Comments on: Amazon Go and the Erosion of Supermarket Sociability

By: Anthropunk, Ph.D. (@AnthroPunk)

Anthropunk, Ph.D. (@AnthroPunk) — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 05:30:32 +0000

I have traveled extensively in Japan and am aware of the usual stereotypes, but am also aware that there are strict immigration rules that keep for the most part, a similar (well more than there are here in Silicon Valley) culture. That matters! This piece laments that ethnography, local knowledge, and “thick” description may be a casualty of automation, by merely stating, that in a store with no human anchors on a daily basis (although Amazon has said they will have them for a bit), there is a community knowledge that goes missing, since part of transactions involve some form of social exchange. When that is removed (no matter how inconsequential they do add up), it impacts knowledge of a locale, and by extension I argue that this is amplified in heterogeneous cultures because there is more fragmentation of cultural “glue.” Your locale may be different and indeed, you also have not yet studied these “grab and go” environments because they do not exist yet without human staffing, except for this new Amazon model. However, since this piece was published, Amazon has already found out they need to add human staff, thus temporarily preserving cultural community knowledge. Huzzah!

By: John McCreery

John McCreery — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 21:46:02 +0000

Anthropunk, I hear where you are coming from, classic stereotypes about more and less homogeneous cultures. But given the difficulty of making sweeping generalizations about a nation-state geographically the size of California with a population of 127 million people who live in places that range from depopulated rural villages to the Kanto Plain, one of the largest and most sophisticated metropolitan areas in the world. I have mentioned the difference between my neighborhood 7-11, the reincarnation of what was once the neighborhood liquor store on a street lined with local businesses, and the 7-11 at Yokohama station whose customers are commuters who only rarely encounter someone they know. Both are in Japan. Here is precisely where ethnography, local knowledge and thick description become essential.

By: Anthropunk, Ph.D. (@AnthroPunk)

Anthropunk, Ph.D. (@AnthroPunk) — Sun, 08 Jan 2017 20:07:37 +0000

John, thank you for your interesting comments and for sharing your research on Japan’s Combini and retail landscape. The main difference I see between Japan’s “close to Grab and Go” and Amazon’s Grab and Go is that Japan is a mostly homogeneous culture, and that the US, where I am writing about (but other cities can and do fall into this model), is an extremely heterogeneous society. As such, there is less shared cultural and community knowledge to begin with, which makes the US model more fragmented in local locales. In Japan, because there is higher homogeneity, I would argue that shifting to more automation may be less of an issue as long as the culture remains homogeneous and other conventions in Japanese communities can sustain cultural and local community knowledge.

By: Anthropunk, Ph.D. (@AnthroPunk)

Anthropunk, Ph.D. (@AnthroPunk) — Sun, 08 Jan 2017 19:57:16 +0000

Hi, thank you both for your thoughtful comments. I will address Daniel’s first: You asked “…do you have any sense or prediction of what sort, if any, local sociability will pop with grab and go in stores, or is it alienation and dis-embedding all the way down? Maybe a related question–if grab and go’s idea is to save people time, where does that time go?” – My Reply: I think that some initial sociability will happen as people are “amazed” or “wowed” by not having to check out in the usual way. There could also be sociability around problems or issues as the technology is flawed. Amazon has recently announced that there will be humans staff initially to address issues (e.g. things that go wrong when the algorithms break, which they will). That said, once these things are resolved, it may be “alienation an dis-embedding (OF THE LOCAL LOCALE) ” all the way down as people are very well social and connected, just not to the people next to them in their communities. They have strong and rich environments, but these are in the form of distributed personal networks online. If “grab and go’s” idea is to save people time, the time is going towards other time deficits we have now as a result of having to be our own admins for services that were previously done by humans in the community, and which have now gone online. See also Applin and Fischer 2013: “Asynchronous Adaptations to Complex Social Interactions” http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6679308/?reload=true&arnumber=6679308

By: John McCreery

John McCreery — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 19:34:45 +0000

Hi, Sally. I also enjoyed the post. The topic of how different retail scenarios affect communities and other social relationships is a fascinating one. That there is a gap between a small, local market where merchants and customers know each other and a grab and go world in which consumers are conceived as anonymous monads and the merchant’s primary goal is to increase profit through greater efficiency is undeniable. When, however, I ask myself what fills that gap, I see all sorts of possibilities. In Japan, where I live and work, retail has undergone a series of transformations since the end of WWII. First, a shopper’s world divided between high-end department stores and local shopping streets was disrupted by the introduction of supermarkets. Then came fast food and convenience stores, the latter made possible by the introduction of point of sale (POS) systems that made it possible to track what was and wasn’t selling on a daily basis. Now on-line shopping has been added to the mix. Recent years have seen a resurgence of co-ops and restaurants that deliver to the customer’s door. Each of these innovations has taken place in a particular context: supermarkets rising with Japan’s “New Middle Class,” nuclear families living in suburbs or massive condominium apartment blocks; fast food and convenience stores catered to a growing number of young singles, though in neighborhoods like mine the number of again customers is growing; on-line shopping appeals not only to young families with working mothers but also to older people (in Japan 25% of the population is now 65 or older); and restaurants that deliver are convenient for all sorts of people, elderly folks for whom going out can be literally painful, as well as office workers putting in overtime. How operations like Amazon Go will fit into this mix is a a timely and important topic.

By: John McCreery

John McCreery — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 15:14:56 +0000

Hi Daniel, good questions. Allow me to contribute some observations concerning convenience stores in Japan. First, convenience stores are, by design, a grab and go business model that makes it simple for strangers to pop in, find what they want and check out quickly with a minimum of social interaction. Only vending machines provide less. In one of the studies from which I took the data for my book on Japanese consumers, the Japanese researchers contrast convenience stories with neighborhood “snacks,” small local pubs with an established clientele. The convenience store offers variety, limited by floor and shelf space. The “snack” offers a severely limited menu but the offerings are tailored to its clientele. Thus, for example, a regular need only sit down at the bar to have his “usual” set before him. Amazon’s online sales model is a combination of these approaches, combining a vastly extended variety of product with use of big data to more and more closely anticipate each regular shopper’s needs.

So far, however, I have only been describing concepts. What of on the ground realities? There is likely to be, I suggest, a strong difference between a neighborhood convenience store and a convenience store located in a major transport hub or shopping complex. I think, on the one hand, of the7-11 at the foot of the hill on which our apartment is located. It was once a local liquor shop. The owners are long-time residents as are many, if not most, of their customers. Local teenagers hang out in front of the store. I think, on the other hand, of the 7-11 at the top of the escalator where I sometimes exit Yokohama Station. This store caters to an ongoing stream of travelers that becomes a crush at peak commuting hours. Personal interaction is radically minimal.

Convenience stores are subject to grab and go theft. The Amazon grab and go brick and mortar shopping model will, I suspect, be much less so. Anyone attempting to leave a store without having paid for whatever products they are holding will be instantly detected by the sensors they must pass before the door will open for them. What further security measures will be taken, I do not know; but there will be no slipping out while the clerks are distracted by other customers.

Hope this is helpful.

By: danielsouleles

danielsouleles — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 00:35:06 +0000

Hi Sally, I really enjoyed your post, particularly the idea of grab and go theft. I’m curious, do you have any sense or prediction of what sort, if any, local sociability will pop with grab and go in stores, or is it alienation and dis-embedding all the way down? Maybe a related question–if grab and go’s idea is to save people time, where does that time go?