Amazon’s first cashierless hi-tech grocery store opens to public

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 24 — The first hi-tech cashier-less Amazon Go grocery and convenience store officially opened to the public Monday in Seattle, a seaport city in Washington state on the U.S. west pacific, the local TV KING 5 News reported.

After one-year’s testing with its own employees, Amazon’s futuristic grocery store let customers grab anything they pick up and walk out, without dealing with the hassle of checkout lines. The store of Amazon, the biggest online retailers in the world, uses hundreds of ceiling-mounted cameras and electronic sensors to identify each customer and track the items chosen by customers with an Amazon account. Shopping is made easy when customers scan their unique QR code while swiping their smartphones installing the Amazon app at the entrance of the supermarket. Then the shoppers were happy to browse, select and grab any items in the store and walk out by skipping the checkout line in a couple of minutes. All the purchase will be billed to the credit cards of the customers.

No human intervention is virtually needed during the entire process of shopping, except when shoppers are ID-checked for an alcohol purchase. Located on the bottom floor of Amazon’s Seattle headquaters in Washington state, the hi-tech supermarket will be open from 7 a.m to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Amazon Go store is the first attempt of Amazon to revolutionize the bricks and mortar retailing with the same mindset of one-click shopping on the Internet. In 2015, Amazon opened its first physical bookshop in Seattle, and the figure has now grown to 13 across the United States. – XINHUA