The future of shopping is here.
Online shopping giant Amazon rolled out Amazon Go on Monday, enabling customers to walk into its Seattle-based grocery store, grab whatever they want and leave.
The store uses deep learning technology, sensors and computer vision to keep track of what you take off and place back on the shelves. It’s similar to the kind of technology used in self-driving cars.
To start shopping, you use a free app to scan yourself in when you enter the store.
The app keeps a running tab of what you pull off the shelves. Shortly after you leave, Amazon will charge your account for the items and send you a receipt.
At the moment, Amazon Go seems more like a corner store or convenience store than a full-fledged grocery store. It offers an array of ready-to-eat, grab-and-go meals prepared by Amazon Go’s staff, plus items such as bread, cheese, milk and chocolate. It also sells Amazon Meal Kits, which include ingredients to cook a meal for two at home in under 30 minutes.
The store is currently in its beta phase, and only Amazon employees can shop there for the time being. It will open to the public in early 2017.
Amazon Go seems to be the next step in Amazon’s quest to expand its influence in the grocery business, as well as its brick and mortar presence. In 2007, the company rolled out the grocery delivery service Amazon Fresh, and in 2015, it opened a physical bookstore.