Amazon Envisions Control of Grocery Store Market

Amazon.com envisions a future where grocery store cashiers and self-serve checkouts no longer exist.

Earlier today, Amazon unveiled their plans for "Amazon Go", which is Amazon's take on the grocery store experience.

The first "Amazon Go" will be located in Seattle and will have 1800 square foot of retail space.

Here is how it will work:

Prior to stepping into the store, you will scan your "Amazon Go" app which will have already been attached to your Amazon.com account, which contains all of your credit card information.

After that, you will take anything that you want from the store - this could include a freshly baked muffin, a bottle of juice or a full slate of groceries.

Now, instead of standing in a line-up to pay or scanning the items yourself at a self-serve checkout, you will just walk out of the store with your items. With Amazon's tracking technology, as soon as you remove an item from the shelves, the item will be put into your virtual cart. If you put the item back, the item will be removed from your cart.

When you walk out of the store, the transaction will be processed and the credit card on file with Amazon.com will be charged for the items in your virtual cart.

So, from start to finish, you could conceivably walk in and out of "Amazon Go" in seconds with the items that you want, which would cut down on the wait times that many of us experience in grocery stores.

Now, there are obviously some downsides to "Amazon Go" that people have been bringing up, including:

1) Privacy concerns.
2) Job concerns. If "Amazon Go" takes off, that will presumably be many thousands of jobs that will be eliminated, as grocery store clerks will no longer be of any use

At the end of the day, Amazon will likely be successful in bringing more efficiency and automation to another industry, just as they did with the retail shopping experience.




Filed under: General Market News