New cashier-less store in San Francisco will help you get lunch in 16 seconds
SAN FRANCSICO (KGO) -- Most people hate waiting in line during the lunch hour at supermarkets. Now, a San Francisco company has developed checkout-free technology to simplify the way we shop, using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Cashier-less store Zippin will be the first in San Francisco to use checkout-free technology, meaning everything is done through their app.
The Co-founder and CEO of Zippin, Krishna Motukuri gave us a demonstration.
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"So you scan yourself in and walk in," Motukuri showed us as he entered by scanning the QR code on his cell phone.
Overhead cameras and sensors track your location and what items you pick up.
"As soon as we pick this up what happens is that the cameras know that I have picked up this item and the sensors on the shelves also confirm it," explained Motukuri.
Those sensors know the price of the item and charge you once you leave the store.
"Just simply step out of the door and you're done," he says as he left the store.
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Zippin says it's creating a frictionless experience by getting rid of the grit, which is described as the little things that bother you when you shop at a supermarket or interact with people.
"Just the lines, I think the biggest issue is time, the check out lines are long," said San Francisco resident Vatsal Shah who likes the convienence of having lunch at places like Eatsa which guarantees an in and out, fast experience.
We timed the CEO of Zippin to see how long it would take him to enter the store to grab lunch. He was done in 16 seconds.
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He says this store will open in the South of Market area next month ahead of Amazon Go which is just starting to pull out its "cashier-less" stores.
But don't expect to find a whole chain of these Zippin stores anytime soon. This is a concept store with the purpose of selling its artificial intelligence technology to other retailers at a cheaper price.
"The amount of hardware costs that is needed to deploy our solution is far lower than other solutions that are available in the market," explained Motukuri.
The company says the technology will help to serve more people while saving time.
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