Amazon opens Amazon Go Grocery in Seattle, its first full sized grocery store without cashiers or checkout lines
Amazon Go is going full grocery. — Two years after launching a chain of convenience stores without cashiers or checkout lines, Amazon is opening its first “Amazon Go Grocery” …
GeekWireKurt Schlosser
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the third step in a deliberate scaling sequence: Amazon first proved the just-walk-out tech in an 1,800 sq. ft. staff-only test (debuted in Seattle in 2016), then opened it to the public as a convenience-store format (in January 2018), and is now applying it to a full grocery assortment for the first time. The jump matters because full-size groceries carry far more SKUs, produce that resists easy computer vision, and basket sizes where checkout friction actually shapes shopping frequency.
First-order effects
Seattle shoppers get a full grocery run with no checkout lines, and Amazon gets its first real-world data on whether camera-and-sensor tracking holds up at grocery scale rather than grab-and-go scale.
Second-order effects
Traditional grocers in the region face pressure to answer a format whose main advantage is time saved per trip, either by adopting similar tech or competing on price and service; checkout-technology vendors gain a marquee proof point to sell against.
Third-order effects
If the format proves out, cashierless checkout stops being an Amazon novelty and becomes a competitive baseline for grocery retail, shifting capital spending across the industry toward shelf-level sensing and away from front-end labor.
The trend: Cashierless retail is scaling up from convenience formats to full-size grocery, with Amazon using its home market as the proving ground.
Amazon is opening a new supermarket today... with no cashiers, lots of tech, and the big question of when the concept will make its way into Whole Foods. https://www.vox.com/...
Go is a major strategic bet for Amazon. You can tell by the way Bezos speaks about it that he thinks it's a solution and is going to invest a ton in it over the coming years. https://www.wsj.com/...
Amazon Go Grocery will open in Seattle on Tue. It uses an array of cameras, shelf sensors and software to allow shoppers to pick up items and walk out without stopping to pay or scan merchandise. A/c s are automatically charged through a smartphone app. https://www.wsj.com/...
Amazon is looking to sell its tech to other retailers either via fixed licensing fee or doing a rev share. Soon if the Go licensing goes into effect, will it just be more data point for Amazon to collect from its competitors? https://www.wsj.com/...
http://amazon.com/ is rolling out its checkout-free ‘Go’ technology in a large grocery store and plans to license the cashierless system to other retailers https://www.wsj.com/...
Amazon's ambition is staggering. I've shopped at Amazon Go, and it's fantastic. In NYC where Trader Joe's lines literally wrap through every aisle at peak times and make the store unshoppable, this is revolutionary. https://www.wsj.com/...