Amazon Fresh adds stores and tech
‘Just Walk Out’ option will use store cameras to skip checkout line
Amazon Fresh is preparing to open stores in La Habra and Cerritos in the coming months, a move that will boost the company’s Southern California total to 10 locations.
The new stores will be Amazon’s first to feature Just Walk Out technology, which allows shoppers to enter a store, grab what they want and leave without going through a checkout line or self-serve kiosk.
Amazon Fresh District Manager Jondolon Bush explains it this way:
“We have hundreds of cameras located throughout the store and sensor-enabled shelving,” he said. “That, coupled with deep-learning algorithms, allows us to recognize all of the products shoppers take off or put back on the shelves.”
Customers enter the store using their palm print or a credit card, and when they leave their card will be charged for all of the items in their virtual cart. If they need a receipt they can visit a kiosk in the store, enter their email address and a receipt will be sent to them.
They can use the same credit card to enter any Just Walk Outenabled store in the future and a receipt will automatically be emailed to them.
Unlike other Amazon Fresh stores that use checkout-free Dash Carts, shoppers who use the Just Walk Out service don’t need to download an app or create an Amazon account. The new stores will also allow shoppers to use traditional checkout lines staffed by Amazon employees, if they prefer.
“They pioneered this kind of technology with their Amazon Go stores in Seattle,” said Bob Phibbs, CEO of The Retail Doctor, a New York-based retail consulting firm. “It was rumored that the cost was up to $1 million to have all the cameras and infrastructure that goes underneath that.”
Phibbs said the rollout of Amazon Fresh stores has gone much slower than initially expected.
“Amazon bragged that they would be opening 2,000 to 3,000 of these stores, but it’s going very slow,” he said.
Phibbs said the technology will likely go over best in urban areas and in convenience stores with “low-touch” purchases.
“You wouldn’t be using this for shopping that requires a butcher or deli service,” he said. “It’s more designed for grab-and-go buying.”
Other Amazon Fresh stores are in Woodland Hills, Irvine, Northridge, North Hollywood, Whittier, Long Beach, Ladera Heights and Fullerton. More than 3,000 fulltime and part-time Amazon Fresh jobs have been created since the first local store opened in Woodland Hills last fall, the company said.
The new stores will pay starting wages of $15 to $16.50 an hour, depending on position and experience and include benefits. Interested applicants can visit www.amazonstores.jobs for more information or to apply.
Amazon Fresh stores, as well as Amazon Books, Amazon 4-star, Amazon Pop Up, and Whole Foods Market locations are also hiring for full- and part-time positions throughout Southern California.