At Amazon's New Checkout-Free Store, Shopping Feels Like Shoplifting
Customers can walk in, grab what they want, and walk out—all while being monitored by a sophisticated system of cameras.
SEATTLE—I entered Amazon Go, the company’s checkout-less convenience store in Seattle, at 10:23 a.m. Monday and spent precisely 11 minutes and 59 seconds browsing before I walked out with a sandwich and a yogurt cup. This information was available because the moment I scanned a personalized QR code at the store’s subway-style gate, myriad cameras on the ceiling started tracking me. Every time I picked up an item, it was added to my virtual cart; when I placed the item back on the shelf, it was removed. A couple minutes after I walked out, Amazon charged $6.61 to the credit card linked to my account. The receipt included the time-spent-shopping tidbit, presumably to impress customers with how littletime it took to buy lunch.
