Inside Amazon’s robot-run supermarket that needs just 3 human workers

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Inside Amazon’s robot-run supermarket that needs just 3 human workers


With the bare-bones payroll, the boost to profits could be huge. Indeed, the prototype being discussed calls for operating profit margins north of 20 percent. That compares with an industry average of just 1.7 percent, according to the Food Marketing Institute.

Labor accounts for the lion’s share of a supermarket’s operating costs. In 2015, the industry employed 3.4 million workers nationwide, with an average grocery store employing 89 workers to generate annual sales of more than $2 million, according to the trade group.

Amazon’s prototype, meanwhile, doesn’t call for any cashiers. It might, however, employ “greeters” that could serve as curbs against shoplifting — a key hazard for thinly staffed stores — in addition to using high-tech motion sensors to track wayward goods.
 
Top