Shaky start for Amazon’s ‘supermarket of the future’
Amazon’s first “supermarket of the future” was hit with teething problems because a sophisticated algorithm monitoring shoppers failed to take into account naughty children.
The Amazon Go store, which has no checkouts, opened its doors in Seattle for the first time yesterday after a year of testing to perfect the technology.
Instead of tills it uses dozens of ceiling-mounted cameras to identify customers and to track which items they pick up and leave with.
Before arriving at the store shoppers must download the Amazon Go smartphone app and enter their card details. The app connects to sensors on shop shelves, which add items to customers’ digital shop- ping baskets as they pick them up. Their card is charged when they leave. Items are removed from the basket if returned to the shelves.
However, an Amazon insider told the BBC that there had been some “teething problems”, with cameras getting confused by shoppers with similar body shapes and by children moving items.
Experts suggested the experience may be like having Big Brother watching you shop.
Terry Hunter, British managing director of Astound Commerce, said: “The checkout-less Amazon Go supermarket has reinvented the traditional retail store. Will other supermarkets follow Amazon’s example? In the short term, this is unlikely.
“The new approach will also take some getting used to by shoppers: the camera-identification and tracking technology in use in the store has experienced teething problems, and many consumers will likely see the move as a surveillance step too far.”
Scott Gallacher, director at the investment company Moneyfarm, said: “Although improving convenience, Amazon’s launch of the first supermarket without checkouts will contribute to overspending and encourage short-term mindsets. Checkout-less shopping removes a crucial checkpoint for customers. Clear price labelling will be critical to ensure that individuals can still monitor their spending and maintain their budget.”
The Amazon Go store adds to the company’s growing physical presence. As well as 470 grocery stores, which it acquired when it bought Whole Foods last year, it now has more than a dozen bookshops, small stores in several American shopping centres and space in some Kohl’s department stores.
Amazon Go was due to open early last year, but it was delayed so that employees could test the technology.