The retail major Amazon is all set to launch the next Amazon Go checkout-free store in Chicago. The new cashierless store will start operating today which is the first to open outside of Seattle.
With this opening, the store will make use of proprietary technology made up of hundreds of cameras and sensors to see what customers have taken. The Just Walk Out tech allows customers to swipe in with their Amazon Go app, pick up what they want and walk out.
When they leave, the items are automatically charged to the credit card on the account, without the need to talk to a cashier or swipe a barcode. This is really a convenient and time-saving method of shopping. With this move, the customers now won’t have to stand in the queue and wait for their turn to pay for their items.
This high-tech solution for a long-standing complaint among shoppers — long checkout lines — has the prospect of shaking up the grocery business. The Amazon Go stores are about the size of smallish convenience stores, which are about 2,000 square feet as compared to the average U.S. supermarket, which is around 45,000 square feet.
The store has a variety of items that are needed by the customers and stock a high-end assortment of grab-and-go lunch foods, as well as chilled beverages, sweets, snacks, ready-made salads and sandwiches, frozen foods, meal kits for dinners, as well as some groceries and sundries.
With this launch, the company has stated that it is expecting to open more such stores in San Francisco and Chicago as locations. Amazon is not the only company in the cashierless space. Earlier this month a start-up called Standard Cognition opened the Standard Market in downtown San Francisco. The company also uses a proprietary app and cameras to track buyers.