Crowds of tech aficionados, news crews and the simply curious turned out for the public opening of Amazon’s checkout-free convenience store Monday, giving a generally non-descript sidewalk the air of an Apple store the day a new iPhone comes out. "This is the future of grocery shopping. It's exciting to see the technology in action," said Yuval Fleming, who was so eager to try it out that he happily stood in a pre-dawn line to be one of the first to enter the store. The space is the size of a regular convenience store, though with a high-end assortment of foods. They include chilled beverages, sweets, snacks, ready-made salads and sandwiches, frozen foods and a wall of meal kits for dinners. The foods sits on shelves full of hidden sensors that note when an item's been removed or when it's been put back. Hundreds of cameras, painted matte black to blend in with the ceiling, capture movement.
Amazon Go shoppers need to have an Amazon account and to put the Amazon Go app on their phones. They scan the app on the electronic readers at the entrance turnstiles, then walk in and grab whatever they want. They can stick their purchases in their pockets, a bag or a pack — Amazon's technology knows what they've taken and charges their account. There are no checkout lines. The store opened to Amazon staff a year ago but only now to the public, with fascination mingling with worries about future jobs lost to automation and the tide of cool-but-expensive technology that highlights the growing divide between haves and have-nots. Critics note that shopping at the store requires a smart phone, a credit card or electronic payment system linked to an Amazon account, and that the shop carries items mostly aimed at a wealthy clientele who can afford to choose organic and locally-sourced items.
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https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/01/22/amazon-go-lines-form-seattle-try-checkout-free-shopping/1053592001/
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