Amazon opens snazzy checkout-free supermarket to eliminate waiting lines
Follow UsAmazon launched an AI-powered checkout-free supermarket in its Seattle headquarters on Sunday.
The "Amazon Go" supermarket does not have any checkout counters, cashiers or machines - instead it functions by tracking what customers buy using its AI-powered cameras and weight sensors.
The grocery store allows shoppers to scan their desired products using their smartphones on the Amazon Go app and leave without the hassle of standing in lines for checkout. The customers are not charged if the put the product back in the shelf.
By combining computer vision, machine learning algorithms, and sensors, the online retail giant can tell what people have purchased and charges their Amazon account.
However, this does not mean the shop has no employees - Amazon informed that people are present in the store for stocking shelves, making food, helping customers etc. The store also offers on-the-go breakfast, dinners, lunches, meal kits and snacks other than the usual groceries.
The hope is that increasing the convenience factor of the typical convenience store model by making it quicker and easier to "enter, buy, and go" will draw in new customers.
Amazon Go is not the first checkout-free store in the world - grocery firm BingoBox has several unmanned supermarkets across China, which are little less advanced as Amazon Go.