Amazon Go: No More Checkout Lines

Ever went to the grocery store and while there may be about 10 lanes, only about 3 of them are open forcing you to stand in long lines? Amazon aims to streamline the checkout process by eliminating lines and cashiers entirely. It’s called Amazon Go and it looks to completely revolutionize how we shop.

Amazon is testing a grocery store in downtown Seattle that allows customers to walk in the store, pick out the groceries and simply walk out the store. It sounds like a crazy concept but Amazon seems confident that its’ “Just Walk Out” technology is the future of shopping. Per Amazon, the Just Walk Out technology “automatically detects when products are taken from or returned to the shelves and keeps track of them in a virtual cart. When you’re done shopping, you can just leave the store. Shortly after, we’ll charge your Amazon account and send you a receipt”. The technology uses a mixture of machine learning, sensors, and computer vision to detect when products are removed from shelves. The customer taps their smartphone on a turnstile as they enter which connects to the customer’s Amazon app and account through the store’s network. Once the customer leaves, the app calculates the amount based on the items removed from the shelves and charges their Amazon account. According to USA Today, Amazon is prototyping the store with Amazon employees with a public rollout beginning in 2017.