Pardon me if this question is stupid; I am not a native speaker and perhaps I am oblivious to certain nuances of English. That said, didn't the author mean this piece to be titled “Google launches the ultimate <i>job</i> killer?” Singular <i>job</i>?
This is supposed to be the dream behind RFID. Smart shelves know when they're under stocked. They can even tell if cart is in range to display ads. They can tell if you remove product A, eyeball it, put it back and get product B. They can track your cart's RFID chip throughout the store to make a heatmap on a per-store basis. Better yet, after a while they can make a heatmap for you, or more importantly <insert demographic>. Then you checkout and it ties that cart to your name and probably other info.<p>Checkout is the friction point this guy is focused on and probably will be how RFID is sold to consumers, but the real money in RFID is selling customer info to marketers.
With these sorts of things, I think people often lose sight of how cheap human workers can be. Automating a unionized factory, where the workers get a good salary and benefits, saves a lot of money. Automating away a $8/hr job by a system whose savings is lost as soon as someone takes advantage of it and steals a toothbrush, I'm not as sure.<p>Some fancy cart that has a built in scale and scanning mechanism to work as the self-checkout lanes do would help somewhat with theft issues, but would also be expensive, prone to breakage, etc. Why not just get a teenager or other low wage worker. Sadly, we have plenty of the latter.
The discussion about technology replacing jobs is worthwhile, but why does the premise need to be based on such a negative attitude towards food and grocery stores? The argument really loses it's effectiveness when it's based on a whiny attitude.<p>Personally I enjoy going grocery shopping, especially when a trip to a farmer's market is involved. However, I can see how it's a turn off to deal with food when your eating habits consist of frozen pizza and chips.
Self-service check outs did not catch on [<a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/09/26/supermarkets_start_bagging_self_serve_checkouts/?p1=News_links" rel="nofollow">http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/09/26/superm...</a>]. I don't see how using your own phone would make it any better for the avg. consumer.
My thoughts...<p>Supermarket clerk is hardly an ultimate job.<p>Tediousness of checkout is as much a psychological issue as a real one. I rarely spend more than a fraction of the time checking out as actually selecting the groceries I want.<p>Produce usually doesn't have a barcode, especially anything sold by weight. Bakery items often have no barcode either.<p>The problem of trying to buy an entire week's worth of groceries for a whole family in one shot isn't addressed at all by google wallet. It sounds like this guy should look into some sort of service that delivers groceries to his door. (Which could create jobs, incidentally)
I understand that progress is needed, and while I tend not to think of myself as a Luddite, this rekindles a thought I had about how automation/tech is replacing people. That question is since a lot of people have been replaced and a lot more people will be replaced, what low skilled jobs will be left for people in the near to long term?<p>Teenagers at the very least have not yet even had the time to be in the job market to acquire advanced skills. Will advances like this completely solidify the new life stage called 'adultolescence" while at the same time change the experience of what we now call adolescence?
My parents' local supermarket already has a version of 'scan as you place in the cart.' This works ok for small trips, but two-cart food sprees are much better handled by the folks in the green smocks behind the cash registers.
Is the US that far behind the UK in retail grocery?<p>A UK supermarket did scan-as-you-pack maybe 15 years ago. They've since been bought out and that option no longer exists, but it's hardly revolutionary or something that's only just becoming possible thanks to Google Wallet.<p>What seems bigger though is the next step possibility. SAYP allows you to save on headcount at the tills alone (and even then not by much as you still need some form of check-out procedure to manage the exit handover), which is hardly where the majority of the staff load comes. No; surely the bigger retailer benefit comes from moving away from these huge edge-of-town barns altogether?<p>If I signed up with Tesco Clubcard, they'll already populate an online shopping basket with a regular shopping load that's typical of my purchasing habits, automatically, and deliver that to my door. (I mention Tesco because I know this from others, not that no rivals exist). Ocado operate as an online-only grocery business with picking and packing systems as sophisticated as any to ensure speedy delivery of intact groceries without packing cases of mineral water on top of soft fruit.<p>What the author is describing is frankly a primitive system. Go the whole hog, be the grocery Amazon. Eliminate the need to have a retail barn that's kept attractive, temperature controlled and has a small army constantly stocking shelves. Eliminate the need for each town to have so many large presences per retailer with a constant feed of large trucks keeping them stocked and operate primarily out of regional distribution hubs. <i>Then</i> you'll see the real retailer cost savings.
I believe Google sending you an email asking..<p><pre><code> Can Google Wallet schedule your weekly/monthly/periodic shopping list
for the following items from <your-regular-store>?
- <item-1> - <quantity>
- <item-2> - <quantity>
- ..
[Yes, schedule now] [No] [Change item-list and schedule]
</code></pre>
..should be the eventual evolution of such a service.
I expected from the title a story about the future where Google uses purchase history collected from its Wallet service to predict items to be purchased next time, and even sends them to the home. Certainly that will kill many retail jobs.<p>Amazon does this, though imperfectly, and in fact it suggested me a periodic purchase plan of diapers after I bought it from them a couple of times.
My local Giant has this already, but isn't tied to my phone. You just scan as you go, and then pay at the end. It is cool, but I'm not sure it's much faster.<p>Also, I have to wonder about theft. How many people are just throwing things in the cart, and not scanning?
<i>And let me explain how Barcode Scanner (or something like it) combined with Google Wallet will make my life as a consumer more productive</i><p>Yep, this will really speed things up.<p>Instead of scanning items on the way out, (i.e. "beep...beep...beep...beep...beep") people will scan as they shop "okay... just line up the cameraaaa... hmm it's not seeing it, turn the phone a bit... oh i beg your pardon hang on [moves out of the way of another shopper who also wants a can of baked beans]... [phone grabs barcode]... ah finally... beep." - one can of baked beans purchased.<p>Can't wait!<p>Also, given how fragile self-scanning checkouts are - presumably calibrated to prevent shoplifting - how will scanning stuff yourself and then walking out with it be acceptable to supermarkets?
This article doesn't make any sense... This is NOT the future, Self-scanners have been around for a long time and have never caught on anywhere to my knowledge.<p>Self-scanners have been around for several years. Market District in Pittsburgh had them in 2005 when I lived there (<a href="http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/09/01/review-grocery-store.html" rel="nofollow">http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/09/01/review-grocery-stor...</a>). They never caught on, and ultimately the company stopped using them in 09 (<a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09226/990741-28.stm" rel="nofollow">http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09226/990741-28.stm</a> note: this article doesn't provide any details).<p>The problem is theft prevention and time. Every so often (appx every 10 customers), they would randomly check every item on your receipt. You think you're done, but you aren't, they need to check every item on your receipt.<p>The thing that IS potentially a game changer in this regard (which the article doesn't mention) is RFID. With RFID combined with Google Wallet, the theft prevention problem can be solved much easier (ie alarm goes off if you are stealing)