Okay, so picture this.
Your SO's got a feminine hygiene emergency
and cannot leave the house
to get her own bio-waste management products.
So, it's on you.
But you do not feel like going to the local grocery store
and listening to the cashier
making that stale joke about your Aunt Flo.
So what's the solution?
Well, for us, it was to get in the car,
drive two and a half hours down to Seattle,
and visit the Amazon Go pilot location,
the world's only retail store
where you do not have to have
any human interaction whatsoever.
You just grab what you want,
put it in your bag, and leave.
But what's the experience like?
Well, we're gonna tell you
after we tell you about TunnelBear,
the easy-to-use VPN that makes the internet
a more open place,
giving everyone access to the same content.
Check them out at TunnelBear.com slash LTT.
We'll have that linked below.
Okay, so step one is to get the Amazon Go app.
Once you're signed into your account,
you don't need Prime.
This QR code right here allows you to scan in
any guests that are with you,
though do note that anything they take
will be charged to your account,
and then enter the store.
You can't get in without your phone,
but Amazon says that handy-dandy Amazon staff members
will be on hand with charging banks
if, for whatever reason, you need to juice up
before you go in.
So let's try it.
Whoo!
I'm in.
Okay, we're inside.
So it kinda looks like a regular grocery store.
So how does it work?
Amazon isn't being too specific about the details,
but we do know a few things.
One is that the place is absolutely peppered with cameras.
See those black boxes up there?
There are literally hundreds of cameras
inside what is only an 1,800-square-foot store.
According to one article I read,
they are designed to read camera-friendly codes
that are printed out on each of the items,
but these just look like regular UPC codes,
so I'm actually not sure about that.
What we do know is that while it was present
in the original patent filing,
RFID technology is not being used,
and we also know that they are using
computer vision algorithms in order to understand
what you're picking up,
and they're also assisting this technology
with additional sensors,
like, for example, weight sensors in the shelves themselves,
pressure sensors, and load cells.
Each of those components together
increases Amazon's confidence in what exactly it is
that you have picked up and put in your bag
or your pocket or whatever the case may be.
So in terms of product mix and pricing,
it's not like a giant grocery store.
Like, you can't even buy a full gallon
of milk or anything like that,
but, I mean, it's pretty competitive
with what you'd expect from, like, a neighborhood grocer
or, like, a corner store.
Like, this curried chicken wrap is six bucks.
Whoa, this is interesting.
So these food items, these are marked
with those camera-recognizable codes
that I was talking about before,
because I guess, you know, if it doesn't come in a package,
it's a lot harder to tell the difference
between curried chicken wrap and tuna wrap.
Ooh, BK, BKLT wrap.
Does this have kale in it?
You guys are killing me here.
Bacon, kale, lettuce, tomato wrap.
I mean, if I'm gonna have, like,
the trendy Seattle experience,
I gotta have the wrap with the kale in it.
What do you want, Dennis?
Yeah, rice.
Well, I don't know, man.
I don't know what to tell you.
They have barbecue chicken with mangoes.
Okay, then just get it.
I tell you, man, this is, like,
weird stuff,
because, like, normally, sitting in a store,
putting stuff in your backpack,
like, here, let's get something to drink, too.
Dennis, what do you want?
You want a Snapple?
I'm getting Snapples, so...
Do they have, like, Amazon brand drinks?
Amazon brand drinks?
I don't think so.
No, I don't think so.
Sorry, you're gonna have to have the
only, like, 98% Amazon experience here.
Harmless coconut water?
Do you want the harmful one or the harmless one?
You want the harmful one?
What does that mean?
Well, this one's harmless.
I don't, I'm just...
Get that, get that, yeah.
Like, I feel like someone's gonna come tackle me.
Okay, so we got all our snacks.
Now we've got to get what we actually came here for.
We can choose between the Always Infinity
and the Tampax Pearl.
Let's go with the Always right here.
But, with a twist, I have a challenge for their system.
I want to see how it handles me
putting this down in the wrong place
and then picking it back up.
All right, thank you.
Yeah, cool.
Let's say I'm shopping
for some alcohol and I kind of go,
do I really want this?
Not sure.
I want to see how it handles it.
Uh-huh, yup, yup.
Okay, you know what?
I actually don't want some alcohol after all,
but if I come back without these,
I'm gonna get in all sorts of trouble.
So, let's head for the exit.
Like, my reflex as I'm walking towards the exit is like,
okay, I gotta get ready to take off my bag
and take my stuff out and put it on the thing.
So, theoretically now, as I walk through
what they're calling the transition area,
Amazon is going to do a small transaction
on my credit card, a dollar,
just to validate that it's working.
Then they're gonna build a balance of it
once they've totaled up everything that I took.
Bear in mind, guys, that if you overdraw your credit card,
that's on you to deal with any kind of penalties
or fees that are associated with that.
So, here it is.
Hey, there we go, there we go.
Nice get up and go.
Your trip time was 26 minutes and 27 seconds.
Your receipt is ready.
Check this out.
So, Amazon is actually so confident in their system
that they've built in a feature
where if for whatever reason you're charged
for something that you didn't take,
you can actually just remove it.
And crazily enough, they're using the honor system,
which, if you think about it, actually isn't that crazy.
Because it's tied into your Prime account,
which is tied into your credit card,
Amazon can use machine learning
not to mention just common sense
in order to figure out if people are abusing the system.
Okay, so let's see how we did.
Boom, got it.
Berry, however that's pronounced.
Got it.
Bacon, kale, lettuce, and tomato wrap.
Diet Snapple iced tea.
Raspberry.
Oh, a diet.
And coconut water.
Nailed it.
Okay, so it got everything,
but how does the system handle an item
that was accidentally not charged?
Because, I mean, nothing's perfect.
Well, Amazon's so confident in their system,
and seemingly rightly so,
that they have actually apparently told another news outlet
that managed to walk out with a yogurt they didn't pay for.
You know what?
Go ahead, keep it.
The yogurt's on us.
Because they seem to believe that the system is so accurate
that even with those occasional misfires,
they're still going to make up for the cost of cashiers,
plain clothes, loss prevention, security people,
and, well, just the normal shoplifting
that retailers refer to as shrink.
Not bad, considering it's got kale in it.
Actually, that's really good.
Maybe the craziest thing about this whole experience
is that, let's say I decided this, you know, kale sucked,
or, you know what, I don't need these pads after all.
If I wanted to return them,
at this time, there is literally no mechanism to take,
take this back.
You'd have to talk to an associate and give it to them.
But the way that the refund would be processed
would be identical.
You would just go into your receipt,
you would select an item, and you would remove it.
I don't need it, or whatever.
And no questions asked, they will give you a refund.
Not only do you not have to return it,
there is no mechanism to return it.
You're gonna have to find a solution to that in the longterm.
Okay, so in summary, that was really freaking cool.
But as some of you may have noticed,
it is now go for a walk in the rain time,
because there are definitely still some issues
and some concerns that I have about this technology.
So issue number one is that before Amazon,
as they are undoubtedly gonna do in the next year or two,
rolls this out in Whole Foods locations,
they acquired them, must've been about a year ago now,
they're gonna have to figure out how to address the limit
on the number of customers
that can be in the store at one time.
Now, you just make a line outside the store,
but if your whole pitch is lineup-less shopping,
that's obviously a dumb longterm solution.
Issue number two is that a traditional grocery store's
loyalty program actually tells them a lot more about you
than just what you bought.
With data, especially if you're a regular shopper,
like what you buy, how much of it, and how often,
they can extrapolate a lot about,
not just you, but also your family.
And Amazon hasn't talked a ton
about what data they're collecting,
how long they're keeping it for,
there's nothing Go specific in their privacy policy,
but if I was a betting man,
I would put good money on Amazon collecting
all kinds of extra data,
like your movement patterns around the store,
how long you looked at a particular item
before buying it or not buying it,
which advertising kiosks or end caps,
which advertising kiosks or end caps, which advertising kiosks or end caps,
you found the most attractive.
And they're gonna use that,
combined with what they already know about you
from your online profile,
to build an incredibly detailed picture
of who you are and what you're about.
And this ignores some of the less obvious societal issues
that we're gonna be facing
as technology like this becomes more prevalent.
So it's estimated that in America right now,
there are three and a half million cashiers.
And you know,
Amazon's side of this story is that,
you know, yeah, we don't have any cashiers,
but we're still gonna need humans for food prep,
restocking the shelves,
checking ID in the alcoholic beverages section.
They say they're still gonna need humans for that
for the foreseeable future.
But you know, I'm kind of looking at this going,
well, yeah, but regular grocery stores
also need people for food prep and stocking shelves.
I'm not sure if this math is gonna add up.
And you know, if I were to be saying, well, yeah,
I'm not sure if this math is gonna add up.
And you know, if I were to be saying, well, yeah,
I'm sitting here with a crystal ball,
figuring out what I think the future is gonna be,
I see no reason why those jobs
couldn't eventually be replaced as well.
So that's something that we are going to have to figure out
as people over the next,
yeah, we don't have as long to deal with this
as we might have hoped.
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So thanks for watching, guys.
If you just liked this video,
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which you should totally join.
All right, let's get out of the rain.
This stuff tastes like .
Sorry I bought it.