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Amazon could open 3,000 cashierless Go stores by 2021
Amazon now has four of its Go stores up and running -- three in Seattle and one in Chicago -- with at least one on the way in New York. And while we've heard that there are plans for San Francisco as well, that apparently is just the beginning, because the company is considering plans to open as many as 3,000 of its cashierless stores by 2021, Bloomberg reports.
Amazon opens its next cashier-less store in Chicago
Amazon's checkout-free convenience store is coming to the Windy City. The fourth Amazon Go location, and the first outside of Seattle, opens in Chicago on September 17th. Located on 113 S Franklin St, the store opens at 7am and closes at 8PM, Monday through Friday. Weekend warriors looking to experience the delights of Amazon Go are out of luck, however, as it's closed Saturday and Sunday.
Amazon Go competitor opens a cashierless store in San Francisco
A startup called Standard Cognition hopes to steal some of Amazon's thunder by opening a cashierless store in San Francisco -- Amazon Go currently has three stores, all in the Seattle area. Standard Cognition's store is open to the public now, and it's the first real-world test for the company's retail ambitions.
Amazon's checkout-free Go store is heading to New York
Amazon is getting ready to open an Amazon Go store in New York, The Information reports. Job listings for a new Amazon Go location popped up Thursday night and the company confirmed to The Information that it has plans for a store in the New York area. Amazon already has three of its cashierless stores up and running in Seattle -- the third opened earlier this week -- and it has plans to expand to Chicago and San Francisco as well.
Microsoft reportedly has its own cashierless store technology
While Amazon continues to test out its cashier and checkout-less Go stores, Reuters reports that Microsoft is working on similar technology. Besides a number of partners who are working on products in the vein of Amazon Go -- which allows shoppers to simply take items off the shelf, put them in their cart and leave with a bill automatically tabulated based on computer vision watching what they buy -- it has an internal team that has tried out using cameras attached to shopping carts and mobile apps. The report calls out a small team within the company's Business AI group dedicated to retail tech, and said CEO Satya Nadella recommended a device that could live on-site to manage cameras without transferring data to the cloud. Microsoft isn't new to the space and in 2017 it showed off a slew of retail-focused products at the National Retail Federation's Big Show event that included a version of the Skip mobile app that's in testing in grocery stores. With Skip, shoppers scan each item as they shop using the app, then check out on their phone when they've finished. Microsoft is a partner with the startup, and the app uses Azure on its backend. With Amazon Go stores opening soon in Chicago and San Francisco, we'll probably see more competition in the race to replace the checkout line.
AiFi replicates Amazon Go's checkout-free shopping in any store
Bricks-and-mortar shopping could be about to change forever. Amazon pioneered the automated convenience store with its newly-opened Go supermarket, and now computer vision company AiFi is introducing the first scalable, checkout-free system for stores outside of Amazon's sphere of influence. The technology has the potential to turn enormous retail spaces and small mom-and-pop operations alike into shopping environments of the future, allowing customers to "grab and go" without the hassle of physically checking out.
Amazon may open up to six more automated stores this year
Amazon may have opened its automated convenience store a year late, but it looks like it's been a pretty big success. Recode learned that the company plans on opening six more of its Amazon Go stores in 2018. It's not clear where these stores will be located, though Recode reports that more locations are likely in Seattle, and Amazon is in talks with the developer of The Grove in Los Angeles.
Amazon's automated convenience stores edge closer to public debut
Last year, Amazon opened its first convenience store embedded with its "just walk out technology." Located in Seattle, the Amazon Go store, which lets shoppers walk in, load up on the items they want and walk out without having to pay for the items in a checkout line, has been testing its technology with Amazon employees. Now, as Bloomberg reports, the company has worked through some of the hangups with the technology and is making moves towards opening its store and others to the public.
