Buying things in Amazon’s new Seattle grocery store will feel a lot like shoplifting.
Amazon on Tuesday unveiled its first cashier-less Amazon Go Grocery store, which is at 610 E. Pike St. The store is advertised as having no cashiers, lines or checkout process whatsoever. Instead, shoppers scan a QR code in their Amazon Go app to enter, grab whatever they want to buy and then walk out. Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” technology automatically tracks what shoppers take, adds them into a virtual cart and then charges them when they leave.
This is the same technology the company uses in its 25 convenience stores located across the country, but the newly launched store is significantly larger than its predecessor. The Amazon Go Grocery store is a 10,400-square-foot, fully stocked supermarket with 5,000 unique products. It’s got everything you’d expect from a traditional grocery store, from produce and meat, to easy-to-make meals and well-known food brands.
Amazon is also reportedly considering selling the technology behind its cashierless grocery stores to other retailers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The technology relies on computer vision, image recognition, sensor fusion and deep learning to spot what shoppers are grabbing off shelves.
This news is just the latest chapter in Amazon’s venture into the grocery space.
The company first unveiled AmazonFresh, its grocery pickup subsidiary, in March of 2017. Just a few months later, it bought the national grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. Amazon has become more integrated with Whole Foods since then by offering discounts and grocery deliveries. On top of that, there have also been reports that it is looking to open up several traditional grocery stores separate from the Whole Foods brand.
