Don’t check this out

Note : All Viralelt posts share the same structure. Teacher’s notes appear only on How to use Viralelt. This is done to keep “teacher text” to a minimum and avoid repetition.

The promotional video below features Amazon Go, the latest retail adventure from Amazon which will be launched in early 2017. Hailed as “the world’s most advanced shopping technology”, this app-based “Just-Walk-Out“ shopping experience promises to cut down supermarket time by eliminating the need for queuing at checkouts.

Before showing your students the video you might like to ask them what they find annoying about shopping in supermarkets, and/or how they think the experience could be improved.

1. How do you react to the video you’ve just seen?
2. What do you imagine buying things in a shop like Amazon Go will feel like?
3. Which shops do you think will be the most successful in the future?
   a) Shops with shop assistants (human or robot) and checkouts
   b) Shops like Amazon Go with no shop assistants or checkouts
   c) Shops with no shop assistants, but with self-checkouts operated by customers
   d) On-line stores with home delivery (possibly by drone)
4. How much human interaction with staff and other shoppers do you want when you are shopping? Do you have a generally positive or generally negative opinion of most shop staff?
5. Do you know anyone who works in a shop? What do you imagine it’s like to work in a shop?
6. It is common to hear that in the not too distant future robots and intelligent machines will do many of the jobs currently done by humans. Which of the following jobs do you think will be most affected?
   Teachers, Surgeons, Family doctors, Musicians, Bus drivers, Painters, Waiters, Chefs, Lawyers, Carers, Factory workers, Professional sportspeople
7. Where does your family normally do the shopping? Why do they go to these shops and not others? In general, do they provide a pleasant shopping experience?
8. How often do you buy things on-line? Are some products more suited to on-line retail than others?
9. How easy is it to steal from a shop? Have you ever stolen anything from a shop? If you have, did you get away with it, or did you get caught?
10. How do you normally pay for things: in cash, by debit card, by credit card or by cheque?

Which two of the above questions are being discussed?

Download “Question time” and the “Sitting comfortably?” script in an editable Word document here.  

The video parody mentioned in Sitting Comfortably (B). 

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