Amazon Says It Won't Replace Whole Foods Cashiers With Computers... Yet (cnbc.com) 109
An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon said it has no current plans to automate the jobs of cashiers in Whole Foods stores after it finishes acquiring the grocery chain. It also isn't planning any layoffs, according to a spokesperson. There is some speculation, however, that Amazon may change its plans and use new technology inside of Whole Foods locations. Commenting on Amazon's announcement from earlier today, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said, "Only one company on earth can buy grocery chain, be rumored to buy enterprise software company & in both cases be lauded for strategic vision."
Yeah sure they won't (Score:1)
Whole Foods may be pricey (which is why I only buy a few things there I can't find anywhere else; who does all their shopping in one store?), but Amazon will be making a mistake if they turn it into Just Another Grocery Store. There are aspects to Whole Foods that distinguishes it from other grocery s
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What kind of insane PE ratio did they pay for 'Whole Paycheck'?
Their 'chump list' is worth a fortune, but still?
Re:Yeah sure they won't (Score:5, Funny)
When I saw the headline that Amazon spent $13.4 billion on Whole Foods, I just assumed that they bought a large guacamole, two fruit cups and a dozen eggs.
Re:Yeah sure they won't (Score:5, Funny)
Bezos: Alexa, buy me olives from Whole Foods.
Alexa: Sure, buying all of Whole Foods.
Bezos: Shit.
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It just points out what we right wingers have been saying for ages: institutional left wingers are nothing but elitists.
You're saying that as if it were a bad thing?
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Yes, "stuff that others don't have" like old world coffee is why I go to Whole Foods, Fresh Market and similar stores.
For regular groceries, they are much worse than regular supermarkets, both for price and quality. Staples like bread, milk and produce tends to be truly old compared to bigger stores with faster churn. And their meat and fish departments are staffed with people who have no idea what they're doing, and couldn't butcher a carcass or filet a fish without cutting bones if their life depended o
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You can make a bong out of anything.
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Self-checkouts are improving rapidly. You might want to try again. Where I get my groceries, self-checkout is always faster. There are 4 self checkouts, usually with no wait, and 1 or 2 staffed checkouts with a few people in line, who I assume are either luddites or are buying booze and cigarettes.
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It's even worse in my area. The main grocery chain here (Safeway) started charging for grocery bags a few years back. So, not appreciating being nickel-and-dimed to death, most people (inluding myself) now bring reusable cloth bags (Which, to be fair, are also more environmentally friendly and all that... yay.). But it's totally bulloxed up the self-checkouts even more. When they could rely on customers mostly using the free store-provided bags, they could at least rely on the bags all having the same w
Nana...? Is That You...? (Score:2)
>>Buying groceries is one of the few things I prefer human interaction on.
Why? Human interaction on the grocery line?? My grandmother liked human interaction on the grocery line, but she was old and doddering, so we all kind of understood. My daughter was a cashier at a grocery store for one summer. People like you who try to strike up some human interaction scared the daylights out of her. I bought her a pepper spray canister, to keep in her apron. It made her feel safer.
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I bought her a pepper spray canister, to keep in her apron. It made her feel safer.
A part of me looks forward to the day when the cashier, required by management to say "How are you!" (exclamation point, not question mark, they don't care) gets pepper-sprayed by customer who doesn't want human interaction, and then the bag-boy (I'm in the south, we have them, not always boys, not always quite human) has to pepper spray back.
This would be only slightly more lively than the whole "Happy Holidays" brouhaha,
Why not? (Score:4, Insightful)
With a 15$/hour minimum wage, they will probably change their minds.
What's the purpose of this acquistion? (Score:3)
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'Whole Foods' knows who the people dumb enough to shop at 'Whole Foods' are!
Think about that for a second. There's only one explanation: Amazon is going into the Cherokee Hair Tampon business.
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had...until they went to WF.
What matters is the money you keep. Shopping at whole foods is like buying $350 pre distressed bluegenes. Sure some people do it because they don't care about $350, the other 99% are trying desperately to be mistaken for those that don't care about $350.
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had...until they went to WF.
What matters is the money you keep. Shopping at whole foods is like buying $350 pre distressed bluegenes. Sure some people do it because they don't care about $350, the other 99% are trying desperately to be mistaken for those that don't care about $350.
What about the people who care about $350 but don't wear blue jeans?
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Air Buds [wikipedia.org]?
DRONES (Score:2)
President Bezos's secretary of Agriculture will mandate daily drone delivery of fresh broccoli to every American. Grandmas will be crushed under mountains of uneaten broccoli.
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Who knows, but it makes sense. Amazon has been interested in having brick and mortar stores for a while. And they are also interested in grocery delivery.
I see two angles:
-use the Whole Foods network to serve as relay point for their regular deliveries
-add a food delivery department to Whole Foods
Re:What's the purpose of this acquistion? (Score:5, Insightful)
Whole Foods is all hippy-dippy Earth loving stuff I thought. What would Amazon want with that? It's like Walmart buying out an Amish quilter and saying they have no plans for a factory. No duh! They can't go high-tech, it would defeat the purpose of why it was successful in the first place.
Brick and Mortar locations with decent brand recognition (and, among their target customers it's a well liked brand) in high-income areas with a lot of cross-over with their existing customer base (You think hippy-dippy upper-middle class buyers don't also use Amazon?) They can also use these locations and their existing back-end to expand their grocery delivery business and get real experience in retail.
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Whole foods has a pretty incredible IT department, they have oodles of data back to at least the late 90s on every customer, purchase, and analysis of purchasing habits etc etc. They're a very big customer of Oracle's. It's hard if not impossible to buy that kind of dataset, and if you intend to move in to, own and dominate brick and mortar retail, you need decades of consumer data from many regions. Also they get access to a massive distribution network and long standing vendor relationships. Total slam du
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Like I said upthread: The chump list...
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Whole Foods is all hippy-dippy Earth loving stuff I thought.
It thought that was Trader Joe's. "Whole Paycheck" is for snobs and hipsters who think that they have gluten sensitivity.
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They found out there was money in the banana stand [slashdot.org]. So they bought a bigger banana stand.
well in some sates self checkout does not wic /ebt (Score:3)
well in some sates self checkout does not take wic / ebt
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They'll replace cashiers with Echo Dots (Score:3, Insightful)
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Tattoos are ugly. Yes all of them. But I guess it's no worse than hiring ugly cashiers. It's not like every cashier at whole foods is a hot girl. Although if I were in charge they would be. Obviously robot babe cashiers would be better than human ones though.
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Lots of managers seem to favor hot girls. Actually I suspect that all heterosexual male humans who hire people choose the beautiful girls first. It's just human nature to favor what is beautiful. Of course I think robots can be beautiful too. [youtube.com]
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Echos are more productive, complain less, and don't show up to work with tattoos
...yet.
Alexa tie-in (Score:2)
"Alexa, add Beyond Burgers to my Whole Foods pickup box. Alexa, add Fabainaise Classic 32 ounce to my Whole Foods pickup box. Alexa, add Field Roast Herb Chao slices to my Whole Foods pickup box. Alexa, schedule my Whole Foods pickup for Saturday morning."
Bezos (Score:2)
Exactly the kind of psychopath I want involved in my food supply.
part of the attraction of shopping at Whole Foods (Score:3)
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If anything you'll be seen more, after Amazon installs more surveillance to datamine shoppers.
Not to mention the automatic updates of your visits they'll post to your social media after hijacking your in-store internet traffic.
Standard Acquisition process: (Score:4, Insightful)
Step 1: Assure all employees of both the acquired and the parent company that their job is safe.
Step 2: Assure the public that it is business as usual.
Step 3: https://hardware.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org] all your employees in potentially redundant areas fill out "Skill matrix" or other bullshit evaluations
Step 4: Make a shocking, totally unexpected, totally unpredictable move to lay off redundancies to the point where you can't properly function
Step 5: Bring in inexpensive contractors/scabs to bring the business back up to minimal function as you ring money out of the asset at peak efficiency.
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But it does make you wonder why they chose hardware.slashdot.org for this story.
First business, (Score:3)
block customer from checking competitors' price online.
I for one welcome our new self-checkout overlords. (Score:3)
Please place the item into the bag.
Please place the item into the bag, YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS TO COMPLY!
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Please place the item into the bag.
at the WF near me, you don't need to use a self checkout machine to get this interaction (minus the Robocop bit). There are signs up saying something about "don't make our employees put things in bags for you to save them from repetitive stress injuries". And the employees give you the evil eye if you don't Comply Immediately With the Sign. So, you get to pay more for your food while getting less service.
Of course they'll be layoffs (Score:2)
Automation will come later, but it'll come. Probably not the checkout. If you're spending twice as much on groceries you're probably expecting somebody to check you out. Unless they implement some kind of grab and go system (or just close the storefronts entirely in favor of delivery).
So...how will they replace Whole Foods customers (Score:2)
I could sometimes stomach Whole Foods when they were their own entity, but I'm not interested in my grocery dollars going into Amazon's pocket. Even more so, I'll go out of my way to frequent local specialty markets. I imagine many Whole Foods shoppers being turned off by Amazon's involvement. If the demographics shift they will not be able to maintain the current standards.
I'm a little surprised investors seem to think this is such a great idea. It will be sad if they ruin a good business that a lot of peo
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Whole Amazon (Score:1)
So this will be the Whole of Amazon?
Computs will never replace... (Score:2)
white kids with dreadlocks.
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Costco has ... (Score:2)
No plans - right! (Score:2)
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If they'll eliminate it to save $15/hr, they'll eliminate it to save $5/hr
Keep begging your masters. Maybe if you agree to work for $2/hr (and say pretty please with a cherry on top) they'll keep you on.
Now about those tax cuts...
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You can't eliminate a position to save $15/hr unless that position is useless and the person there is a welfare case. You have to replace the technology with less-expensive technology and reduce labor hours that way.
Let's say the total labor involvement to design, build, maintain, fuel, and operate a machine over its entire lifetime is equivalent to having $9/hr employees provide the replaced business activities. That is to say: the wage time invested, total, across that machine's entire existence, is
self check-out makeHarder To Prosecute Shoplifting (Score:2)
self check-out makes Harder To Prosecute Shoplifting even more so with some kind of no scan self checkout system.