A supermarket without cashiers? Sounds insane right? Thanks to Amazon and it’s first Amazon Go store it is now a reality. The tech giant officially launched their first “cashierless” brick-and-mortar store today in Seattle.
The stores opening serves as the first phase of the experiment to see if these stores will become the wave of the future in terms of shopping. We know you’re wondering how in the world will Amazon keep tabs on what exactly is going on in the store? How will they make sure nobody is going the five-finger discount route? The first Amazon Go store will use a network of cameras and sensors to monitor shoppers and what they pick up and once they leave they will be billed for whatever they walk out of the store via the Amazon Go smartphone app.
A high tech Whole Foods basically, well, that sounds very convenient.
Now with any new idea, there are definitely bugs that have to be worked out. During the beta testing of the tech back in early 2017, Amazon was still trying to hammer out a few things. Reports of the computers that run the store “wigging out” because to0 many people entered the store, items being moved around the shelves or the customers moving around too fast for the sensors to track them. All issues that Amazon more than likely had no serious worries about when it came time to open up the store.
There were other problems though Amazon according to a Reuters report, such as “recognizing customers that have similar body types” or children as well as adults causing chaos by picking up items and placing them on different shelves.
Now just imagine something like this in the hood? It was a struggle just to get self-checkout in your local supermarket. One thing is for sure you see one of these joints spring up you can officially say your neighborhood has been gentrified. To see exactly how an Amazon Go store works in action peep the video below. Let us know in the comment section if you are ready for “cashierless” supermarket in your neighborhood.
Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images
