Amazon Go: A cashierless store
A store to be cashierless sounds crazy, however, it is true. Starting in 2018, Amazon Go stores have been continuously expanding its operation in US and London. Amazon has taken over the world when it comes to delivering items to our homes. Now it is revolutionizing the grocery store market with its technological innovation.
What is Amazon Go?
Amazon Go is a very new kind of grocery store. The most unique thing about this grocery store is that there are no lines to enter the store, no lines for doing payments, and no cashier. It looks exactly like other stores, they have all the usual products. Everything new is aimed at increasing the convenience of the store visitors.
How does Amazon Go work?
When we hear that we won’t have to be waiting in lines after picking up the items we want, a question naturally comes to our mind, the question is, How does it work then?
The answer is technology. Amazon has equipped its Go Stores with multiple cameras, sensors, and AI systems that monitor everything.
To enter the store you will need to install the Amazon Go app and sign in to your Amazon account. After this, you will have to scan a QR Code from your device to the counter at the Amazon Go Store. This will help Amazon understand that the account holder has entered the shop.
After entering the store, you can just pick up any items that you want for yourself and then leave the store with that items. Money will get deducted from your Amazon account for any item that you pick from the store.
How does Amazon know what is purchased by the customer?
It is a really valid question, if there are no employees that are looking at you and there are no cashiers also, then how are they going to know what you have purchased?
Here, AI, cameras, and sensors come into play. As soon as you enter the store, these things monitor your actions. They know when you pick up something from a shelf when you keep it back in etc.
This way when you leave the store, Amazon knows exactly what you have purchased and will bill you for that.
What about assistance?
However hi-fi this system is, we potentially can get confused or there can be a technical error. Amazon also understands this that’s why Amazon Go have some employees and their smart speaker Alexa for help.
Conclusion
This is a really cool creation of Amazon company. However, this also tells us how humans are slowly getting replaced by robots and machines. Amazon is saving money by this but less employment will be generated by the implementation of these stores. With all this said, there is no other way into the future, we will make things more and more convenient and easy for us as we move forward.
