> Not quite AI, but getting there, are the self checkouts slowly replacing front line cashiers, etc.
There's some AI involved at some retailers - I bought 2 identical items and the second wouldn't scan at the self checkout, so I grabbed the first item and scanned it again, and the camera-watching, object-detection system threw a fit (and played back the video of me). I had to call a human to complete my purchase. My suspicion is it is smart enough to detect that I moved an "unscanned" item from my basket item into the bagging area, but not smart enough to figure out I wasn't trying to cheat.
Wegmans recently introduced carts with built-in scanners and scales to allow you to scan as you shop—I really like them overall, and use them every time I go there (which is only once every few months; it's 45 minutes away), even though I often need to get a second, regular cart to offload some of my bags to partway through shopping.
The one problem I've had with them is that they have a tendency to get confused if you try to scan more than one of the same thing in a row, and occasionally I'll have to go through quite a bit of trouble to make sure that I do pay for the 3rd item, and not just the first two...
I’m in Portugal at the moment and went to their version of Target using Sensei [1] technology. I was with my little one who was grabbing things off the shelves while I put them back, and I was using a stroller not a store cart. The system worked flawlessly including consumed cafe purchases (coffee, pastry, and bread) along with per kg fruits and vegetables. One of the odd benefits is that I felt a bit safer with my little one roaming freely as I knew he was being carefully watched.
[1] https://www.sensei.tech/
Those cameras are not there for the benefit of your toddler.
How can some big corp. recording and processing what he does possibly make you feel a bit safer?
That sounds dystopic and I'm not sure it'd even be legal where I live.
Here they simply have a + button so you can set the amount of the item. No need to scan all of them.
The problem with the + button, is a user has two yoghurts, so scans and hits the + as they're both $2. The problem is that one was blueberry and once was strawberry.
Forcing users to scan everything fixes that but at least.
Making the users take longer isn't a concern of the shop.
But those items aren’t identical and should be scanned separately.
These systems are often far more stupid than you think. A lot of them just block themselves if they think your hands went somewhere they shouldn't be and defer to a human then.
Do you shop in Sainsburys in the UK by any chance?
This has happened to me too.