Shoppers with purchases freely leave the Amazon Go store. Photo : Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica

Admit it, many of you dreamed of entering the store, taking the right products and quietly leaving. No need to stand in line, where the cashier conducts each purchase in front of the barcode scanner. Shop without queuing. Shop without cashiers and cashiers. Just goods. He jumped in for a minute, took what was needed - and left.

Amazon is going to make this utopia closer to reality. Yesterday, the company opened a new type of Amazon Go store in Seattle.

While the store is in beta testing mode only for Amazon employees, but knowing the ambitions of the world's largest online retailer, we can assume that it will not be limited to one store.
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Shopping in the store is organized exactly as it should be in perfect self-service. You go shopping, choose the right products, put them in a bag, in a backpack, or just shove them in your pockets. Then exit the store through special turnstiles - and the purchase amount is automatically deducted from your account at Amazon.

How it works

Magic begins to work at the entrance to the store, where the buyer must immediately log in. Authorization is carried out through a QR code in the Amazon mobile app on the smartphone. At the entrance to the store should show the scanner code on the screen. At the moment, the turnstiles are by default open for passage. People just show the barcode - and go. There are no bars blocking the entrance for unauthorized visitors (in theory, they should work in the absence of authorization).


Appearance of the turnstile

In the future, the mobile application on the smartphone runs in the background and tracks the list of purchases that you put in your basket (or in your pockets). The exact tracking mechanism has not yet been disclosed, but it is known that Amazon uses RFID tags and video cameras. Apparently, the surveillance system tracks the location of each customer in the store, and the RFID scanners on the shelf determine when the goods have been taken off the shelf. The system combines information from two channels - and concludes that a particular buyer took a particular product.

If the buyer changes his mind, he can put the goods back on the shelf - and the item will be removed from the shopping list.

Amazon declares that the technology "Just Walk Out" uses "machine vision, depth learning algorithms and a combination of sensory data from different sources." An employee at a Seattle store admitted that surveillance cameras were monitoring the sales area. Probably, the fact of taking goods from the shelf is determined by RFID with confirmation based on machine vision.

When you exit the store, the mobile application automatically performs the transaction. The exit is carried out through the same turnstiles, this time without any authorization or any actions on your part. There is also no sound or light signal. Just go to the exit and go about your business. No queues, no cashiers.

The Amazon Go store sells a variety of foods, including fresh salads, pastries, milk, cheese and chocolate from local farmers, breakfast cereals, lunches and dinners. There are convenient sets of Amazon Meal Kits, from which you can quickly cook for one or two people. Work pastry chefs and other professionals.



The beta version of the first store is located on an area of ​​167 m² at 2131 7th Avenue, Seattle, WA. The store is located on the corner of 7th Avenue and Blanchard Street, near Amazon’s headquarters.


Amazon's first store. Photo : Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica

The shopping center works only for company employees (full-time, blue badges). For the general public, it is promised to open in early 2017. Now you can not try to go inside - at the entrance are strict guards.


Guards near the store Amazon Go. Photo : Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica

Easier shopping - more profit

Amazon has made a convenience store for its employees. But the company's ambitions are unlikely to be limited to one outlet. The company is known for building a business on the Internet, not on margin, but at high speeds. Key elements of such a strategy are dumping, squeezing competitors, and exclusive agreements with suppliers.

If the company keeps its methods of doing business offline, then we can expect the opening of a whole Amazon Go store chain, along with warehouse infrastructure and advanced logistics. The company effectively replaces people with robots in warehouses. In the sales area, the same strategy will reduce costs and increase the carrying capacity of stores. Here, the savings are not only in wages, but also in cash collection, at the work of cash registers and payment terminals. All this will allow in the future to reduce overhead costs and reduce the cost of goods in the store compared to the stores of the old type, where live cashiers work.

Another important point is that the simplification of the calculation procedure in the store increases the size of the average check. The easier it is to part with the money - the more goods a person buys in the store. Studies show that when you buy by credit card, consumers leave more money in the store than when they buy for cash.

At first glance, such a system is vulnerable to shoplifting. But in fact, in almost any large supermarket, it is easy to take goods from the shelf and put them in your pocket. Just most people do not do so because of their high culture and education. What are the reasons to assume that in the Amazon Go store people will suddenly begin to steal, because here the authorization of the person at the entrance is carried out, and it is more difficult to take goods from the shelf without notice than in a regular store.