Amazon opens a grocery store with no cashiers
Amazon's first Go Grocery store will open its doors in Seattle on Tuesday, welcoming shoppers to walk in, grab what they need and walk out without ever having to interact with a cashier.
The e-commerce giant that has already shaken up the way people shop for pretty much everything is now expanding into the grocery business and is aiming to change the way people go to the supermarket by eliminating lines and checkout registers.
Customers simply scan an app as they enter, fill up their bag with groceries and leave, using what Amazon dubs "Just Walk Out Technology."
They will be sent a receipt and charged to their Amazon account as soon as they exit the store.
The shopping experience employs "the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning," according to Amazon Go's website.
The high-tech store keeps track of when products are taken or returned to the shelves and tracks them in a virtual cart, the company added.
In order to shop at the store, you must have an Amazon account, the Amazon Go app and a "recent-generation" iPhone or Android phone.
While Amazon has a handful of smaller Go convenience stores that already use some of the technology, the Seattle location opening Tuesday is its first full-sized supermarket.
The 10,400 square-foot grocery store is also featuring some beloved local vendors such as Seattle Bagel Bakery, La Parisienne and Lopez Island Creamery. Amazon says its staff taste-tested a range of products as well in order to stock the store with tasty and high-quality goods.
While this is Amazon's first Go Grocery store, it also owns approximately 500 Whole Foods across the country after acquiring the chain in 2017. Dilip Kumar, the vice president of Amazon Go, told the Wall Street Journal it currently has no plans to put cashierless tech into Whole Foods stores yet.
