Amazon's technology — through which cameras pick up what shoppers are buying so they can be automatically charged when they leave the store — has thus far only worked in small stores, like a 2,500-square-foot Amazon Go. With its Sam's Club Now, Walmart is going small, too, not having figured out as yet how cashierless can work at a large scale.

But, but, but: China's retail giants — Alibaba and JD.com — have tackled scale and lines without killing checkout altogether. Instead, they use the power of mobile payments. Rather than being monitored by ubiquitous cameras and sensors, Chinese shoppers pay for everything from street food to new laptops by scanning QR codes with their cellphones.

• This approach works in any size store.
• It also means that "the shift to cashier-free stores doesn't require as much of a change in consumer habits as it does in the U.S.," says Zoe Leavitt, a retail analyst at CB Insights.
• For example, shoppers at Alibaba's Hema — its chain of full-size grocery stores — simply stroll the aisles, scanning their vegetables, meat and other goods.

The bottom line: Billions of dollars are being spent on perfecting cashierless checkout, but getting American consumers to switch to mobile payments may be an easier and cheaper way to streamline shopping in the long run.

Details: The task force recommends that the Postal Service separate out commercial packages and mail from more essential deliveries, making them no longer subject to affordability guarantees that come with the service's status as a government-sanctioned monopoly for some offerings.

• It suggests that the Postal Service determine when a "strong social or macroeconomic rationale exists for government protection in the form of price caps and mandated delivery standards" for packages and mail, as opposed to deliveries that are "commercial in nature" and aren't entitled to similar regulation.
• It does not single out Amazon, despite the presidential attacks that led up to the creation of the task force.

The other side: "It’s very concerning, and if implemented it would be tremendously damaging to the Postal Service’s bottom line and more importantly to consumers and businesses large and small across America," said John McHugh, a former congressman who works at law firm K&L Gates and leads the Package Coalition, whose members include Amazon, Express Scripts and the National Retail Federation.

The big picture: The Postal Service report comes as Amazon's continued dominance ignites pushback on multiple fronts.

• Amazon is in the middle of two antitrust investigations in Europe. One, led by the EU's top regulator, looks at the e-commerce giant's data-driven advantage over other sellers on its platform. Germany's Federal Cartel Office launched a separate probe into monopolistic practices last week.
• Amazon's high-profile search for a second headquarters — which enticed up-and-coming cities all over the country only to settle on the D.C. area and New York, two of the richest places in the world — thrust Amazon into a sometimes critical spotlight.
• On Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Amazon posted record-breaking sales, but the big shopping days were punctuated by worker-led protests against the behemoth's warehouse working conditions.

Yes, but: Consumers still, by and large, feel good about Amazon. A recent poll from the Baker Center at Georgetown University found that there's only one institution in which Americans have more confidence than Amazon: the military.

• The report undercut Trump's claims that Amazon deliveries are a massive drain on the Postal Service, instead finding increased package volume hadn't made up for other shortfalls in revenue.

What's next? While the administration says that postal regulators can make many of its recommended changes, expect lawmakers to get involved.

• "I appreciate Secretary Mnuchin and the Postal Task Force’s effort to accurately assess the Postal Service’s financial reality and propose viable solutions without relying on a taxpayer bailout," said Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson.
• "I look forward to working with the secretary and his department to put the Postal Service on a long-term, sustainable path," he said.

Go deeper: For Amazon, success breeds enemies

The big picture: Nepal is far from being an innovation center. It has a GDP of around $25 billion — 1/500 the size of China's and 1/800 of the United States'. And it graduates just 10,000 technologists a year. But a handful of startups are working to bring cutting-edge tech to the small Himalayan nation.

• One startup is Paaila Technology. This group of 25 engineers — none over the age of 27 — designed and built three "Gingers" and installed them at Naulo, a restaurant they opened in one of Kathmandu's poshest neighborhoods, reports the Economic Times of India. The restaurant's name roughly translates to "new."
• Much of Naulo is automated — customers order via a digitalized screen at their table, choosing from full-color photographs of pizza, Nepali dumplings and other dishes.

Fun fact: The Gingers themselves are very much handmade — they are painted, for instance, by a local mechanic.