Amazon To Open Cashierless Go Stores In Suburban Areas

Amazon is bringing its cashier-less Go stores to the suburbs. The retail giant plans to open a new self-checkout store, which it calls “Just Walk Out,” in the Seattle suburb of Mill Creek, Washington in the coming months. It will follow with another suburban Go store in the Los Angeles area later this year. Amazon’s cashier-less Go stores are primarily located in downtown metropolitan areas. Powered by its self-checkout technology, you need to scan your phone at the entrance using the Amazon app. The stores will then use computer vision and tons of other sensors to detect what you buy.

When you exit, you will be charged accordingly through the app. The company is now looking to bring the same ease of shopping to people living in the suburbs. It will focus on everyday essentials, snacks, and drinks, including local selections of beer and wine, at the beginning. Once the stores are fully operational, Amazon will add more items.

“We think local residents and commuters will enjoy the ease of our Just Walk Out Shopping to quickly and conveniently shop from an expanded selection of tasty, ready-to-eat food items and grab-and-go beverages and snacks in their own neighborhood,” an Amazon spokesperson told Grocery Dive. According to the publication, Amazon Go stores in the suburbs will be more spacious than their urban counterparts. The upcoming store at 13209 39th Ave. SE in Mill Creek will occupy a 6,150-square-foot site. That includes a 3,240 square feet front-of-house space.

But the retail space of almost 3,000 square feet is still quite large than that of the first Amazon Go store. Opened in January 2018 in Seattle, its retail space has a footprint of about 1,800 square feet. Amazon described that store as “conveniently compact” back then. But according to research firm Statista, the typical US convenience store has a retail space of 2,425 square feet. So Amazon is going big with its suburb Go stores.

Amazon stresses on self-checkout technology

Amazon currently operates cashier-less Go stores in four US states — Washington, Illinois, California, and New York. The planned expansion to suburban areas is also seemingly limited to these states. So large parts of the US still don’t have access to its self-checkout technology.

However, the company has other ideas to expand the availability of its cashier-less system. It is willing to sell the technology to other retailers. Amazon has already signed up Starbucks and UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s. We could see more retailers using its cashier-less self-checkout technology in the coming months as people prefer everything “contactless” in these pandemic times.