Don’t get too excited to shop at Amazon Go

Retailer shoots down report that it will open thousands of stores across the U.S.

SAN FRANCISCO The cool Amazon Go concept store in Seattle that lets customers shop without going through a checkout line is probably not coming to your town anytime soon — though Seattle might be getting a drivethrough Amazon pickup grocery, as well. The Wall Street Journal reported this week Amazon was working on multiple grocery store formats and envisioned opening more than 2,000 physical stores across the U.S.

Amazon wants to squash those rumors.

“We have no plans to open 2,000 of anything. Not even close. We are still learning,” Amazon spokeswoman Pia Arthur said.

Not only that, but Amazon says it’s not planning on building any large, 30,000- to 40,000square-foot grocery stores that combine grocery shopping with click-and-deliver options.

“It’s not correct. We have no plans to build such a store,” Arthur said.

The one thing Amazon did not address in its blanket denial was reports that it’s going to open a drive-through grocery store pickup location in Ballard, a hip neighborhood north of Seattle’s downtown.

Planning documents show some sort of large retail site, with a pick-up service, is being built. But they do not include any information about what company it is being built for. Thus far, the Amazon connection is based on conjecture and links between the developer and other Amazon projects.

To use the proposed Seattle location, customers (whoever’s customers they are) would schedule a 15-minute to twohour pick-up window, then drive to a designated parking area to pick up purchased items or walk into a retail area to pick up items, planning documents said.

Similar sites, again with no company name attached, have been proposed to planners in Sunnyvale and San Carlos, Calif., near Silicon Valley.

Monday, Amazon revealed a video about a pilot store that would allow customers to shop in a self-branded store and purchase the items without going through the checkout line, all charged to a credit card identified on the customer’s Amazon Go smartphone app.

A patent filed two years ago suggests Amazon is using cameras, microphones, sensors and cloud computing to enable the technology.

“We have no plans to open 2,000 of anything. Not even close. We are still learning.” Amazon spokeswoman Pia Arthur, referring to an article in The Wall Street Journal