There are times when we don’t want to deal with cashiers when we go grocery shopping. Well, you need not worry anymore, according to ABC News: Amazon has launched a cashier-less store in Seattle.
In Amazon’s home base of Seattle, the retail giant opened its first grocery store at 610 E. Pike Street, which uses its cashier-less “Just Walk Out” technology. The Amazon Go store is 7,700 square feet in the front of the space and 10,400 square feet overall, which makes the store the largest to use Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology to date. There had been 25 Amazon Go convenience stores throughout a handful of major U.S. metros previously.
The new Amazon Go Grocery store allows customers to shop for everyday grocery items including fresh produce, meat, seafood, and bakery items.
According to the Amazon Go website: “Amazon Go Grocery is the first grocery store to offer Just Walk Out Shopping—come in, take what you want, and just walk out. Amazon Go Grocery offers everything you’d want from a neighborhood grocery store—from fresh produce and meat and seafood to bakery items and household essentials—plus easy-to-make dinner options. We offer a mix of organic and conventional items from well-known brands, along with special finds and local favorites. With our Just Walk Out Shopping experience, you’ll never have to wait in line. No lines, no checkout. (No, seriously.)”
Cameron Janes, who helps oversee Amazon’s physical stores, said the technology needs to be tweaked to account for how people squeeze tomatoes to test for ripeness or rummage through avocados to find just the right one.
Amazon is not new to the grocery business: it purchased Whole Foods and its 500 stores in 2017. Amazon also plans to open another type of grocery store in Los Angeles this year, but the company isn’t revealing the particulars or even if it will incorporate the cashier-less technology. As of now, the company isn’t saying if it plans to open more Amazon Go Grocery stores, and said there are no plans to bring the technology to its current Whole Foods stores.