Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Amazon opens a supermarket with no checkouts
Just walk out. No line, no waiting. No need to be checked out or check out yourself. Sounds like a dream shopping experience, doesn’t it? That is what the online giant Amazon has been trying to realize for the last few years and has just opened its first grocery store, Amazon Go in Seattle, Washington. (Don’t be confused with alpha Go, Google's AI game program)
All you need to do is to load the app to your smartphone, present the QR code at the entrance, pick the items you like, and just walk out. The store is equipped with numbers of cameras and sensors to monitor each shopper’s activities. Then the AI algorithm analyzes the data and identifies who purchased what and how many. The shopper will be sent an online receipt to their smartphone when they walk out. The payment is made by their registered credit card.
Most retailers believe the faster the check-out process is, the more often their customers shop at the store, especially for groceries and commodities.
In the meantime, if you feel like being welcomed and appreciated for your shopping, or having some sort of human interactions with the shop staff, you might choose a conventional store.
Which do you prefer?
Enjoy reading the article and watch the video, and think if such concept spreads around the world, especially smartphone-savvy China.
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