Amazon opens first Whole Foods equipped with cashierless technology

Amazon has introduced its cashierless Simply Stroll Out expertise to a Complete Meals retailer for the primary time, permitting prospects to buy and depart the shop with their objects with out having to work together with any form of cashier. The revamped retailer opened on February twenty third in Washington, DC’s Glover Park neighborhood, the place there’s been a Complete Meals retailer for over 20 years.

Though Amazon has been working cashierless grocery shops in more and more massive Amazon Go and Amazon Contemporary-branded shops, that is the primary time it’s bringing the expertise to a Complete Meals retailer. Amazon purchased the grocery chain for $13.7 billion in 2017, however till now the model’s integration with Amazon has been extra minimal, consisting of reductions and free supply for Prime subscribers.

Picture: Amazon

Picture: Amazon

At 21,500 sq. ft, the Complete Meals location isn’t the biggest retailer to make use of Amazon’s cashierless expertise (there’s a 25,000 sq. foot Amazon Contemporary retailer with Simply Stroll Out tech in Bellevue, Washington, for instance). But it surely reveals Amazon’s confidence in its expertise that it’s prepared to carry it to a preexisting retailer that doesn’t have Amazon in its identify. Amazon declined to remark to The New York Occasions on whether or not it plans so as to add the expertise to all Complete Meals shops.

In response to a NYT reporter who visited the shop, the Complete Meals options Amazon’s palm-recognition expertise for entry alongside extra typical QR codes. The shop nonetheless has quite a lot of workers staffing varied counters who additionally clarify how the cashierless expertise works. The shop additionally leans into self-service, like providing a bread-slicer for patrons to slice their very own loaves. Prospects may select self-service checkouts in the event that they don’t need to use Simply Stroll Out.

The NYT stories that the cashierless expertise has proved divisive with prospects who have been used to buying on the Complete Meals previous to its renovation. One buyer quoted likened the expertise to the surveillance state seen in 1984, whereas others have been extra prepared to provide it the advantage of the doubt.

The Washington, DC retailer is one in every of two Complete Meals shops that Amazon beforehand introduced it’s bringing its cashierless expertise to — the second will open in Los Angeles later this 12 months.