Tech News - Walmart and Amazon Go Getting Rid of Human Labor in Favor of Automation
Well folks, I have to say this news has been expected for some time. The pace and speed of disruption and displacement is shocking to say the least. There's a large chance that humanity is in for a big surprise in the coming years. According to a recent article published by Business Insider, the corporate giant, Walmart is currently in the process of developing a store with no cashiers. This is their ideal store of the future further reducing costs in an effort to maintain their role as the number one low-cost leader of merchandise in the United States.
According to reports it can be compared to Amazon's Amazon Go store and Walmart's secret Code Eight team is in charge of its design and implementation.
The Code Eight team is a part of their Store No. 8 tech incubator.
Are we being led to believe that this is going to be the future of shopping? If that is the case then I think we may as well start showing retailers that we disapprove by boycotting their stores.
According to Walmart, they have a new vision for the store, called Project Kepler. Not much is known yet but apparently, there is talk of using advanced features like "computer vision" to track and charge for purchases without the use of a traditional cashier. The eye in the sky so to speak.
Sketches of the idea make the concept looking extremely similar to Amazon's Amazon Go store, which uses tracking cameras and machine learning software to charge customers for things they take off the shelf. Although Amazon is in the lead regarding this effort, they may soon find Walmart is not far behind.
Of course, this is all just speculation at this point and can't be verified because unsurprisingly, Walmart did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Generally, these types of stories have the possibility of angering customers and people in general. Who likes to hear about greedy corporations further cutting costs and taking the human race out of the equation, unless you're a customer.
What other stores do you expect to be fully automated in the coming decade? Do you think that Walmart will be successful in automating their stores? What does this mean for the future of retail shopping?
Please leave your thoughts and comments below!
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Source:
Walmart is reportedly developing a store of the future with no cashiers - Business Insider
Image Source:
Forbes
Wired
Disapproving of these changes is like disapproving of road construction equipment because it puts people with shovels out of work (which of course it did). Automation IS the future and businesses will always find new ways to innovate, lower costs, and increase productivity as they must to survive. The bad news of course is that it puts some people out of work and makes certain jobs obsolete (and artificially increasing minimum wage will only accelerate this process). However, the good news is that new jobs are created in new industries.
This sort of cost cutting is crucial for businesses to stay in business. Walmart is doing it because Amazon is doing it and other large retailers will follow. Those that fail to keep up go out of business (Kmart and Sears come to mind). As long as there is competition this will be good news for consumers because it will lower prices.
I'm more concerned about the data collection of the customers than about the automation in this process.
I don't need all products I bought stored in a database connected with my unique identifier.
That largely happens anyway if you use buy online, use a credit card or use a rewards card. I suppose if you buy everything with cash you can largely avoid that but otherwise, it is already happening.
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