Around the corner of where I live in Düsseldorf Stadtmitte, more precisely "Am Wehrhahn" opened a hyper-modern "Pick & Go" Rewe supermarket.
This morning I went shopping there for the first time and I must admit, it worked seamlessly. Grabbed all the things I needed and placed it in my wheel-carrier, weighed the bananas and went to the self-checkout where I was greeted by a friendly hostess, and just confirmed what the system had registered in my purchase, without even having to take out everything again from the shopping trolly, confirmed the purchase, paid using NFC and walked out after scanning the code on the receipt. No app or initial registration was necessary. The system registers customers as avatars and then algorithms, (marketing term here is _AI_), deducts if you wanted to buy something or not through over 700 cameras and other sensors in the shop.
The tech is awesome. But it was for me still very nice to be greeted by a smiling human face at the end. And this is the key for me: instead of tediously scanning articles into the register, people can now help where needed and I do believe this gives them a stronger sense of work satisfaction. Don't get me wrong - there is nothing wrong with being a cashier as a job. What I experienced today was just a bit more personal, as contra-dictory this may seem.
More about the system and the tech behind it: https://mediacenter.rewe.de/pressemitteilungen/rewe-pick-and-go-kuenftig-auch-in-duesseldorf and also https://www.trigoretail.com/customer-stories/rewe/
With that said: Happy Thanksgiving to anyone celebrating and for everyone else: happy third thursday of November.
I am grateful and I thankful I get to share this thought with you all.
Johan Bové, Nov 23 2023 on social.johanbove.info