Why do you think baskets should be required? To prevent theft? This has been implemented for a decade now, evidently thievery isn’t much of a concern.

There are no doubt multiple factors at play, but when things are easy and quality of life is decent, the honour system works.

That could work also, but not all shops have carts, and people don’t always need a basket. It’s common enough to scan things and pop them directly into a bag you brought, skipping the need for a basket altogether.

It was more accurately described as computer vision at the time, but your memory is right. They wanted to get to 5% of sales being human reviewed, but it was more like 70%.

What’s funny about Amazon’s efforts for Just Walk Out is that checkout free shopping already existed. Simply by letting customers carry a handheld scanner and payment terminal around the store with them.

Oh to live in the parallel universe where those local and state governments tell them to pack up their data centre and shove off once their carnival leases expire. The sonic schadenfreude would be felt around the globe.