Amazon expands its checkout-free Amazon Go retail concept with a second, larger store, also in Seattle, which it says will open in fall 2018
Amazon is expanding its checkout-free Amazon Go retail concept with another location in the company's backyard, GeekWire has learned.
Context & Ripple Effects
Amazon Go began as a controlled experiment: the 1,800 sq. ft. checkout-less food store Amazon opened in Seattle in late 2016 was staff-only at first, serving as a live test of its app-tracked purchasing tech. By February 2018, reporting indicated Amazon planned up to six new cashierless locations, concentrated in Seattle with one eyed for Los Angeles' The Grove mall.
This second, larger Seattle store due in fall 2018 is the first concrete confirmation of that expansion plan — Amazon scaling the format beyond a single proof-of-concept site in its own backyard before committing to outside markets.
First-order effects
- Seattle shoppers get a second checkout-free location, and Amazon gains a larger-volume site to validate that its tracking technology holds up beyond the original small-format store.
Second-order effects
- A confirmed multi-store rollout pressures traditional grocers and convenience chains in Amazon's home market to respond to a checkout experience they don't yet offer, while the reported Los Angeles site would test the format against mall retail rather than Seattle office-worker foot traffic.
Third-order effects
- If the fall opening performs, the pattern points toward cashierless tech graduating from novelty demo to repeatable store template — the prerequisite step for the full-size grocery formats Amazon would need to make checkout-free retail a category rather than a stunt.
The trend: Checkout-free retail is moving from a single staff-only pilot toward a replicable multi-store chain, with Amazon using Seattle as the proving ground before any wider geographic push.