After years of rumors that Amazon is going to launch its own retail stores the company today unveiled its vision for the grocery stores of the future. It has opened the first such store in its home town of Seattle. These stores will be branded as Amazon Go and the idea here is to reinvent the proverbial wheel, basically, it has made fundamental changes to the experience of buying groceries.
The first Amazon Go store in Seattle is a 1800 square foot space. Shoppers can just grab the items that they want and leave the store. Their order will automatically be charged to their Amazon account later.
Amazon Go relies on sensors and computer vision to keep an eye on what customers are taking out of the store. The shopping experience starts by scanning an app once the customer enters an Amazon Go shop. Sensors at the door identify the items in their cart as they leave and automatically charges the total to their Amazon account as their phone passes back out the door.
Expect to find almost all of the products that you can find in a local convenience store, including but not limited to drinks, snacks, ready meals like salads and sandwiches, staples like milk and bread, aside from other products.
The first Amazon Go store is only open in beta for Amazon employees. Amazon is going to publicly open the first Amazon Go store early next year.