Are you tired of standing in long queues at grocery stores, while waiting for checkouts? If so, then it is not an issue anymore with the Amazon’s automated Grocery store, which is all set to launch. The stores opened to employees for test on December 5, 2016. After passing through an entire one year of the testing phase, the store is all set to launch today.
Amazon Go, the tech giant’s automated Brick and Mortar grocery store in Seattle offers a shopping experience with “no lines, no checkouts and no registers.”
How Amazon’s Automated Grocery Store Works?
In term of the checkout process, Amazon Go works like any other virtual store. It utilizes trackers and cameras to detect the items that a user removes from the shelves or takes along. The store charges the user’s account synchronized with the app, or his debit or credit card, while he/she leaves the premises.
Entering the Amazon Go
Shoppers first need to have Amazon Go smartphone app. For making an entry through the turnstile gates, they need to scan the relevant app through the scanners. Upon entering the premises, ready to eat lunch will welcome the shoppers. They will be able to buy the required grocery items, by moving through different sections, just like a traditional brick and mortar store.
How would Amazon Go benefit the Shoppers?
The only apparent benefit that Amazon’s automated grocery store offers is the saving time of shopper. The rest of the shopping experience is just like conventional stores. Amazon Go will use cameras and sensors to track, what a particular user is picking up from the shelves. Each time the user picks up a product, Amazon charges the associated account. If the user puts the product back then, Amazon removes the item from the virtual cart.
Briefly, Amazon’s automated grocery store brings the payment facility of an online shopping store to a brick and mortar store.
Impact of Amazon Go on Job Destruction
According to reports, critics perceive Amazon’s automated grocery store as another disruptor. In 2017, Amazon bought the Whole Foods for $13.5 billion worth and became the second largest employer in the US, reportedly. The company’s recent attempt to automate the grocery stores while making them cashiers free is heralding a disruption in the economy. If such kind of stores become a norm, then it would make millions of cashiers lose their jobs.
Well, in the era of robotics and automation, transformation to new jobs is a significant issue. Making a shift from one mode of work to another would take time and also cause incompatible individuals to lose jobs and face financial troubles.
Till now Amazon has not shown any plans to extend its automated grocery stores to Whole Foods. But, the tech giant might consider such transformation, if Seattle experiment becomes successful.
