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San Francisco Gets Its First Cashierless Store (cnbc.com) 94

Posted by BeauHD from the automated-experiences dept.
Last Week, San Francisco got its first completely automated cashierless store, called Standard Market. The store requires users to download their app before they can enter the 1,900-square-foot building. Once they do that, they can enter the store, grab the items they need, and walk out -- all without ever interacting with a cashier. The 27 cameras positioned on the ceiling are supposedly able to identify which items shoppers walk out with. CNBC reports: The start-up behind this operation is Standard Cognition, which has raised $11.2 million in venture capital and formed partnerships with four retail chains around the world. This first market is a prototype to showcase the technology and work on the bugs. The ambitious goal is to add the tech in 100 stores a day (each day!) by 2020. Five of the seven founders came from the Securities and Exchange Commission, where they built artificial intelligence software to detect fraud and trade violations, before starting Standard Cognition in 2017. Now these fraud experts are working to discern something equally complicated: whether I am stealing a snack. The store is very similar to Amazon's cashierless Go market, but differs in that it relies exclusively on the ceiling cameras and AI software to figure out what you're buying. "The goal is to predict, and prevent, shoplifting, because unlike Amazon's Go stores, which have a subway turnstile-like gate for entry and exit, Standard Market has an open door, and the path is clear," reports CNBC. "Once the system decides it has detected potential theft behavior, a store attendant will get a text and walk over for 'a polite conversation,' Standard Cognition's co-founder and chief operating officer, Michael Suswal, said."
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San Francisco Gets Its First Cashierless Store More

San Francisco Gets Its First Cashierless Store

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  • But I have a security idea: when the system detects a possible robbery, it will blare The Star-Spangled Banner over the sound system. As the gang takes a knee, the store attendant can invoke 911.

    • Will this stop exiting shoppers who have "sampled" fresh produce? Will the attendant make the grazing shopper pay for that grape? Now that they've told us the cameras monitor changes in gaze and gait for could not someone practice theft techniques - to perfect a theft without altering known behaviors? Do people from different cultures exhibit different bodily movements when preparing to commit a theft? But, no cash in the store no cash robberies.
      • Since you apparently need an app to get it, I'm guessing that they already have your credit card on file and just bill you for it. The cameras are going to have a record of it as well.

        Of course that doesn't stop someone from stealing a phone and using it to gain entry. I'd like to think that someone thought of that possibility and there's already a system in place to handle this, but I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't either.

        • Of course that doesn't stop someone from stealing a phone and using it to gain entry.

          If you steal a phone, why would you go to where the phone is identified while your face is recorded by 27 cameras?

          Even thieves aren't that stupid.

          • :LOL: Wanna bet?

          • That presumes the cops can be bothered to get off their backsides and go do anything about it... which they don't... and the thieves know it.

            Otherwise, who in their right mind would steal a radio transmitter equipped with GPS that can be activated remotely with "Find my iPhone", or the android equivalent, in the first place?

            • who in their right mind would steal a radio transmitter equipped with GPS that can be activated remotely with "Find my iPhone", or the android equivalent, in the first place?

              Someone who knows how to operate an "off" switch.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Given that they're apparently training their AI on the fly, even the most clumsy, nervous, blatant shoplifters that any $8/hr mall cop would see coming from a mile away should have a pretty decent success rate, let alone experienced thieves.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jtgd ( 807477 )
        I think they charge you for the apple once you pick it up. If you want to eat it in the store, no problem.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by glitch! ( 57276 )

      I agree. There was an electronics store that had a security guy at the exit demanding... something. I just told him to piss off. But for some reason, I put up with Sam's club exit checkers. Is this hypocritical?

      • I agree. There was an electronics store that had a security guy at the exit demanding... something. I just told him to piss off. But for some reason, I put up with Sam's club exit checkers. Is this hypocritical?

        No since you probably signed contract when getting you membership that said that required to let them check you on the way out in exchange for shopping there. While best buy or whoever has no such stipulation and just try to any way.

        • I agree. There was an electronics store that had a security guy at the exit demanding... something. I just told him to piss off. But for some reason, I put up with Sam's club exit checkers. Is this hypocritical?

          No since you probably signed contract when getting you membership that said that required to let them check you on the way out in exchange for shopping there. While best buy or whoever has no such stipulation and just try to any way.

          Probably Fry's. Though the Grocery Outlet I used to live near has instituted a receipt checker near the doorway because they have so many problems with theft. Fires have left a lot of people needy and nobody wants to help them. Unfortunately they have hired one of their dumbest employees to do the receipt-checking, so even though I've been shopping there for a decade and regularly filling the cart the girl asked to see my receipt when I went to go get my $1.60 bag of ice to go with my $100 cart of groceries

  • The problem... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 )

    The problem isn't one shoplifter. It's a mob of 20 or 25 walking in behind a shopper, cleaning the place out, and running out.

    Not that I consider this a problem -- anything that destroys the profit margins of cashless/anti-privacy businesses is a good thing in my book. Bring on the flashmobs!

  • âSan Francisco Gets Its First Cashierless Store"

    First, eh. Texas has had cashierless stores for a hundred years. We call them "vending machines".

  • Americans dislike each other so much that they don't even want to talk to a cashier at a store. Sad.

    • The cashier is too busy texting to respond to customers anyway.

    • It's not the talking to the cashier that I don't like. It's the waiting in line to get to the cashier in the first place... especially since so many stores cheap out and staff an inadequate number of cashiers these days... that I hate with a burning passion. Frankly, I'd take any of the solutions: enough cashiers to handle the customers in a timely manner, self-checkouts that aren't flakey as hell with scales that are out-of-calibration and always need an override, or totally cashier-less stores.

      • It's not the talking to the cashier that I don't like. It's the waiting in line to get to the cashier in the first place... especially since so many stores cheap out and staff an inadequate number of cashiers these days... that I hate with a burning passion. Frankly, I'd take any of the solutions: enough cashiers to handle the customers in a timely manner, self-checkouts that aren't flakey as hell with scales that are out-of-calibration and always need an override, or totally cashier-less stores.

        Wal-marts self checks have gotten worse with time. It used to work fairly well never had any problems. But then they updated to what looks like a shitty electron app and it has been buggy as hell since. I swear user interfaces peaked 8 to 10 years ago and have gotten worse ever since.

      • It's not the talking to the cashier that I don't like. It's the waiting in line to get to the cashier in the first place... especially since so many stores cheap out and staff an inadequate number of cashiers these days...

        They also just hire inadequate cashiers. Most cashiers are terrible at their jobs, because they don't want to pay anyone what they're worth so people with a clue and a job go find a better job. That's why I use self checkout at e.g. Slaveway — I can check out faster than the cashier, even if I have a few produce items. Of course, I try not to shop at places like that, but the truth is that I rarely see a competent cashier in any grocery store any more, and in precious few other places as well.

    • No, it's just you...

  • Robotic pooper scooper (Score:3)

    by rfengr ( 910026 ) on Friday September 14, 2018 @10:28PM (#57317660)
    Does it have a robot to clean up after the vagrants shit on the floor?
  • I came up with a system 10 years ago that does this and guarantee there is no theft without the cameras. Test it several times and it worked perfectly. Unfortunately it was a head of its time and was a hard sell.

  • a store attendant will get a text and walk over for 'a polite conversation

    That's great, but how fast can they RUN?

  • I just can't wait for the day when I can no longer buy food without a working, charged smartphone with a corporate grocery app installed. [/sarcasm]

  • Market between 6th and 7th? Yeah. Good luck with that, guys.

  • The turnstile was technically unnecessary since thieves would just hop it anyway. Presumably a stolen phone wouldn't help much since it'd be locked and you'd need to unlock it and go into the app, and the phone you're about to steal might not have the app installed.
    I'm skeptical the attendant will be of any use, since there's already a standard technique for dealing with that: have an accomplice tie them up with customer service questions.
    I'm really wondering what happens if you pick something up and hand i

  • Or I shall be forced to take your picture again.

    (again)

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