Metropol

Amazon Fresh's latest store will be in Holborn. Still nothing for South London or anywhere else outside the capital.

I'm surprised it's taken Amazon this long to open a store in Central London. Chingford and East Sheen are getting stores as well, East Sheen is South West London so it's the first Fresh Store south of the river, I might pop in as I can get a bus there.

Just walked past the closed Sainsbury's opposite their HQ and it's going to imminently open as their own walk in/walk out store, only about a minute's walk from Tesco's own (which still has about 5 staff members outside it helping people sign up). Looks like it will be using the SmartShop app.

This was the branch that was in that Sainsbury's documentary as a trial store where you could only use their app to scan and pay. But then everyone ended up using the secret till they didn't want people to use instead and the queues were huge.

gottago wrote: Tue 16 Nov, 2021 13.09 Just walked past the closed Sainsbury's opposite their HQ and it's going to imminently open as their own walk in/walk out store, only about a minute's walk from Tesco's own (which still has about 5 staff members outside it helping people sign up). Looks like it will be using the SmartShop app.

This was the branch that was in that Sainsbury's documentary as a trial store where you could only use their app to scan and pay. But then everyone ended up using the secret till they didn't want people to use instead and the queues were huge.

They're using Amazon Fresh tech to power their checkout free store.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ce=Twitter#

Do we think this ‘just walk out’ setup is the future? It feels to me a little like CFL lightbulbs. Sold as being the future but probably not what ends up being used. I’d love to see the findings from the trials we’ve already seen.

What technology exists that could scan the contents of your trolley all at once? Be it small chips, or just some way of sensing what’s in it. This is where I think we’ll end up. Wheel your trolley through a sensor and pay. Simple enough for everyone to use, but eradicates queues almost instantly and reduces the need for checkout staff.

all new Phil wrote: Tue 16 Nov, 2021 19.06 Do we think this ‘just walk out’ setup is the future? It feels to me a little like CFL lightbulbs. Sold as being the future but probably not what ends up being used. I’d love to see the findings from the trials we’ve already seen.

What technology exists that could scan the contents of your trolley all at once? Be it small chips, or just some way of sensing what’s in it. This is where I think we’ll end up. Wheel your trolley through a sensor and pay. Simple enough for everyone to use, but eradicates queues almost instantly and reduces the need for checkout staff.

I seem to remember someone on here around a decade ago posting about how 'in a few years time' everything would have an RFID tag on it so that it could all be scanned instantly and to reduce shoplifting!

Whilst that obviously hasn't happened, Uniqlo's self-service tills do exactly this - all the tags on the clothes have an RFID bit so when you drop them in the bay by the self-service it 'scans' everything in about a second and you can then go straight through to payment.

all new Phil wrote: Tue 16 Nov, 2021 19.06Do we think this ‘just walk out’ setup is the future? It feels to me a little like CFL lightbulbs. Sold as being the future but probably not what ends up being used.

I feel the same. I've given it a go at the Canary Wharf store, and found it a bit unpleasant. It's just the wrong side of the 'creepy line' for me: the tiny added convenience (versus a scan-as-you-go approach) doesn't seem sufficient benefit for giving your ID at the door then having every move tracked throughout the shop.

So we now appear to be on the third generations of scan as you shop guns.

My tesco, having had them first, held onto the motorola first gen devices with a 2D barcode scanner until about two weeks ago when they were upgraded to the third gen. (Second gen had a 3D scanner and were quicker but had the same UI).

Interestingly the new ones have a UI very similar to the new self checkout software with the same icons and colour scheme. They also show the long names of products and the little photo of it on the screen as well as totting up the clubcard price total against the normal total.

According to a girl on tiktok who works for Tesco, the newer software "Tesco Touch" has been developed in-house rather than being a rebranded/tweaked version of the NCR Fastlane firmware.

Pete wrote: Sat 20 Nov, 2021 16.13 So we now appear to be on the third generations of scan as you shop guns.

My tesco, having had them first, held onto the motorola first gen devices with a 2D barcode scanner until about two weeks ago when they were upgraded to the third gen. (Second gen had a 3D scanner and were quicker but had the same UI).

Interestingly the new ones have a UI very similar to the new self checkout software with the same icons and colour scheme. They also show the long names of products and the little photo of it on the screen as well as totting up the clubcard price total against the normal total.

According to a girl on tiktok who works for Tesco, the newer software "Tesco Touch" has been developed in-house rather than being a rebranded/tweaked version of the NCR Fastlane firmware.

Are they the Android-based ones? They're the ones I've used most recently in M&S and Asda, though the Asda one seemed to occasionally fail to beep on scanning. Altering the quantity wasn't too difficult though.

Critique wrote: Tue 16 Nov, 2021 19.50

all new Phil wrote: Tue 16 Nov, 2021 19.06 Do we think this ‘just walk out’ setup is the future? It feels to me a little like CFL lightbulbs. Sold as being the future but probably not what ends up being used. I’d love to see the findings from the trials we’ve already seen.

What technology exists that could scan the contents of your trolley all at once? Be it small chips, or just some way of sensing what’s in it. This is where I think we’ll end up. Wheel your trolley through a sensor and pay. Simple enough for everyone to use, but eradicates queues almost instantly and reduces the need for checkout staff.

I seem to remember someone on here around a decade ago posting about how 'in a few years time' everything would have an RFID tag on it so that it could all be scanned instantly and to reduce shoplifting!

Whilst that obviously hasn't happened, Uniqlo's self-service tills do exactly this - all the tags on the clothes have an RFID bit so when you drop them in the bay by the self-service it 'scans' everything in about a second and you can then go straight through to payment.

Decathlon also have a similar RFID based system. Each article also has an individual serial number encoded to it.

I suspect the reason why RFID is not so ubiquitous in Tesco is the cost of tags, integration requirements for each supplier, and the diverse range of suppliers. It wouldn't make sense for say Coca-Cola to have several different lines for individual retailers because they all have a different method on their RFID labels.

Uniqlo and Decatchlon have their own set of ready-made articles especially for them and is a 'closed' system, all their tags can be programmed for the format needed at the factory for the RFID reader instore/across the supply chain.

Maybe I'm wrong and there is a ubiquitous RFID format that will work between different retailers' systems.

The other system I have seem is all very Amazon- cameras in every inch of the store, scan the app to get in and out, and no doubt costs a lot of money, both for the hardware, software and support. I'm sure there will be a tipping point where it becomes all affordable.

bilky asko wrote: Sat 20 Nov, 2021 20.52Are they the Android-based ones? They're the ones I've used most recently in M&S and Asda, though the Asda one seemed to occasionally fail to beep on scanning. Altering the quantity wasn't too difficult though.

The ones at asda are garbage. They're the same hardware as the second gen Tesco ones but not sure if they're android internally. The first gen were Windows CE. I defo had one once that kept rebooting to a Windows desktop but I can't remember which branch that was in.

The new ones are made by some no-name company rather than Motorola who made the first ones. Lizard or Dinosaur or something like that. I'll get a photo next time I'm in.


On a related (tech) note, the new owners of Asda are bringing in a big tech team to decouple them from Walmart's systems. So perhaps we'll finally see something approaching a modern checkout in Asda soon.