Amazon is continuing to further its grocery store foothold by bringing its Just Walk Out technology to the U.S. While the technology premiered a few years ago, this is the first time it will be available in a full-size Fresh store within the States.
Just Walk Out first appeared in one of Amazon’s Fresh stores in the UK back in March. And now, the technology will launch at a new Fresh store location—The Marketplace at Factoria—in Bellevue, Washington on June 17. Of course, the store will also support traditional payment methods for customers who would rather still interact with a cashier.
The e-commerce titan has also licensed this platform to third-party retailers like airport shops, allowing customers to—yep, you guessed it—just walk out with their goods without having to deal with a cashier or self-checkout kiosk. Similarly, Amazon opened another Fresh store in California in 2020, but only equipped it with its Dash Cart technology. That’s about the same as Just Walk Out, but limits purchases to about two bags worth of goods.
The new Washington store with the tech gives customers a few ways to bypass checkout lines: they can scan a QR code within the Amazon app, or use Amazon One to scan their palm or insert a card attached to their Amazon account. Otherwise, the rest of the grocery shopping experience is pretty much the same as it is elsewhere. Picking up an item from the shelf adds it to your cart, and putting it back removes it.
Amazon seems to have plans for expanding to 28 more Fresh stores in areas like California, New Jersey, and Washington. However, there is no word on whether it will be expanding its Just Walk Out to any other Fresh store besides the one in Washington, but it seems likely.
via Engadget
