Amazon Is About to Open Its First Futuristic Checkout-Free Grocery Store

The Seattle store has no queues, registers or checkouts — customers choose what they want and are charged accordingly.
Libby Curran
January 22, 2018

It's been a heck of a long time coming, but retail giant Amazon will this week open the doors to the first of its automated grocery stores in Seattle, USA.

As reported by CNBC, the Amazon Go concept is out to shake up the retail industry, by doing away with the queues, checkouts and registers of traditional grocery stores. Instead, customers scan their Amazon Go app upon walking into the store, cameras and sensors are used to track which products are taken from the shelves and make their way into a virtual shopping cart, and shoppers are charged accordingly and emailed their receipt after leaving.

But while it all sounds pretty nifty, there's always a swag of hype surrounding Amazon's new technologies and launches, and lately the company seems to have had some issues bringing them to fruition. The Seattle store was scheduled to open to the public back in early 2017, but was delayed for testing nearly a year due to kinks in the automated check-out technology.

There has been speculation that Amazon is aiming to open bricks-and-mortar stores in Australia as well, namely its grocery service Amazon Fresh. But given the long-overdue launach of Amazon's Australian online retail service late last year, we won't hold our breath waiting for the Amazon Go concept to arrive Down Under for a little while.

Via CNBC.

Published on January 22, 2018 by Libby Curran
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