Automated Convenience Store Causing Labor and Privacy Concerns in South Korea
The future is here and now even the convenience store clerk may become obsolete:
According to Bloomberg, Amazon said it will increase the number of its smart stores to nearly 3,000 across the nation by 2021. This also led GS Retail to launch the first cashierless convenience store here in Sept. 2018 in Magok, western Seoul. Following this, other local retail giants have opened smart stores adopting hi-tech payment systems.
Korea Times
The most prominent example is the GS25 store that opened on the 20th floor of Eulji Twin Tower in Jung-gu, central Seoul, two weeks ago.
There are over 34 smart cameras installed in the store with some 300 weight sensors that all connect to an artificial intelligence (AI) system, which plays the cashier role.
Cameras watch customers’ behavior and their movement around the store while sensors detect which items they have picked. When a customer finishes shopping, they can just walk out of the store and the payment is processed automatically through a mobile application.
Despite the convenience, customers are expressing mixed feelings about cashierless stores.
“This is so cool. I don’t have to wait in the queue and I can just grab and go without taking my wallet out of my pocket,” said 31-year-old nurse Lee Jung-soo. “Sometimes I felt sorry for people behind me waiting for me to pay at the convenience store but this new automatic payment system allows me to walk out without stopping.”
However, 35-year-old office worker Kim Jong-bum expressed his discomfort over the move, saying the system could lead to problems involving privacy protection.
“Think about it. Cameras watching you everywhere, anytime. This AI program will first be adopted to convenience stores, then to restaurants and clothing shops. It is only a matter of time until they all connect to put you under surveillance,” Kim said.
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They have a lower budget, and seemingly “honor system” place across from my apartment. Ice cream place, plus a bunch of normal dry snacks. You come in, grab a basket, help yourself, scan it yourself, bag it, and leave. Normal CCTV cameras, and no apparent auto scanners to pick a credit card and charge you as you leave.
The only thing they stopped stocking when they got rid of the clerk is beer.
Try this in the States, and within 24 hours someone would have backed up a car or truck, and taken everything including the freezers, shelves, cash register, and CCTV camera mounts. Maybe even the door and glass…
MTB Rider, in the states they would just drive through the door and glass, then clean the place out. Thank you for the $15 dollar an hour minimum wage.
The biggest issue is separating communities. I remember going to the grocery store as a kid in the states and the owner, butcher, and cashiers all knew my family. Saw the same thing in small stores in England, Germany, and Korea. Now the stores become outsized “gedunk machines” serviced weekly? by someone who neither knows nor cares about the customers. Because he’s got 17 more on his route.
Destroy community and communism is easiervto implement.
Setnaff, well said. Not to mention approaching the cashless society where if you are connected to the grid you can’t participate. Evil disguised as convenience