Online retailer Amazon opened a fully automated store in Seattle on January 22,Amazon Go, which operates without cash registers and sellers. In order to get into the store, you need to open the Amazon application and scan the QR code by attaching your smartphone to the turnstile at the entrance.

Amazon Go does not provide baskets and carts for goods, customers can put them directly into their bags. Purchases in the store are monitored by hundreds of cameras, and a special system based on artificial intelligence monitors what the visitor takes from the shelves and automatically enters the selected products into a virtual receipt or excludes them if the buyer has changed his mind and returned something to the shelf. When he leaves the smart store, the payment for the selected products will be automatically debited from the account that is linked to the Amazon account.

The retail area of the store is 167 square meters. The assortment includes food, beverages, ready-made meal kits, as well as products from the Whole Foods supermarket chain, which Amazonacquired in the summer of 2017.

Western experts reacted ambiguously to this project. The development of retail in this direction causes concern, since stores like Amazon Go, eliminate the need for a full-fledged staff and thus can make thousands of people unemployed. 

Source: The New York Times 

Photo: shutterstock and NY Times