The time has come: Amazon Go is opening for the masses. The retailer’s cashierless convenience store will finally open its doors to the public, following a nearly 14-month trial run that was open only to Amazon employees. When customers enter the store, they scan their smartphone. The store will be equipped with cameras and other sensors to monitor shoppers as they browse, and when the take an item off the shelf, adds it to a virtual cart. Grocers are charged to the customer’s Amazon account when they leave with their goods. As long as you have the Amazon Go smartphone app and a linked Amazon account, you can use the store. This is one of the boldest attempts by the online retailer to reshape brick-and-mortar shopping. The concept, which Amazon has termed “Just Walk Out” shopping, sparked speculation that Amazon will try to expand the idea into convenience stores or other categories of physical retail. The idea has ben criticized by grocery-store workers’ unions, which feared an effort to automate the work done by cashiers, which is the second most common job in the U.S.
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