Amazon Go store opens to public today
Seattle location trades checkouts for “Just Walk Out” technology
SEATTLE – After a year of testing with its own employees, Amazon plans to open its store that lets you browse, grab and walk out — skipping the checkout line, but not the bill — to the public Monday.
The convenience store and its proprietary technology, made up of hundreds of cameras and sensors and requiring a new Amazon app, dangled the promise of solving a bedrock complaint for shoppers — long checkout lines — when it was unveiled just over a year ago. The high-tech approach, crafted by the company that’s most visibly changed how Americans shop in recent years, suggested grocery shopping was on the cusp of its biggest breakthrough since bar codes.
The change spurred by Amazon Go may be more gradual than that. The technology behind it, called Just Walk Out, is proprietary, and Amazon is expected to keep its details secret while it tests it on a small but more varied customer set than the Amazon employees who’ve been using it. It was originally scheduled to open to the public in early 2017 but was delayed.
If it succeeds, it stands to live up to those early expectations of a revolution in grocery shopping. The ability to walk into a store, grab what you want and simply walk out is remarkably freeing, though it can leave a slight nagging feeling that you’ve just shoplifted — until you check the app to make sure you’ve been charged.
“This is the definition of disruption. This is Netflix replacing Blockbuster, this is Uber replacing taxis,” said Brendan Witcher, principal analyst with Forrester Research, who shopped in the store last week.
Critics note the disruption could also end up meaning fewer jobs as lines of checkout clerks give way to smart stores that do their own checking out.
The technology comes as huge changes are already rocking the grocery business, including Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods, plus rising numbers of customers who
want to order online and have their groceries delivered and shifting tastes that have pushed stores to stock more organic and locally-grown items.
But in the 100 years since the first modern supermarket was opened, no one has ever solved the problem of long lines at checkout.
“Seventy-three percent of consumers we’ve surveyed say one of the things they most want from a company is that it values their time. Amazon Go does that,” said Witcher.
To shop in the store, which is about the size of a 7-Eleven, customers must first download the Amazon Go app and link it to a payment method. Then they open the app on their phone and scan it at the four turnstiles to enter the 1,800-square-foot store.
Once inside, cameras in the ceiling, sensors on the shelves and a massive amount of computing power track every item they pick up and what goes into their pockets or bags.
As they move through the store, each item is added to their digital tab. If they pick something up but then put it back, the store knows it and removes the item from their virtual shopping basket. To check out — there’s a reason it’s called Just Walk Out technology. You just walk out.
“The store knows you’re leaving and it tallies up your items and charges your account,” said Gianna Puerini, vice president for Amazon Go.
The company has no plans to open any more Amazon Go stores or export the technology for the time being, despite intense interest from the public. Even when it was only open in beta mode for staff, tourists stopped occasionally to snap photos of the bright orange “beta participant” sign and peer in the windows.
The last year has been about working kinks out of the system. Now that it will be open to the public, the goal is to learn more about how to make it work for everyone, said Puerini.
The store is located at 2131 7th Ave. in Seattle and is open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday.