The First Cashierless Supermarket

Paisha Watkins, Staff Writer

Amazon, the international e-commerce company, announced back in September of 2018, their plan to open over 3,000 cashierless stores by 2021. On Tuesday, Feb. 25, their announcement became a reality with the opening of their first cashierless grocery store in Seattle, Amazon Go Grocery. What is so special about this store is it’s features of no lines and no checkout. Customers will be expected to download the Amazon Go app and hold it to enter the gates of the store. Guests take whatever they want and then leave, that simple. Amazon has coined the phrase, “With Just Walk Out Shopping, you never have to wait in line to check out again.” Amazon Go Grocery carries everything from fresh produce, to snacks, to household essentials. Amazon explains the technology as being the same used in self-driving cars. It can detect when something is taken off or returned to the shelf and what a specific person takes in a virtual shopping cart. This way Amazon can charge and give a receipt to each customer after they leave. Customers can begin shopping today and we will begin to see how stores like these change the face shopping in the future.