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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 11 February 2019
Retailers are shopping for ways to get rid of checkout lines

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE and they rely on tailored smart-
JOSEPH PISANI phone apps to identify who
AP Business Writers is entering the store and to
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — process the sale for what-
Get ready to say good ever products are taken.
riddance to the checkout Both Standard Cognition
line. and Zippin opened small
A year after Amazon stores in San Francisco last
opened its first cashier-less year that have held invita-
store, startups and retail- tion-only demonstrations or
ers are racing to get simi- been open for limited hours
lar technology in stores with a scant selection of
throughout the world, let- merchandise.
ting shoppers buy groceries "I like the idea of being
without waiting in line. able to come into a store,
If they work, cashier-less grab what you want and
stores will not only save just walk out," says Tomono-
time but maybe money ri Nishimura, a 30-year-old
too, for both cost-cutting researcher for Fujitsu Labo-
merchants and customers This Nov. 14, 2018, photo shows the Standard Cognition cashier-less store on Market Street in San ratories after getting a bag
whose shopping habits are Francisco. Get ready to say good riddance to the checkout line. of Funyuns at Standard's
dissected. Associated Press small store in San Francisco
From cameras and sensors, recently.
the stores will know when could be creepy," says Pe- sensors on the ceiling track stores to come up with a Amazon appears the most
shoppers pick up a prod- ter Trepp, CEO of FaceFirst, what's taken so their credit number. Based on their likely to make cashier-less
uct and put it down, and a Los Angeles company or debit cards are auto- observations of traffic pat- stores a more common
can send them a discount that so far has only sold its matically charged when terns, they estimated about sight, partly because it can
to tempt them to buy it. facial recognition tools to they leave. Shoppers will 400 to 700 customers per afford to open stores with
Merchants will be able to retailers trying to identify know how long it took to day will visit each of the the technology already
create more space for shoplifters and other crimi- shop, since Amazon sends roughly 2,000-square-foot built into them, given its cur-
merchandise, better track nals. "But if it's used to give an alert with their shopping Amazon Go stores, gener- rent market value of about
when shelves need replen- ating sales of $1.1 million to $800 billion — ranking
ishing and draw more busi- $2 million annually, assum- among the most valuable
ness from the hordes of ing an average purchase companies in the world.
customers who detest long of $10. At the high end of But the country's biggest
lines. that range, it works out to retailers are also trying to
But the monitoring sys- twice the sales of a typi- speed up the shopping pro-
tem underlying cashier- cal U.S. convenience store, cess. Sam's Club, the ware-
less technology is bound RBC calculated. house-style club owned by
to raise new privacy issues Several startups are pitch- Walmart, opened a test
and worries about cus- ing technology to retailers store in Dallas that has no
tomer data falling into the who want to create Ama- cashiers. Instead, shoppers
wrong hands, especially if zon Go-like stores of their use their smartphones to
stores deploy facial recog- own. One of the compa- scan products and pay.
nition software in the omni- nies, called AiFi, says it has 7-Eleven is testing some-
present cameras watching signed deals with the Car- thing similar at 14 stores in
shoppers. In this Jan. 22, 2018, file photo a shopper scans an Amazon refour chain in France and Dallas.
"It could be scary, and it Go app on a cellphone while entering an Amazon Go store in Zabka convenience stores "Waiting in line is torture,"
Seattle. in Poland. Others, includ- says 7-Eleven's Gurmeet
Associated Press ing Zippin, Grabandgo, Singh, the company's chief
Trigo Vision and Inokyo, say digital officer and chief in-
people a 30 percent cou- time. they are negotiating deals formation officer.
pon on something they "It was just a phenomenal with retailers in the U.S. and Though, he added, there
want that is going to be a experience," said Tom Had- other parts of the world, al- are no plans to get rid of
nice benefit. That kind of field, who bought a Coke though none are ready to cashiers. He wants people
experience will help peo- Zero in a minute and five identify them yet. to have a choice on how
ple embrace the technol- seconds at one of the Go "Once a few big retail they pay.
ogy." stores in San Francisco while chains begin to deploy this As cashier-less stores be-
Amazon has a head start visiting the city recently. technology, it's going to come more common,
in the U.S., opening 10 con- Hadfield, who runs a tech- snowball and we will see there will likely be more
venience stores in three cit- nology startup in Austin, more and more of them do- political pressure to ensure
ies: Chicago, San Francisco Texas, said it reminded him ing it," says Michael Suswal, they still offer an option to
and Seattle. The stores sell of the first time he rode an co-founder of Standard pay by cash to avoid dis-
salads and sandwiches for Uber. Cognition, another cashier- criminating against lower-
lunch, everyday items like "You just know it's going to less technology startup. income consumers without
toilet paper and Advil, and be the future," he said. So far, companies work- bank accounts and credit
groceries such as Cheerios Amazon doesn't say how ing on the technology are cards. In anticipation of
and raw ground beef. much money its cashier-less finding ways to do without that likelihood, Standard
Shoppers scan an app to stores make. But analysts facial recognition. Their sys- Cognition already has set
enter the Amazon Go store, from RBC Capital Markets tems rely on cameras for up a separate kiosk for all-
grab what they want and recently visited Amazon identifying objects rather cash purchases in its test
walk out. Cameras and Go's two San Francisco than people. Like Amazon, store.q