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Can A Smart Shopping Cart Save You Money?; Creative Educational Program Inspiring New Generation to Protect Amazon Rainforest; China`s Hottest New Tourist Attraction is 5,000 Feet in the Air. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired December 03, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: What`s up, sunshine? Terrific Tuesday to you. I`m Coy. This is CNN 10, your 10 minutes of news with no bias, no slant. I just
tell you the what, letting you decide what to think.
Tomorrow is your Word Wednesday, so submit your vocabulary words and definition in the comments section of my most recent post @coywire on
Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and we`re going to choose one winner to help us write tomorrow`s show. And put your school, city, state, and teacher`s
name in there so we can show you some love.
All right, let`s get you your news. We`re starting today with new technology that claims to be making shopping easier and cheaper. It`s an
AI-powered smart cart called Caper. Delivery company Instacart is rolling out high-tech buggies in grocery chains like Kroger, Schnucks, and
ShopRite. These things can scan products. They weigh items as they`re dropped in. They can offer coupons and product suggestions to customers as
they shop.
The new technology aims to assist both grocery chains and the customer. With years of inflation and grocery prices rising, budgets are top of mind
for consumers right now. So much so that a survey of registered voters before last month`s election showed that a whopping 96% of voters said high
prices for gas, groceries, and other goods factored in to how they cast their ballots.
Consumer Price Index, or CPI, inflation data shows that Americans are shelling out 22% more for groceries compared to January of 2021.
A number of factors contributed to this over the years, like the pandemic, the war in Ukraine raising wheat prices, and rising energy prices, making
it more expensive to transport food. While wage increases are now outpacing the soaring food prices, people are tired of food prices staying so high,
and they likely won`t be going down anytime soon.
So could technology like this help ease shoppers` budgeting pain? CNN`s Clare Duffy took a smart cart for a test run to show us how they work.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER (voice-over): This is Caper Cart, an AI- powered smart shopping cart that hopes to solve a familiar grocery store headache, self-checkout.
AHMED BESHRY, CO-FOUNDER, CAPER: Please put an item in the bagging area. Like that`s something we don`t want here at all.
DUFFY: Instead of scanning items at one of these, Caper`s technology lets you check out items in your cart. No need to fumble around looking for
barcodes. Caper claims that multiple smart sensors and cameras can automatically detect barcodes as items go in or out of your cart. It can
even weigh produce.
BESHRY: Our core focus when building this product was to make sure that none of those extremely annoying pain points that you see with self-
checkout present themselves on the Caper Cart.
DUFFY (on camera): OK, but what if I decide that`s actually not the one I want? Take it out. Oh, it just automatically took it out. That was good.
(Voice-over): I had to take a little more care with a couple of items. Well, that wasn`t good enough. But for the most part, product scanning was
seamless. The cart even caught my tissue box toss.
(On camera): Oh, got that.
(Voice-over): Caper claims their carts don`t just save you time but money as well. The carts are free to use and the display shows a running total of
your items to help keep you on budget.
(On camera): Four items and we`re already at $14.35.
(Voice-over): It services coupons for items you`ve added to your cart and even recommends products on sale nearby.
(On camera): We can get a coupon for ginger ale. It tells me it`s on aisle 14.
(Voice-over): Location-based recommendations are just one of these features Caper Cart gained after being acquired by Instacart in 2021.
BESHRY: The sophistication that Instacart has been building around AI and product recommendations, we get to leverage all of that in the in-store
experience. We want to really personalize the experience based off of where you are in the store, what you have in your basket, how you shopped in the
past to really recommend things that cater really well to your diet or your family`s shopping patterns.
DUFFY: As my cart continued to serve me coupons and ads, I couldn`t help but feel like it was encouraging me to buy more.
(On camera): The pitch to stores is customers are going to buy more. The pitch to customers is you`re going to save money.
BESHRY: Sure.
DUFFY: How do you square those two things?
BESHRY: So if you think about a customer that goes in to shop on a budget, they`re typically spending a lot less than they want to because they don`t
want to go to the front of the store and then end up, you know, going over their budget.
So by having things like running totals, we see customers actually shop to their budget. They end up buying like one or two more items but the cost of
those items actually comes down because we`re able to present all these savings for them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Ten-second trivia.
What factor is the largest driver of deforestation or the intentional clearing of forests?
Urbanization, logging, agriculture or mining?
If you said agriculture, you are correct. The majority of deforestation is linked to growing soybeans and palm oil as well as clearing land for
raising livestock.
The Amazon rainforest covers nearly 60% of the South American country of Peru, making it the second largest expanse after Brazil.
Today on Call to Earth, we travel to a Peruvian jungle metropolis where a conservation group is inspiring the next generation of planet protectors
with a unique and playful project.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iquitos, Peru: A city surrounded by rivers and engulfed by the Amazon rainforest is
considered the largest city in the world that can only be reached by air or by water. And yet for many of its citizens it can feel as if all that
natural splendor doesn`t really exist.
CRISTIAN VELEZ, ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION COORDINATOR, AMAZON FOREVER: I could describe it as a metropolis in the heart of the Amazon. But something
particular about this city is that in spite of being in this, in the middle of the jungle, local people here don`t have access to green areas.
CHATTERLEY: According to the non-profit Amazon Forever, 80% of the youth who live here have no contact with the forest.
VELEZ: That means that 80% of the Amazonian children in Iquitos have nature deficit disorder. That`s a big challenge because in a couple of
years they are going to be the decision makers here in the Amazon.
CHATTERLEY: And that statistic led to the creation of this.
(MUSIC)
CHATTERLEY: Huayo, which means fruit in the indigenous language of Kichwa, is just that. A magical fruit brought to life and given a mission to unite
kids across the world to help save nature.
Javier Velasquez created and writes Huayo`s eco-tales, which were inspired by his own upbringing.
JAVIER VELASQUEZ, DIRECTOR, AMAZON FOREVER: When I was a child I had the opportunity to visit a lot of places in the Amazon with my grandfather. He
gave me the opportunity to know how beautiful is the Amazon rainforest. In that moment, when I was a child, I decided in my heart to care for the
Amazon.
CHATTERLEY: The stories can be found in books and in an online video series. And there`s also a larger-than-life version in a patch of woodland
less than an hour south of Iquitos.
VELEZ: Here at the Forest of Huayo, we want children to have a memorable experience by visiting and exploring the forest. So basically when our
children come here, they feel like they are inside a Huayo story, like visit a living book.
CHATTERLEY: There`s even a movie in the works. But Huayo is more than a cartoon character. It`s grown into an entire learning method that forms the
core of an educational program run by Amazon Forever.
Since launching back in 2016, they`ve reached more than 45,000 children with the Huayo method.
VELEZ: If you work with a child and if they have a memorable experience, probably you`re going to inspire that children. They`re going to be park
rangers. They are going to be someone who respect the Amazon, someone who respect the nature. That`s why this method works in this emotional level.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Today`s story getting a 10 out of 10 is taking us to great heights or not great if you have acrophobia. The Sky Ladder is a new attraction in
China that hovers 5,000 feet above the ground. Climbers traverse steep rock walls before even reaching the ladder, which is more than 500 feet long,
swaying between two mountain cliffs.
The nature park in China`s Hunan province is an area famous for complex and diverse landforms. If you had to choose between climbing this thing or
keeping your feet on the ground, would you choose the latter or the ladder?
I want to thank all of you for choosing us to get caught up on your news. We`re sending a shout out today to Riley, Kansas, home of the Falcons at
Riley County High School. Rise up.
I`m Coy Wire. This is CNN 10. Be sure to like, subscribe on our CNN 10 YouTube channel and put those shout out requests in the comment section.
I`ll see you tomorrow.
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