With the help of developed technology, our grocery shopping is getting more convenient and speedier. A lot of companies are in a process of making AI-powered shopping carts which would eventually remove the checkout lines. This smart shopping cart is built with scanning hardware as well as the payment system where you could solve both things at once: lets you scan your item as you shop and pay before you leave. In addition to these features, the smart shopping cart also has a touchscreen in which you could see the map of the store and other relevant promotions or deals. According to the article, many companies are trying to build a weight sensor and image recognition cameras on the shopping cart. By doing so, customers could pay by the pound for an item. The advantage of this smart shopping cart would be the store will need fewer cashiers as well as workers since payments and guidance would be solved.
However, the disadvantages that they face were the fact that they’re expensive to operate and implement in any store around us. Since the store has to have hundreds of cameras in the ceiling to track and identify which items you’ve taken out and are removed, it would cost fairly amount of money. Also, other questions that are raised are about the customers’ privacy and the impact on jobs, unemployment.
Thinking about this technology, I personally think it is a very smart idea. I think this technology would be very helpful during the holidays such as Thanksgiving or Christmas because, in those days, it takes forever to wait in line. But by having a smart shopping cart, customers would be able to purchase things on the spot which will reduce the checkout lines. However, thinking of self-checkout technology that we have today, and how it gets easily stuck and needs worker’s help, I think the smart shopping cart could also face difficulties and problems to deal with.
Sources:
https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/11/caper-smart-shopping-cart/
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/10/18177020/caper-labs-smart-shopping-cart-image-recognition-weight-sensor
I am a big fan of this technology. I always dread the extra half hour it takes to checkout when I am finished picking up my groceries. In class, we talked about how this type of technology will reduce jobs in these stores. However, in places like the Walmart in State College, where they never have more than 1 register open at a time, this technology would be extremely helpful! During move-in time, everyone hears the horror stories of waiting hours to checkout. Furthermore, I believe that cashiers will never be completely gone because we ALREADY have self-checkout at stores to eliminate some waiting time for customers. By continuing product limits for these features, cashiers will still be in demand. The CNN article reference below states that the cashier role could even move towards a more customer service type position by walking through the store to talk with customers (McFarland 2019).
Overall, we already have the technology and is being implemented across the country (AmazonGo or Smart carts). While the technology is very efficient for the customers, I do believe that it is only necessary in BIG cities with a lot of “traffic.” If more companies invest in the smart cart technology to become more easily available, I look forward to trying it for myself!
Reference: https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/23/tech/smart-shopping-cart/index.html
I think this is a very interesting and innovated invention, Personally, I go to grocery shopping quite often. Waiting in the line for check out is definitely something I don’t enjoy the most. Moreover, some grocery’s layout can be very confusing. If you are not familiar with the grocery store, you can be easily going back and forth just to find one item. With this technique, it will not only save consumer so much energy but also time. On the other hand, it can save the company a lot of money on paying their staff also reducing the chance people shoplifting since there will be camera everywhere in the store.
The only concern I have is that since this technology is allowing consumers to do all the procedures on themselves. Is it going to decrease employment rate? From a consumer’s perspective, this technology is definitely going to make shopping more efficient. However, if every grocery store is going to apply this technology, what happen to those people who work there now?
Source: https://www.pymnts.com/news/merchant-innovation/2019/smart-carts-grocery-store-shopping/
I agree that this technology is innovative and helpful, but also problematic in some respects. The biggest problem this technology would bring is job loss. The cost problems that come with this technology would certainly bring layoffs in order to afford the implementation of the technology. We are already seeing a modified version of this self checkout technology in stores across the country, including here in State College. Walmart, Weiss, and Giant all have a self checkout section, along with someone at the exit who checks to assure your receipt aligns with the items you are leaving with. As time goes on, these self checkout methods will likely expand to this shopping cart technology, eliminating thousands of jobs.
I think that a smart shopping cart with be a wonderful idea for the convenience of the shopper, but I can see many issues that could rise up from this idea. It will take out the need to go through a line to pay for your items, thus getting rid of a cashier position. The issue here is these shopping carts would take away jobs and make the unemployment rate rise even higher because our stores have become too advanced for workers. I can also see how it could open up new jobs for engineers to build and fix carts, but what will happen to the people who do not have degrees or the money to obtain a degree? Besides the fact that it could increase unemployment among the lower class, I think this idea would be wonderful and make shopping very convenient for the consumer. It seems a little too expensive and out of the realm of possibilities for how stores are now, but I could see this becoming an advanced way of shopping to arrive in the future.
I love this idea of having a convenient shopping experience. But considering the money of applying to each one of the shopping carts, it limits the idea. I think nowadays, the self-checkout works pretty well that there are many machines, and the line is quick except holiday seasons. So this technology will only be super helpful when there are way too many people. Compare to the expense of this, I don’t think this is that necessary, but such concepts can apply to other areas where the waiting process is complained much more.
I think this could be a wonderful piece of technology if used well. The lines are always long at my grocery store at home, and this would make it much more easy and quicker than anything today. In terms of the reliability of the tech, it can be researched and refined so that it can become more reliable. Like most technology, it should become cheaper and more sophisticated over time, and we might eventually see the widespread use of this tech.