Amazon Opens Grocery Store With No Check-Out Lines, Just Sensors That Pay For Food [Video]
Amazon has been leading the way in the digital retail industry, revolutionizing the way that consumers do their shopping from their computers. That includes everything from books and gadgets to food and office supplies. Basically, if you can find it at Wal-Mart, Best Buy or even AutoZone, then you can find it on Amazon.
But now, the online retail giant is not just the Amazon of the old days, but rather making their way into the brick and mortar retail market as well, according to a report on CNN. If that were not enough, they are making the shopping experience for their retail customers much more efficient, giving consumers an easy way to shop and pay without any of the hassles normally found at places like Wal-Mart.
Amazon Go could drastically change the entire retail industry https://t.co/p0ZcEKJ4QO pic.twitter.com/UxbPMfd6bC
— Forbes (@Forbes) December 5, 2016
If anyone has ever walked into Wal-Mart for a quick item or two and arrived at the check-out counter to find that they are behind several other customers with full carts, then you know all too well just how much of an advantage this will give you.
Amazon has recently unveiled a brick and mortar grocery store in Seattle and customers there simply have to walk into the store, find what they need, then walk out. It really is as simple as that, but with a small setup.
The basic concept to this is that the new Amazon grocery stores will allow people who have an Amazon or an Amazon Prime account to walk into their stores and when they pick something up off the shelves, their phones would essentially be a scanning module which places the item they picked up in their virtual shopping basket.
It is basically a concept that Amazon has instituted to work a lot like their home device, Amazon Echo. The smart technology involved with this Amazon grocery store only allows you to enter the store with your Amazon app on your smartphone. This essentially allows Amazon to activate your online account and when you pick something up and put it in your cart, you’re only billed for what you have. This billing comes straight to your online Amazon account and allows you to simply walk into the Amazon Go store and get what you want, then walk out.
This revolutionary business model by Amazon introduces a cutting edge way to break into the brick and mortar market without being the same old department store, such as a Wal-Mart or a Kroger. It allows customers to skip the long checkout lines and get in and out of stores much more quickly, thus cutting a blazing path for Amazon to lead the charge in a market that it had once gone to great lengths to avoid, the physical consumer goods store.
According to the CNN report, the new Amazon Go store was unveiled for consumers in the Seattle area on Monday, with much more coming. But this is not the first time that Amazon has tried its hand at brick and mortar stores. Previously, Amazon had opened up a bookstore that would also mark its first foray into the market of physical stores for their customers. Now that the online retail giant has had such immense success with its online and digital offerings over the years, this could be just the start of Amazon’s new business model for the country.
Amazon Go Store – No Lines, No Check Out, No Hassle For Groceries; Will It Catch On? https://t.co/UYYYptfnsc via @WayneDupreeShow
—????Wayne Dupree (@WayneDupreeShow) December 6, 2016
The new Amazon Go stores will also be without a traditional staff that essentially used to check customers out after their shopping experience. This relies solely on Amazon customers to simply do all of that for them with the automation of their app.
It is unclear at this time if Amazon plans to open more stores in other major metros, or if they plan to expand nationwide at any point.
[Featured Image by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images]
