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Amazon May Open Up To Six More Automated Stores This Year (engadget.com)
Amazon may have opened its automated convenience store a year late, but it looks like it's been a pretty big success. From a report: Recode learned that the company plans on opening six more of its Amazon Go stores in 2018. It's not clear where these stores will be located, though Recode reports that more locations are likely in Seattle, and Amazon is in talks with the developer of The Grove in Los Angeles. Amazon Go is billed as the convenience store of the future. There are no checkout lines; you can simply walk in, grab what you want, and leave. You scan in with a smartphone app, and then an AI tracks what you take from the shelves and automatically charges you for them.
Wow, AI tracks what you take and automatically charges you? The advances in AI are incredible! Hopefully it records the purchase in a blockchain ledger too. That would be TOO COOL.
We can mock this technology all we want, but two facts remain; it works, and it's likely a HELL of a lot cheaper than the traditional method of purchasing and managing cashiers, baggers, and cash register hardware.
You should expect this kind of store concept to become infectious, and not just with Amazon Would a grocery chain be willing to license this Amazon solution if it proves to be 30% cheaper than the traditional method of transaction management? You bet your ass they would, and Amazon would be stupid not to oblige.
Cashiers make up over 3 million jobs in the US. Let's see how well we manage unemployment in 10 years, along with managing the unemployable.