With retailers hopping on the cashier-less bandwagon in an effort to attract time-crunched shoppers, Amazon Go, the tech giant’s convenience store concept, looks to be well poised to capitalize on the trend, with sizable growth potential and appeal.
A visit to the two-and-a-half-month-old Amazon Go on California Street in San Francisco’s Financial District—one of the nine Amazon Go locations the company now has—offers some clues.
On a recent afternoon, a steady stream of shoppers, including families with kids, were observed walking in the store. While some were already pros, grabbing items they wanted and leaving right away, many others were first-time visitors. Friendly employees in orange tops patiently instructed them to download the Amazon Go app, scan the app’s QR code (Amazon calls it a “key”) at the entrance and just watch “the magic” happen, in one employee’s words.
Customers asked different questions, curious about the promise that they could simply take what they want to buy and walk out, with the system charging them for what they left with and not for what they might have picked up to look at before putting it back on the shelf.
