Amazon will open checkout-free stores in Chicago and San Francisco
You won't have to visit Seattle to experience automated shopping.
You no longer have to make a beeline to Seattle if you want to shop at an Amazon Go store. Amazon has posted job listings for store managers in both Chicago and San Francisco, making it clear where the automated stores are headed next. The company didn't confirm opening dates or locations in a response to the Seattle Times. However, there are already some clues: Curbed noted that Amazon has a building permit for a store in Chicago's Loop, while a San Francisco Chronicle report claimed that a store would open near Union Square.
An earlier Recode scoop asserted that Amazon would open as many as six more stores in 2018, with one possibly coming to Los Angeles.
Expansion was really just a matter of time given that the existing Seattle location appears to have been a success. It was more a question of where -- would Amazon focus on its hometown, or spread its wings? We now know the answer -- it wants to offer the technology far from home, albeit in major urban centers where they're likely to get lots of traffic. The question is whether or not Amazon can roll out enough stores to make Go virtually ubiquitous, or if it'll ultimately serve as a showcase while other retailers rely on competing technology.
