pseudo3d wrote: ↑January 10th, 2023, 9:37 pm
So they apparently have licensed the Just Walk Out technology to an independent in Kansas City (link). Supposedly this has been in the works for three years...but given Amazon's issues with JWO and their entire chain I can't see this lasting long.
The technology seems to work in small environments, like convenience store size where there isn't a high SKU depth, no unique SKU items like meat or deli, and no unpackaged produce. It works fine at the many concession stands at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle and really is a game changer there as you can literally walk in and grab your food and drink and go from "market" style stands (most arenas have long slow moving lines). But it seems to fail in these large scale grocery stores where there is just too much for the system to sort out. Not to mention that the cost based on a walk with an experienced network engineer through their smaller Murrieta location is in the millions of dollars just for the cabling alone for the cameras, and God knows what kind of server equipment and network connections are needed for the image recognition system. They are without a doubt spending more on Just Walk Out system infrastructure than the rest of the building and fixtures.
So in theory this licensing could work out if they don't have produce. But it sounds like the type of store that would. So they will have to charge by the piece which may not even be legal there (some states have arcane pricing of certain vegetables and fruits where certain varieties must be sold by weight). I wonder if they went to go try out a Fresh store unassisted to see how difficult it is to figure out?
pseudo3d wrote: ↑January 10th, 2023, 9:37 pm
So they apparently have licensed the Just Walk Out technology to an independent in Kansas City (link). Supposedly this has been in the works for three years...but given Amazon's issues with JWO and their entire chain I can't see this lasting long.
The technology seems to work in small environments, like convenience store size where there isn't a high SKU depth, no unique SKU items like meat or deli, and no unpackaged produce. It works fine at the many concession stands at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle and really is a game changer there as you can literally walk in and grab your food and drink and go from "market" style stands (most arenas have long slow moving lines). But it seems to fail in these large scale grocery stores where there is just too much for the system to sort out. Not to mention that the cost based on a walk with an experienced network engineer through their smaller Murrieta location is in the millions of dollars just for the cabling alone for the cameras, and God knows what kind of server equipment and network connections are needed for the image recognition system. They are without a doubt spending more on Just Walk Out system infrastructure than the rest of the building and fixtures.
So in theory this licensing could work out if they don't have produce. But it sounds like the type of store that would. So they will have to charge by the piece which may not even be legal there (some states have arcane pricing of certain vegetables and fruits where certain varieties must be sold by weight). I wonder if they went to go try out a Fresh store unassisted to see how difficult it is to figure out?
As this was planned three years ago, I doubt that they really foresaw the failure of Amazon Fresh.
Amazon Fresh is shaping up to be more and more like Fresh & Easy with a lot of eerie parallels...unworkable store sites, arrogant management, poor merchandising, and way overhyped by the industry.
pseudo3d wrote: ↑January 10th, 2023, 9:37 pm
So they apparently have licensed the Just Walk Out technology to an independent in Kansas City (link). Supposedly this has been in the works for three years...but given Amazon's issues with JWO and their entire chain I can't see this lasting long.
The technology seems to work in small environments, like convenience store size where there isn't a high SKU depth, no unique SKU items like meat or deli, and no unpackaged produce. It works fine at the many concession stands at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle and really is a game changer there as you can literally walk in and grab your food and drink and go from "market" style stands (most arenas have long slow moving lines). But it seems to fail in these large scale grocery stores where there is just too much for the system to sort out. Not to mention that the cost based on a walk with an experienced network engineer through their smaller Murrieta location is in the millions of dollars just for the cabling alone for the cameras, and God knows what kind of server equipment and network connections are needed for the image recognition system. They are without a doubt spending more on Just Walk Out system infrastructure than the rest of the building and fixtures.
So in theory this licensing could work out if they don't have produce. But it sounds like the type of store that would. So they will have to charge by the piece which may not even be legal there (some states have arcane pricing of certain vegetables and fruits where certain varieties must be sold by weight). I wonder if they went to go try out a Fresh store unassisted to see how difficult it is to figure out?
As this was planned three years ago, I doubt that they really foresaw the failure of Amazon Fresh.
Amazon Fresh is shaping up to be more and more like Fresh & Easy with a lot of eerie parallels...unworkable store sites, arrogant management, poor merchandising, and way overhyped by the industry.
Placed a order for a few things on Amazon today. I noticed previously it would offer locker pickup at Amazon Fresh even though it was about 5 miles from me and there are closer locations (in other words they would deliberately prioritize pickup at Fresh over other lockers). This has been modified and they are recommending a locker at a Shell gas station, which is closer. It is not in fact the closest location though, but the closest location is in a LA Fitness building and the hours for some reason aren't great (maybe it's in an office portion that isn't open as long as the gym?). Could just be a coincidence but I find it interesting that they suddenly aren't featuring "one click pickup at Fresh" now.
The memo from the CEO that was publicly released said they will notify anyone who is losing their position by January 18th. My guess is they are going to get their inventory in line before the holiday weekend and push out all the items that can't be sent to Whole Foods then cut off orders of perishable goods and let them sell down that weekend. They could notify everyone of the closure on the 17th. 18th is a Wednesday; if liquidators were hired and they were in the buildings that day they could easily have the stores set up to begin store closing sales Friday. In my unpleasant liquidation experience they only needed two days to get all the signs printed and the store priced.
The technology seems to work in small environments, like convenience store size where there isn't a high SKU depth, no unique SKU items like meat or deli, and no unpackaged produce. It works fine at the many concession stands at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle and really is a game changer there as you can literally walk in and grab your food and drink and go from "market" style stands (most arenas have long slow moving lines). But it seems to fail in these large scale grocery stores where there is just too much for the system to sort out. Not to mention that the cost based on a walk with an experienced network engineer through their smaller Murrieta location is in the millions of dollars just for the cabling alone for the cameras, and God knows what kind of server equipment and network connections are needed for the image recognition system. They are without a doubt spending more on Just Walk Out system infrastructure than the rest of the building and fixtures.
So in theory this licensing could work out if they don't have produce. But it sounds like the type of store that would. So they will have to charge by the piece which may not even be legal there (some states have arcane pricing of certain vegetables and fruits where certain varieties must be sold by weight). I wonder if they went to go try out a Fresh store unassisted to see how difficult it is to figure out?
As this was planned three years ago, I doubt that they really foresaw the failure of Amazon Fresh.
Amazon Fresh is shaping up to be more and more like Fresh & Easy with a lot of eerie parallels...unworkable store sites, arrogant management, poor merchandising, and way overhyped by the industry.
Placed a order for a few things on Amazon today. I noticed previously it would offer locker pickup at Amazon Fresh even though it was about 5 miles from me and there are closer locations (in other words they would deliberately prioritize pickup at Fresh over other lockers). This has been modified and they are recommending a locker at a Shell gas station, which is closer. It is not in fact the closest location though, but the closest location is in a LA Fitness building and the hours for some reason aren't great (maybe it's in an office portion that isn't open as long as the gym?). Could just be a coincidence but I find it interesting that they suddenly aren't featuring "one click pickup at Fresh" now.
The memo from the CEO that was publicly released said they will notify anyone who is losing their position by January 18th. My guess is they are going to get their inventory in line before the holiday weekend and push out all the items that can't be sent to Whole Foods then cut off orders of perishable goods and let them sell down that weekend. They could notify everyone of the closure on the 17th. 18th is a Wednesday; if liquidators were hired and they were in the buildings that day they could easily have the stores set up to begin store closing sales Friday. In my unpleasant liquidation experience they only needed two days to get all the signs printed and the store priced.
Probably not even that. When Walmart purged their store fleet in January 2016 of a bunch of high-shrink Supercenters and low-volume Neighborhood Market stores, they didn't bother with store closings, basically locked the doors one day and dismantled the store. I imagine the perishables leftover will be either donated or otherwise written off as a loss, and all the dry goods reshuffled to warehouses again.
Probably not even that. When Walmart purged their store fleet in January 2016 of a bunch of high-shrink Supercenters and low-volume Neighborhood Market stores, they didn't bother with store closings, basically locked the doors one day and dismantled the store. I imagine the perishables leftover will be either donated or otherwise written off as a loss, and all the dry goods reshuffled to warehouses again.
Some stores did 4-5 day liquidation sales, 50% off everything.
I think it was the stores with the "plumbing problems" that pulled a restaurant and shut down suddenly with no notice.
Probably not even that. When Walmart purged their store fleet in January 2016 of a bunch of high-shrink Supercenters and low-volume Neighborhood Market stores, they didn't bother with store closings, basically locked the doors one day and dismantled the store. I imagine the perishables leftover will be either donated or otherwise written off as a loss, and all the dry goods reshuffled to warehouses again.
Some stores did 4-5 day liquidation sales, 50% off everything.
I think it was the stores with the "plumbing problems" that pulled a restaurant and shut down suddenly with no notice.
I don't think all stores did that though, and it wasn't really "without notice", they had a closing list. The "plumbing problems" stores did all reopen. Since Amazon as a whole is a healthy company and not exiting the category entirely, I'd think they'd handle it in-house instead of hiring a liquidator.
They have already notified Ballard Fresh "Pickup" location they are closing and last day is January 31. They have also affirmed the other "pickup" location in SoDo is remaining open. These, along with the Go stores, were predecessors to the Fresh actual grocery stores. The stories claim they are doing this to focus on the remaining Fresh stores, but I suspect that the number "remaining" will be zero when this shakes out.
ClownLoach wrote: ↑January 14th, 2023, 3:27 pm
They have already notified Ballard Fresh "Pickup" location they are closing and last day is January 31. They have also affirmed the other "pickup" location in SoDo is remaining open. These, along with the Go stores, were predecessors to the Fresh actual grocery stores. The stories claim they are doing this to focus on the remaining Fresh stores, but I suspect that the number "remaining" will be zero when this shakes out.
My prediction is that this week, they'll close Amazon Go (only 33 stores domestically and another dozen in the UK), a far cry since the numbers being thrown around was "3,000 by 2021" or whatever (at least by analysts...wrong again!), close a bunch of Amazon Fresh stores immediately, maybe a few Whole Foods as well.
Whole Foods will be put up for sale, while they'll set a later closing date for the remaining Amazon Fresh stores as they start shopping them around.
ClownLoach wrote: ↑January 14th, 2023, 3:27 pm
They have already notified Ballard Fresh "Pickup" location they are closing and last day is January 31. They have also affirmed the other "pickup" location in SoDo is remaining open. These, along with the Go stores, were predecessors to the Fresh actual grocery stores. The stories claim they are doing this to focus on the remaining Fresh stores, but I suspect that the number "remaining" will be zero when this shakes out.
My prediction is that this week, they'll close Amazon Go (only 33 stores domestically and another dozen in the UK), a far cry since the numbers being thrown around was "3,000 by 2021" or whatever (at least by analysts...wrong again!), close a bunch of Amazon Fresh stores immediately, maybe a few Whole Foods as well.
Whole Foods will be put up for sale, while they'll set a later closing date for the remaining Amazon Fresh stores as they start shopping them around.
Amazon Go can be easily justified to close due to "changes in traffic in the areas the stores are in." Ironically many companies are calling people back to the offices more aggressively now so the timing is questionable.
I wonder how many Amazon Fresh Stores they need to make the logistics of it make sense. I expect most of the dry grocery is stuff Amazon will continue to handle in their warehouses. The perishables can be pulled from Whole Foods. So it is possible they could keep some of them long term.
Whole Foods feels like a bit of a zombie under Amazon. I really do not know what is going on there. Still high traffic in the location I go to though... would love to see Amazon exit itself from Whole Foods. The big area in front of the checkouts where they set up a weird makeshift looking area for Amazon.com pick-ups/returns just looks terrible. There has to be a better solution, like, even a trailer in the parking lot. That way the Whole Foods could go back to having nice seating there.
The short lived "price reduction" campaign is in reality, gone (at best, insignificant).
The price to experience value is untenable. Why shop there only to face the same conditions of a regular supermarket with no baggers up front, very few employees on the sales floor providing customer service and indifferent service counter employees? Adding insult to injury? There are so many "employees" on the sales floor pulling orders for online customers that it makes navigating the store and shopping annoying at best.
Plus, Amazon does not seem interested in upgrading WF in my area! The 3 closest stores to me are the antithesis of flagship and parking is nighmarish.
I don't mind high price as long as I am getting, top quality, top service and top convenience (like parking for goodness sakes).
