UNITED STATES―Downtown Seattle has become the testing location for Amazon’s first grocery store, Amazon Go. The new location will allow customers to walk in, gather and purchase their food and other grocery necessities, and walk out, without waiting in checkout lines.
Through Amazon Go, after entering the store, customers tap their smartphones on a turnstile, which will log them into the store’s network and their personal Amazon account.
The network uses technology such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and sensors. The technology allows the items a customer selects to be tracked and added to their cart on the app. If a customer decides to put an item back, it is taken off the app’s cart. When the customer walks out of the Amazon Go establishment, the app tallies up the total in the cart and charges the Amazon account.
Amazon Go is currently being tested on Amazon employees who are located a short distance from Amazon’s headquarters.
Amazon Go’s selection of “ready made” meal kits has created a buzz. Technology is being used to cover most of the costs to operate a grocery store, which allows Amazon Go to keep prices at a lower than average rate.
Amazon has indicated that the grocery store has been in the works since 2012. Amazon Go is expected to be open to the public in early 2017.
