Amazon’s New Grocery Store Comes Without Lines or Cashiers

Amazon Go is a new type of retail store that comes with no cashiers or check out lines.
Two years ago, it was rumored that Seattle-based Amazon filed a patent for a grocery store will let you pick items off shelves and walk out without paying.
The online retail giant confirmed last December they are working on such a project and released a video showing their first physical grocery store that would revolutionize the way people buy groceries.
The new store will allow Amazon customers to shop as usual and then they can walk out of the building without stopping to pay at a cashier or waiting in a checkout line. Customers need only to use a free app, also called Amazon Go. They scan their phone on the way into the store, shop for grocery staples, prepared meals and sandwiches, and walk out with the products automatically billed to their Amazon.com account. The store needs only three human workers. The idea is that the system can identify when an item is added to your cart, so you don’t have to do it yourself and when you leave the store, the system automatically charges your Amazon account.
A smaller Amazon Go version which spans just 1,800 square feet has recently opened in Seattle and is being tested with Amazon employees. The company’s web page says that the “checkout-free shopping experience” is made possible by the same types of technologies used in autonomous cars: computer vision, sensors, and deep learning. Sources say that a larger prototype store is expected to open in late 2017.