Posted on 09/06/2021 8:42:45 AM PDT by RandFan
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Middle East on Monday got its first completely automated cashier-less store, as retail giant Carrefour rolled out its vision for the future of the industry in a cavernous Dubai mall.
Like Amazon’s breakthrough unmanned grocery stores that opened in 2018, the Carrefour mini-market looks like any ordinary convenience store, brimming with sodas and snacks, tucked between sprawling storefronts of this city-state.
But hidden among the familiar fare lies a sophisticated system that tracks shoppers’ movements, eliminating the checkout line and allowing people to grab the products they’ll walk out with. Only those with the store’s smartphone app may enter. Nearly a hundred small surveillance cameras blanket the ceiling. Countless sensors line the shelves. Five minutes after shoppers leave, their phones ping with receipts for whatever they put in their bags.
“This is how the future will look,” Hani Weiss, CEO of retail at Majid Al Futtaim, the franchise that operates Carrefour in the Middle East, told The Associated Press. “We do believe in physical stores in the future. However, we believe the experience will change.”
The experimental shop, called Carrefour City+, is the latest addition to the burgeoning field of retail automation. Major retailers worldwide are combining machine learning software and artificial intelligence in a push to cut labor costs, do away with the irritation of long lines and gather critical data about shopping behavior.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
The incentive is for tech/automation to eliminate jobs especially unskilled work...
I suppose if it works as designed, it would cut down on shoplifting.
Of course if they tried it here, the cries of “Racism!” would be non-stop.
We have similar stores with Amazon in USA. Supposedly, you do not need to check out items at all.
It’s been that way since 1760.
Hmmmmmmmmmm
What about looters ???
What happens to the rioter who runs out of the store with that huge TV or those expensive shoes ???
they have a way of dealing with shoplifters over there...
Here’s a possible improvement for the system: it can charge the credit cards of only ONE race, while letting another race walk out without paying.
They should try this in San Francisco. They already have a law that allows shoppers to grab things and walk out. This would improve matters for them - they would be able to put their things in a bag, making it easier for them to carry them out. Much more dignified than stuffing $950 worth of cosmetics into a trash bag.
Self-checkout probably works better in a country where if you shoplift more than $950.00 worth of stuff, you don’t get a slap on the wrist, you get an ax to the wrist...
Bet they still hide the pork products in a separate, “unclean” section.
apparently, their systems scan your items when you take them off the shelf and put in your shopping cart.
We have self checkout now, but you have to go scan all of your items at a terminal. Apparently they have solved that problem.
Since you need the app to enter the store, I’m thinking these places would be membership stores, similar to Costco or Sam’s Club.
I seem to remember that when scanning was first touted for shoppers that you were supposed to able to load your cart and pass it through the scanners which automatically detected everything in the cart and rang up your bill.
Now in many stores we have to scan our own merchandise in a laborious process eliminating the jobs of the cashiers who could do it faster. What ever happened to the automatic scanners that were predicted?
RE: San Francisco stores letting criminals walk out with large trash bags of goods if under $950 a trip....
I heard San Francisco stores now give out large bags with advertisements and large store logos. May as well get some advertising benefit out of the incidents.
People on the sidewalks watching them get into luxury cars to get away will notice the place they shopped.
The issues with any app is that once they are on your phone they can track you, monitor your voice and video and other communications, send (sell) that information to anyone all over the world (governments, organized crime etc).
Nothing to see here....
Like Amazon Prime members?!
Our walmart went automated a while back. They have 1 or 2 cashiers and the rest of the checkouts are SELF checkouts. If I don’t have the energy to check myself out (health issues), I just don’t shop there. I will/can only stand in a line for so long, if it takes too long I leave. I worked as a cashier at one time so self checkout works for me, when I can. I prefer it over the dim bulbs who work in my store.
Yep. Severed limbs has a better impact on theft than electronic measures.
True dat!
They’ve been tested. I remember an article about Kroger with scanning tunnels but the tech isn’t there yet. We’re starting to see self checkout with a manned register style conveyor belt bagging area here in Georgia. From an article last year, Walmart has this reportedly disastrous AI camera system that’s supposed to catch theft but all it probably does is give a birds eye view of register activity.
None of this is new lots of grocery stores has self check out and have had for a while.
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