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I had a friend of the family who was shopping inside a Dollar General when a gunman came in and took the workers and shoppers hostage. She was able to convince the gunman to let her “call into work to tell them she’d be late”. She called 911 and informed them that she was“experiencing car trouble and would not be able to report to work today”; the 911 operator didn’t have a clue. She was even able to call back and “confirm that they received her message, and will not be in today” still… the 911 dispatcher hadn’t a clue and berated her for prank calling.The lady finally placed one more call, pretending to speak to a supervisor, but was in fact calling an ex husband. When he answered she told him, “I won’t be in today, and my husband’s brother will be working on my car”. Well, the ex knew something was wrong, because they were no longer together, and his brother and she absolutely despised each other.So, you can always try to speak in code to a 911 dispatcher, and they may very well in some cases be able to help, but there is always a chance they will have no clue what you’re doing, and assume it’s a prank.Yes, the ex alerted the police, and by the time they arrived, one worker had been shot and killed, and the gunman had taken his own life. Our friend as well as the others got to safety.

I would suggest that you study the culture, products and service style of Australian coffee shops and cafes like these Aussie have done in New York.Starbucks tried to penetrate the Australian cafe market in 2000 by opening 84 stores, only to close 61 of them 8 years later because they could not compete with the small independent stores. 95% of all 6,500 cafes and coffee shops in Australia today are independently owned, with big chains like Starbucks and Gloria Jeans making up the remaining 5%. Cafes and Coffee Shops in Australia Market ResearchInterestingly, Starbucks first store in Australia opened just one block away from my own cafe in Sydney, so I got first hand feedback from my customers on Starbuck's potential threat. The concern I had before they opened dissipated within a week after they did. I concluded very quickly that Starbucks was good for tourists and those folk looking for brand association, but their appeal to the quality espresso seeking locals was limited to just one curious trial. I also saw that they were in fact following the age-old successful chain formula of adequate product + brilliant marketing rather than the other way round. So they were not actually targeting my niche unique coffee/service market, which is where I believe the independents fit in.Here is how the small independent Australian cafes and coffee shops countered the invasion of the global giant Starbucks, and won. Some of these strategies may be of value to other independent stores who are required to compete with Starbucks in other locations as well.Offer the espresso coffee brew method only: Build your entire offer around espresso coffee and forget about all other coffee brew methods that Starbucks offers. This gives you a focused niche reputation, less management issues, less serving space clutter, less customer confusion, less capital costs and the opportunity to be the best at the one thing that matters in building a viable and sustainable coffee business ... fine espresso coffee.Copy the Italian espresso culture: Copy as much of the Italian coffee culture as possible because that is another country where Starbucks have no stores because I suspect they know they can't compete with the existing independently owned espresso bars. For example, Italians know that big is not better, in fact big drink servings typically generate a poorer quality output and rarely leads to the much needed multiple sales. Learn to make coffee the Italian way because it was the Italian immigrants that taught Australian baristas how to make the quality of espresso coffee that Starbucks found so difficult to compete with. Without being snobbish, Starbucks espresso just does not reach the benchmark required of fine Italian espresso coffee. Just ask an Italian who has tried Starbucks! Unlike Starbucks, Italians don't need to add syrups or special sweeteners to their coffee to make it taste good.Quality above all: Forget the Starbucks' style marketing hype, the special merchandising and the roasted bean sales - just sell the finest espresso coffee drinks you can make to every customer ... every time. Take the time to learn the art and science of fine espresso making. Besides, marketing costs are not needed in this high repeating, high referring business - provided your espresso coffee is top quality. Also, your best margins are in the prepared drinks rather than the roasted beans and merchandise, so put all your efforts into your product with the highest profit - the manufactured drinks. Furthermore, Starbucks, in the interests of saving labor costs and achieving consistency of product, incorporate automation in the espresso coffee making process. The trouble is that automation does not manage or mitigate the significant number of variables that quality espresso coffee making calls for, but which passionate independent cafe owners working more manual machines are prepared to do. See Why quality espresso coffee is so hard to find.Make your store a 'Home away from home' - Promote a warm, welcoming and friendly environment rather than copy Starbucks' style of self-promoting visuals, structural sameness and regimented layouts. Unlike other service and retail businesses, customers can engage multiple times per day with a cafe or coffee shop, so make them feel like it's a 'home away from home' in your cafe with interesting and changing visuals, a variety of seating arrangements and let the customer alter the furniture to suit themselves. Even put together a bunch of off-beat, eclectic and quirky furniture pieces.Let your customers own you - Coffee customers love nothing better than to claim their favorite cafe as their own. They love to introduce their friends to 'their' cafe which demonstrates their good judgement, discerning taste and sassy know-how. Also limit your baristas (you alone if possible) so your customers can connect with your quality coffee obsession as you become their favorite barista. Starbucks strugle to capture and leverage this emotion when they so overtly brand their stores as belonging to them and offer little consistency with their constantly rotating 'baristas on duty'.It's OK to be familiar with your customers - Chains like Starbucks can't risk their brand value by allowing service standards to be determined by their transient university student staff, so they create and enforce strict codes and processes for 'serving' customers which I think is inappropriate for the high repeating cafe clientele. Long term independent cafe owners are not so constrained and can leverage the opportunity that multiple visits creates, to become familiar with their customers. So get to know your customer's names, learn their drink preferences, chat about all sorts of things that friends do and trade the professional process driven service for a very personal and familiar one. Your customers will love it!Avoid the tourist locations - Starbucks' marketing and global presence gives them a huge competitive advantage in tourist areas because they have a brand that tourist trust while your brand is an unknown to tourists and perceived as a risky option. The greatest competitive advantage for independent stores is next to or under office towers in the central business districts or in areas that service a static repeating clientele. A study of the 22 Starbuck stores remaining in Australia reveals that all but 3 would be classified as serving predominantly tourist markets.Don't copy Starbucks high profile/high rent strategy - If you build your business on consistent high quality espresso, your devoted and addicted customers will 'go the extra mile' and walk past the main street Starbucks locations to the more obscure low-rent ones anyway. Your customers will love introducing their friends to these hidden gems which once found can attract as big a repeating and referring clientele as Starbucks main street stores, but at a significantly lower rent.Interestingly, in the 5 years since the GFC, Starbucks have added 4,211 stores to their chain globally, yet not one of those new stores was added to the Australian market. I think that the Australian experience shows that the passionate and skilled independent cafe proprietor selling quality Italian-inspired espresso in off-prime locations can compete with Starbucks.You may also be able to get some further clues on building a cafe or coffee shops that can compete with Starbucks by reviewing answers to this questions. What's the secret to a successful coffee shop?

The most important reason is that Amazon Go is not really a store, it’s a resell-able service. Meaning, if this is successful, Amazon will be vying to provide your shopping experience within 7–11 in the same way that they resold their technology services as Amazon Web Services. That means they need to be able to provide a service to 7–11 without forcing the latter to adopt new processes and hardware.Other reasons are:Cost. Someone would have to put RFID tags on every item. Those RFID tags cost money. That person’s time costs money, and fixing their human errors costs more money. Amazon hates spending money.Device. Amazon wanted to use the smartphone instead of other non-consumer hardware. Why?cost (see above)data (see below)augmented reality. Amazon can overlay information about sales, etc directly onto your shopping experience. Perhaps at first this is simply “hey, that thing on your left is $1 off today” but it will eventually be a full visual and/or audio overlay on top of the real-world imagery.Data and Interactivity. If sensors were in the cart, RFID would only tell you what went into the cart and what left the cart. If sensors were at the door they would only tell you what left the store. With the mobile phone and computer vision, Amazon knows every single thing someone did in their store. They even know if you were visually comparing options, if you took a passing glance at a display, or you were looking for something and were unable to find it.