Amazon opening cashier-less Whole Foods stores
NEW YORK – There will be something missing at two Whole Foods stores opening next year: the rows of cashiers.
Amazon, which owns the grocery chain, said Wednesday it will bring its cashier-less technology to two Whole Foods stores for the first time, letting shoppers grab what they need and leave without having to open their wallets.
Cameras and sensors track what’s taken off shelves.
Items are charged to an Amazon account after customers leave the store with them.
But there will be an option for those who want to shop the old-fashioned way: Self-checkout lanes will be available that take cash, gift cards and other types of payment.
Amazon first unveiled the cashier-less technology in 2018 at an Amazon Go convenience store and has expanded it to larger Amazon supermarkets.
But it will be the first time it has appeared at Whole Foods, a chain of more than 500 grocery stores Amazon bought four years ago.
One of the new stores will be in Washington, D.C.; the other in Sherman Oaks, California.They will be stocked with the typical Whole Foods fare, including seafood, fresh-squeezed orange juice and organic vegetables.
Even with the technology, Amazon said it will still hire about the same number of workers for the stores that it normally would, except they will have different roles, helping shoppers in the aisles or at counters instead of standing behind a register.
The company declined to say how many people it will hire.
Publishers lose in Australia ruling
CANBERRA, Australia – Australia’s highest court made a landmark ruling Wednesday that media outlets are “publishers” of allegedly defamatory comments posted by third parties on their official Facebook pages.
The High Court dismissed an argument by some of Australia’s largest media organizations – Fairfax Media Publications, Nationwide News and Australian News Channel – that for people to be publishers, they must be aware of the defamatory content and intend to convey it.
The court found in a 5-2 majority decision that by facilitating and encouraging the comments, the companies had participated in their communication.
The decision opens the media organizations to be sued for defamation by former juvenile detainee Dylan Voller.
Voller wants to sue the television broadcaster and newspaper publishers over comments on the Facebook pages of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Centralian Advocate, Sky News Australia and The Bolt Report.
His defamation case launched in the New South Wales state Supreme Court in 2017 was put on hold while the separate question of whether the media companies were liable for Facebook users’ comments was decided.
From wire reports