Amazon’s exploration of cashierless stores you can easily shoplift from by accident has been going well, so far. So, like any idea that seems profitable, Amazon is taking this one big. Amazon Go, as the stores are called, will be expanding in Seattle and possibly elsewhere on the West Coast during 2018.
The store is easy to grasp; you scan an app at a turnstile, walk in, grab food, and leave, with the app and a ton of cameras tracking your purchases and charging your credit card accordingly. While Amazon Go has only been open a month, it’s popular enough that according to Grub Street, Amazon has big plans, with three more stores in Seattle and one in LA’s Grove:
…there are already plans to open as many as six additional Go locations before the end of the year [and a]t least three more locations in Seattle have been identified. …Amazon is in “serious talks” with billion-dollar real-estate developer Caruso Affiliated about bringing a Go to the Grove, the massive outdoor retail-and-entertainment complex. Neither Amazon nor Caruso will comment on the discussions.
As some point out, LA is Amazon’s second test bed. If something works in Seattle, the next step for the company is to try it out on Angelinos. The main question is how far this idea goes. The store’s design is not without employees, they simply check IDs and prepare food and meal kits instead of running the register. For a grab-and-go convenience store, that makes sense. But will we see them try it with a Whole Foods next? And will people miss cashiers, especially since they’re not fans of self-checkouts? Looks like 2018 is the year we get some answers.
(via Grub Street)