Amazon just opened its second go shop In New York. In case it catches you a bit confused, it is the name given to its celebrities establishments without ATMs, a new concept of sale to the public that aims to become commonplace in the future. And it is that by 2021 the company plans to have 3.000 stores open. It is said soon.
Amazon Go, a concept with a future?
Amazon introduced its Go store concept at the end of 2016 and to this day it still seems like an idea to us very far. It is an establishment approach in which no employees (more than some people in charge of replenishing/ordering, cooks for homemade food or the security of the premises): you enter, you put what you want in the basket and you leave. Without going through the box (not even the typical self-service, much more widespread in many businesses today) or talking to anyone.
These types of stores employ machine learning systems, computer vision and artificial intelligence, with the use of hundreds of infrared cameras and electronic sensors that identify both the customers who enter the premises and the products (which also have their own identification codes, of course) that are taken from the shelves (also prepared for it).
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In this way, the user only has to enter, pass their phone through a registration sensor, take what they want (if they put it back on the shelf, the action is also registered so as not to charge the account) and leave. When you go through the door again, the purchase is automatically charged to your credit card -previously configured in the Amazon Go app.
Amazon currently has 13 establishments (including the one that just opened in New York, on Park Avenue) distributed between the city of the Big Apple, Seattle (where it premiered), San Francisco and Chicago. As we said, the idea of the company led by Jeff Bezos is to have 3.000 similar stores open in 2021, which means an almost unprecedented expansion in less than two years.
Amazon stores have not been without controversy. Some cities have started to take action against those establishments that do not accept cash payment, a trend that is becoming more and more on the rise. New Jersey, Washington, New York, San Francisco and Chicago are already studying measures to prohibit this type of business (Philadelphia has already implemented them), alleging that this measure is discriminatory, since not everyone can choose to have a credit card. Without it, they are left unable to enter and use stores like Amazon Go.
The Bezos company gave its arm to twist last April and agreed that its stores they would start accepting cash, something that enabled the first store opened in New York (on Vesey Street) and now the second one opened in the same city. He has not ruled on those that are already in operation but he does promise that the next establishments will also accept this payment method.
this at the end detracts charm to the whole of the experience and idea that Amazon Go raises, although it makes it much more accessible to everyone. There is no doubt that the future of payment is digital and that this type of store will be more frequent in the future (other firms will end up copying the business model), although perhaps we are not yet fully prepared for it.