Amazon Opens Convenience Store with a Twist (December 15, 2016)

Vocabulary

checkout
[ˈtʃɛkaʊt] (noun)
– the place where you pay for the things that you are buying in a supermarket
e.g.The lines for the checkout at this store are always long.

headquartered 
[ˈhedkwɔːrtərd] (adjective)
– having headquarters in a particular place
e.g.Facebook is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.

treasure trove
[ˈtreʒər troʊv] (noun)
– a place, book, etc. containing many useful or beautiful things
e.g.His attic is a treasure trove filled with medieval weapons.

foray
[ˈfɔːreɪ] (noun)
– an attempt to become involved in a different activity or profession
e.g.This is her first foray into painting.

pop up
[pɑːp ʌp] (phrasal verb)
– to appear suddenly or unexpectedly
e.g.She popped up in front of me while I was entering the office.

Article

Amazon Opens Convenience Store with a Twist

Online retailer Amazon has unveiled a new kind of store with no checkout lines.

The store, which is located in Seattle, Washington – where Amazon isheadquartered – sells “grocery essentials,” according to a video about the store posted by Amazon.

Shoppers simply use the Amazon Go app, which the company claims can track items you want to purchase. Once you are done with your shopping, you simply walk out.

Amazon says that by not having much of the staff of a normal store, it can keep prices low. Amazon Go will also allow the company to collect a treasure trove of data about shopping habits, both in real life and online.

“Four years ago we asked ourselves: what if we could create a shopping experience with no lines and no checkout? Could we push the boundaries of computer vision and machine learning to create a store where customers could simply take what they want and go?” the company stated on their website.

Amazon Go is not the first foray into physical shops. The company experimented with brick and mortar book stores a year ago.

But it may be a while before an Amazon store pops up near you. For now, the Seattle store is only open to Amazon employees, but plans to open to the public early in 2017.

Questions

1What will the new Amazon store sell?

2Why does the new store need fewer employees to operate?

3What kind of data will Amazon have access to because of this kind of store?

4When will such stores be available to the general public?

Discussion

1What do you think about Amazon’s new brick and mortar shop?

2Would you be comfortable with Amazon having access to so much information about you? Why or why not?

3Do you think that such stores encourage buying on credit? Why or why not?

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Advanced Exercises

The following exercises are for an additional lesson.

Summary

Please make a short summary of the article that you have just read. (1-2 minutes)

For and Against

Bring arguments first in favor of, and then against the idea that technological advancements will cause more people to be unable to find a job in the future. (2-3 minutes each)

Discussion 2

1What jobs are now being done entirely by robots?

2Do you think that your job can be done by robots? Why or why not?

3What jobs do you think will never be done by robots? Why?

4What skills do you think that children growing up nowadays need to acquire in order to ensure having a job in the next 50 years?

5Are you worried about the rapid technological advancement of our world? Why or why not?

6Would you say that concepts such as Amazon’s new store would have been sci-fi 20 years ago? Why or why not?

7Are you worried about the concept of permanent surveillance? Why or why not?

8Do you think that large-scale surveillance will lead to a decrease in criminal activity? Why or why not?

9What do you think about the idea that large corporations will stop at nothing to make a profit?

10Do you think that the increased technologization of our world will lead to a sort of dehumanization? Why or why not?