Amazon Go
Amazon Go is a chain of convenience stores in the United States operated by the online retailer Amazon. It has 26 open and announced store locations in Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco and New York City, as of 2020.
The stores are partially automated, with customers able to purchase products without being checked out by a cashier or using a self-checkout station. Amazon Go stores were conceptualized and tested by a team of Amazon executives, who constructed a 15,000-square-foot mock supermarket in a rented warehouse in Seattle, before revealing the work to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2015. The first store, located in the company's Day 1 building, opened to employees on December 5, 2016, and to the public on January 22, 2018. The flagship store has prepared foods, meal kits, limited groceries, and liquor available for purchase. A larger variant, Amazon Go Grocery, opened in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood on February 25, 2020. In March 2020, a proprietary Just Walk Out system was adapted to other retailers so that purchases can be made without the involvement of Amazon accounts and proposed for sales as licensed software.
Technology and implementation
According to a promotional video published by Amazon, the store concept uses several technologies, including computer vision, deep learning algorithms, and sensor fusion to automate much of the purchase, checkout, and payment steps associated with a retail transaction. The store concept is seen as a revolutionary model that relies on the prevalence of smartphones and geofencing technology to streamline the customer experience, as well as supply chain and inventory management. However, public rollout of the Seattle Amazon Go prototype location was delayed due to issues with the sensors' ability to track multiple users or objects within the store, such as when children move items to other shelves or when more than one customer has a similar body habitus.The Amazon Go app for iOS and Android links to their Amazon account and is the primary method of paying for items at the store, alongside cash at certain locations. The app is required to enter the store, which has turnstiles that scan a QR code generated on the app. The app allows users to add others to their Amazon account, so a family's purchases can be charged to the same bill. The ceiling of the store has multiple cameras and store shelves have weight sensors, to detect which item a customer took. If a customer takes an item off the shelf, it will be added to the customer's virtual cart. Similarly, if a customer places an item back on the shelf, it is removed from the customer's virtual cart.
Amazon will add a smart shopping cart called the Dash Cart to their new store in Los Angeles. The cart will automatically detect the items you put in it and it will calculate exactly how much a customer has to pay due to the cameras, scale, weight sensors, and the computer vision each shopping cart has. Once a customer is done shopping they can simply walk out of the store. The payment will automatically be processed with the credit card on a customers' Amazon account.
Locations
As of March 2020, there are 27 store locations in the United States.| # | City and state | Date of first store | Number of stores | |
| 1 | Seattle, Washington | |||
| 2 | Chicago, Illinois | |||
| 3 | San Francisco, California | |||
| 4 | New York City, New York | |||
| Total | 27 |
Stores
In its report on the opening, The Wall Street Journal reported that this first location was one of at least three that Amazon planned to open, each of which was in a different format. In October 2016, the Business Insider reported they had seen internal Amazon documents that described Amazon opening up as many as 2,000 stores, over the next ten years. Amazon spokesmen refuted the reports of 2,000 stores, insisting they were still learning. The Business Insider predicted that Amazon was likely to open only twenty or so stores, during the next two years.at the first Amazon Go store
The Verge reported this first store was scheduled to open to the public in early January 2017; its December 2016 opening was a beta version for Amazon employees only. The first store was only, the size of a corner convenience store. By October 2017, the store had yet to open due to issues with the technology tracking over 20 people at one time.
The store opened to the public on January 22, 2018. In addition to stocking name brands and local brands, the store sells many of Amazon's house brands, such as Wickedly Prime and 365. Food stamps and public assistance for low income people are not accepted, nor are customers without smartphones, or with smartphones that do not have the Amazon Go app downloaded. A second Downtown Seattle location at the Madison Centre opened on August 27, 2018. The third Amazon Go store, at the Troy Block complex in South Lake Union, is the second largest at and opened in September 2018.
In May 2018, The Seattle Times reported that Amazon was planning to open Amazon Go stores in Chicago and San Francisco; and in September, a store planned for New York City was confirmed. In September 2018, Amazon Go opened its first location outside of Seattle at the company's offices in the Chicago Loop. Amazon Go location number 9 was opened on October 23, 2018 at 98 Post Street in San Francisco.
In September 2018, Bloomberg News reported Amazon was considering plans to open as many as 3,000 Amazon Go locations across the United States by 2021.
In response to potential discrimination against low-income people, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and New Jersey have passed legislation banning cashless stores and retailers. A new Amazon Go store in New York City opened on May 7, 2019, with cash acceptance in response to previous criticism over the use of app-only purchases and its effects on the poor. In response to the legislation, stores in San Francisco also accept cash, with an attendant at the front letting in and checking out customers if they do not have the app.
On February 25, 2020, Amazon opened the first Amazon Go Grocery store in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. The Go Grocery store is significantly larger than other Go stores, at, and has 5,000 items, including fresh produce and baked goods. A second Go Grocery location is planned to open in 2020 in the Overlake neighborhood of Redmond, Washington.