Retail powerhouse Amazon is disrupting retail yet again, with the opening of its checkout-free Amazon Go grocery store in Seattle.
It looks and feels like a regular grocery store, but with one major difference: There's no checkout — and no checkout lines. Upon entering, shoppers scan a special smartphone app that registers them into the store. After grabbing their items, customers are free to walk right out.
"The just-walk-out technology is tracking that these items are leaving the shelf, and it's putting them in my virtual cart," Amazon Go Vice-President Gianna Puerini told NBC News during an exclusive look at the new store. "And if I put them back on the shelf, they come out of my virtual cart."
When customers leave the store, their account is automatically charged, which means no more waiting in long checkout lines. Overhead throughout the store, hundreds of cameras read labels through machine learning and sense the shopper's body type.
