopping bag, i.e. you'll be paying for it.

Presumably they'll have a security guard at the front that stops people jumping the barriers.

What if you check in using the app then turn your phone off when your in there?

Trap door.

[Countdown]

In relation to the theft I'm led to believe that loads get's stolen via the current self-scan systems. However the losses cost less than employing a till operator.

[alangla]

A500leroy said:

alangla said:

Tankrizzo said:

How do they prevent theft?

As I understand it, if you've haven't checked in using the app, you don't get through the entrance barrier & once you're in, it knows who picked up what, so stuffing a bottle of Vodka up your jumper will have the same effect as putting it in your shopping bag, i.e. you'll be paying for it.

Presumably they'll have a security guard at the front that stops people jumping the barriers.

What if you check in using the app then turn your phone off when your in there?

No idea, but one would imagine there's a barrier at the exit (to stop people coming in the wrong way) & if your phone isn't on, or has lost contact with the mothership while you're shopping, then you could expect some interest from the security guards.

[Terminator X]

Don't use it? I'll await people calling me "granddad" or "gammon".

This is the end game ...



Yada yada people will get other jobs blah blah.

TX.

Edit - oh and "However, it does not involve facial recognition" yet of course.

[johnboy1975]

alangla said:

A500leroy said:

alangla said:

Tankrizzo said:

How do they prevent theft?

As I understand it, if you've haven't checked in using the app, you don't get through the entrance barrier & once you're in, it knows who picked up what, so stuffing a bottle of Vodka up your jumper will have the same effect as putting it in your shopping bag, i.e. you'll be paying for it.

Presumably they'll have a security guard at the front that stops people jumping the barriers.

What if you check in using the app then turn your phone off when your in there?

No idea, but one would imagine there's a barrier at the exit (to stop people coming in the wrong way) & if your phone isn't on, or has lost contact with the mothership while you're shopping, then you could expect some interest from the security guards.

So do we go from 10 til girls to 10 security guards? Progress i guess. But yeah on balance, it would probably be easier to lift a bottle of vodka out of Asda than Amazon

[BritishBlitz87]

SpeckledJim said:

Technology has been steadily making job roles obsolete for hundreds and hundreds of years, but we still all have a job if we want one.

One man with a tractor can do the work of a dozen men without tractors, [b]but the lanes aren't littered with bored unemployed ploughmen[/i]. As a job disappears, another arrives.

I often see this argument made but the fact of the matter is they were! Destitution and poverty was rife, the parish poor laws couldn't cope with both their native poor and masses of newly unemployed agricultural labourers so the workhouses and vagrancy laws were instituted. There were ups and downs over the years, but in the long run an entire culture and way of life, hundreds of rural communities have been wiped out over the past two centuries, most are now dormitory towns for well off commuters.
The world is better for it, but thousands of redundant weavers and potters and blacksmiths starved or slaved away in factories at a fraction of their old wages until the advent of labour laws and trade unions.
I don't know what will happen in the future, but it won't be pretty!

[Dogwatch]

A500leroy said:

What if you check in using the app then turn your phone off when your in there?

System detects unpaid-for goods leaving the store, portcullis slams down, men with baggy trousers and rubber soled boots appear.

Police give out crime number.

[Earthdweller]

Dogwatch said:

A500leroy said:

What if you check in using the app then turn your phone off when your in there?

System detects unpaid-for goods leaving the store, portcullis slams down, men with baggy trousers and rubber soled boots appear.

Police give out crime number.

Breach of contract ?

Civil dispute ?

No crime committed ?

No Police involvement

[Countdown]

Terminator X said:

Don't use it? I'll await people calling me "granddad" or "gammon".

This is the end game ...



Yada yada people will get other jobs blah blah.

TX.

Edit - oh and "However, it does not involve facial recognition" yet of course.

Why would they need a robot when we have these?

[hyphen]

I'm very surprised they have announced this in Ealing.

Surely the most demand would be in the centre, where people are grabbing some items and have a train to catch home, or a limited duration lunch break.

I suspect it will have limited appeal, but very interested to see if takes off.

[Digger]

Too central & it will get overwhelmed I imagine. Think of it as a trial run.

[SpeckledJim]

BritishBlitz87 said:

SpeckledJim said:

Technology has been steadily making job roles obsolete for hundreds and hundreds of years, but we still all have a job if we want one.

One man with a tractor can do the work of a dozen men without tractors, [b]but the lanes aren't littered with bored unemployed ploughmen[/i]. As a job disappears, another arrives.

I often see this argument made but the fact of the matter is they were! Destitution and poverty was rife, the parish poor laws couldn't cope with both their native poor and masses of newly unemployed agricultural labourers so the workhouses and vagrancy laws were instituted. There were ups and downs over the years, but in the long run an entire culture and way of life, hundreds of rural communities have been wiped out over the past two centuries, most are now dormitory towns for well off commuters.
The world is better for it, but thousands of redundant weavers and potters and blacksmiths starved or slaved away in factories at a fraction of their old wages until the advent of labour laws and trade unions.
I don't know what will happen in the future, but it won't be pretty!

It WILL be pretty. Pick almost any moment in the last 300 years, and the future 20 years in front of that point was 'prettier'. And the rate of change (improvement) in the era we're lucky enough to live in is high. That's good.

Today's unemployed (what relatively few there are of them) enjoy a better standard of life than people with good jobs did 100 years ago.

All this affluence around us is powered by technology, automation, and economies of scale.

It takes 40 seconds work at minimum wage to earn the money to buy an egg, produced to exacting standards and carefully delivered to our door. That's pretty extraordinary, by any historical standards.

[Tankrizzo]

I did a little bit of further reading, looks like the system knows who you are by cameras, and assumes that if you take an item off the shelf and don't return it, that you've bought it..

So no entry until you scan in with an Amazon app linked to a payment method, and it knows who you are and where you are, so no shoplifting.

https://www.vendhq.com/blog/shoplifting-amazon-go/