Amazon opened a compact version of its cash-less Amazon Go store yesterday. The intention is to open more such shops in places like lobbies in offices and hospitals. That’s what Reuters writes. The new store is in an office in Seattle.
Amazon’s new eighth store is close to the original, but a quarter the size. It covers an area of approximately 41 square metres, similar to a studio apartment in New York. The new store aims to sell salads and snacks to employees of the office building.
Like the stores in Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle, the new store has no cash registers. Instead, customers scan their smartphones to get in. Cameras in the store keep track of what someone takes off the shelves. When you leave, the smartphone is scanned again. The bill sends Amazon to the customer’s credit card.
Strategy
Amazon is committed to selling food in physical stores. It is an important strategy of the company to attract more shopkeepers away from other companies. The small size can be good for lobbies in offices, common floors in tall buildings and possibly even hospitals, says Gianna Puerini, vice president of Amazon Go.
“We wanted something that would fit well into open spaces from a design perspective,” says Puerini-san. “When and where other small shops are opened, Puerini didn’t tell me. The new location in Seattle, on the sixth floor of Macy’s historic building in the city, is only open to Amazon employees and their guests.
Last week there was a rumour that the internet giant also wanted to open cash-less shops at airports. Puerini, however, did not want to respond to this. She did say that “airports have a lot of hungry people in a hurry”, “so you never know”.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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