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.
It's not clear where these stores will be located
Hint: You wont find them in Inglewood. These stores will show up some place with a lot of upper middle class white people who dont mind paying more to avoid the usual drolls of a convenience store. homeless beggars arent slumped against the side of the building, and there isnt a stench of fetid trash from the parking lot.
convenience store of the future
Ive been to a go store. theres about a 30-40% markup from what you might find at a CVS or 7 eleven. they dont take cash , they dont sell fresh fruit, and everything is armoured in plastic wrap and polystyrene to ensure it gets a good barcode or nfc sensor. Its the future, if the future came with a "no poor people" label. Security stands at the ready by the door and many items are out of stock.
Go is a branded lifestyle experience, not a convenience store.
Good people go to bed earlier.