Amazon’s first supermarket: grab your shopping and walk straight out

Amazon presents the first brick-and-mortar grocery shop by the company. They might have made a breakthrough that is possibly to remove the trouble of queues, tills, etc.

People shopping there will be followed by a considerable set of cameras that will monitor all their moves. The charging will be done automatically from every customer’s Amazon account. This will remove the process of actual payment completely, which will lead to saving time and more automation.

The first 1,800 sq feet shop was opened in Seattle on 7th Avenue, but for now only the employees of Amazon have access to it. The public will see the shop in the first part of the next year. If the scheme works in the US, it will be definitely brought to the UK shops.

This can make a breakthrough in the way shops operate – something self-checkouts didn’t manage to do.

Amazon customers will have to download a special Amazon Go application and use it near a special barrier when walking into the shop. Then they will be able to pick anything they want and stroll away.

The company said that it used the sort of vision-based systems employed by driverless cars as well as deep-learning algorithms and numerous sensors to power its “just walk out technology”.

Apart from groceries the shop offers fresh, ready-to-eat breakfasts, lunches and dinners made by on-site chefs and favourite local kitchens and bakeries. It also sells meal kits with all the ingredients to make a meal for two in about 30 minutes. Analysts said that the launch was part of Amazon’s efforts to do everything possible to make the brand synonymous with retail, whether online or offline.

Shops can also be used to give customers confidence in the company’s food and drink lines before ordering from the website, because most do not like buying “blind”, a problem that Amazon’s competitor supermarkets do not have.