According to Geekwire, Amazon is planning to open another Go automated retail store in Seattle this fall. This would be Amazon’s second Go store in Seattle.
This would be in addition to the Go stores that Amazon is also rumored to be planning for Chicago and San Francisco. It is believed that the upcoming Go store in Seattle would be double the size of the current store in Seattle. The current Go store is 1,800 square feet and the new one is believed to be planned at 3,000 square feet.
Amazon Go store / Photo: SounderBruce under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
The existing Amazon Go grocery store allows customers to purchase products without using a cashier or by going through a checkout state. The current Amazon Go store is located at Amazon’s Day 1 building and opened its doors to employees on December 5, 2016, and to the public several weeks later. People can buy food, liquor, and meal kits at the store.
Amazon utilizes computer vision, deep learning, and sensor fusion technology to automate the purchase, checkout, and payment experience. The ceiling of the store has a number of cameras and the store shelves have weight sensors to detect which items were taken. Once a customer takes the item off the shelf, it gets added to their virtual cart. And if a customer puts the item back on the shelf, it gets removed from the virtual cart.
Prior to shopping at the Amazon Go store, users will have to download the Amazon Go app for Android and iOS, which is connected to their Amazon.com account.
According to internal Amazon documents leaked to Business Insider, Amazon has a goal of operating 20 pilots at locations likes Las Vegas, New York, Miami, Seattle and the Bay Area of California by the end of this year. And Amazon is planning to experiment with various types of stores during the pilot such as drive-up spots for customers to pick up their online orders.
