Amazon Go, the e-commerce company's newest endeavor, aims to make grocery shopping a lot easier. The online retail giant has just introduced its high-tech grocery store where customers can simply walk in, grab the goods and walk out of the store.
Amazon is utilizing what they call the 'Just Walk Out technology" in which the Amazon Go app allows customers to simply let their smartphones be scanned before proceeding with their shopping. This tech is made possible with the help of sensors, computer vision, and machine learning.
This basically means there is no more need to line up, fidget with the wallet and wait for the goods to be bagged. The only delay customers may encounter is when they find it hard to choose from the variety of items that will be sold in the store.
The first store is located in Seattle particularly at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Blanchard Street. The store measures 1,800 square feet. As of now, the store is in its experimental stage with employees of the company taking part in the test run. Amazon plans to open the store to the public in early 2017.
Amazon has been moving from being an exclusively online retailer. It already has physical bookstores located in Portland, San Diego, and Seattle while two more Amazon Books will open in Chicago and Boston.
The company also has plans for a drive-through grocery store with three reportedly being built as of this writing. The one over at Ballard, Seattle is nearing completion while the other two are supposedly located in Sunnyvale and San Carlos, CA.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon is looking at opening around 2,000 stores all over the country using three different formats. Aside from the Amazon Go and the drive-through stores, the company will probably open a combination of a walk-in and drive-through store.
Some view Amazon's moves as the end of traditional retail and grocery stores. Technology will be putting a lot of cashiers and baggers out of their jobs. An estimated 3.5 million laborers in the United States work behind the cash register, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Seattle Times reports that the grocery industry rake in around $800 billion a year. That figure makes up 17 percent of the total for the whole country. Wal-Mart, currently the leader in the field, is diverting its focus on online retailing. Amazon, meanwhile, is one of the top e-commerce companies around and is now aggressively trying to penetrate the grocery business.
