While I agree with your statement as-is (Employee-less retail locations do not currently make economic sense"), I do believe we'll see a dramatic reduction in employment in commodity retail locations (anything that sells upscale or non-essentials will retain humans).
Many large companies are trying very hard, and tech is basically here, see for example:
Self-check is getting a lot better too (I don't understand why it's getting delayed).
I also believe that employee arbitrage is an opportunity (serving high-cost areas from low-cost areas, and improving employee usage and efficiency), and I'm going to personally invest in building tech to enable that.
It's an interesting idea. I have a lot of questions around Loss Prevention - how do they address shoplifting, on-premises consumption, destruction of merchandise, and other retail issues Amazon hasn't faced before.
Many large companies are trying very hard, and tech is basically here, see for example:
https://www.amazon.com/b?node=16008589011
Self-check is getting a lot better too (I don't understand why it's getting delayed).
I also believe that employee arbitrage is an opportunity (serving high-cost areas from low-cost areas, and improving employee usage and efficiency), and I'm going to personally invest in building tech to enable that.