Amazon Go: No Cash Desk - A Personal Experience

Amazon Go started talking about the project of "self-service stores" in the middle of the tenths. Even there was a post on Habré . But it’s one thing to read the descriptions, and another to learn first-hand how it is: to go to the store without cashiers, collect goods and that's it, as Amazon writes on its website. Our long-time friend Vasily Danilenko , who 5 years ago moved from a small town in the Irkutsk region to the United States, shared his personal experience.


Photo Forbes.

“In New York, there are already a lot (8, to be exact, - approx. Ed.) Of Amazon GO stores, where there are no cashiers. Amazon sends you an invoice and deducts money a couple of minutes after the release.

Almost no one writes that the points themselves are quite small (tiny by American standards), and their assortment is ten times less than in the usual know-how of gas stations.
But this is understandable, because it is rather a pilot rather than a business. Further some notes from personal experience of regular shopping without cash desks.

1. People are wildly dumb at the entrance. 99% do not “follow the progress” and try to storm the turnstiles, swear at the entrance with the staff or do not understand what is happening.
2. As a consequence of paragraph 1, instead of cashiers at the entrance, up to 4 assistants for 2 turnstiles, who explain the mechanics, help to download the application and answer questions. There were no cashiers, and consultants became 4 times more.
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If we divide the food service into abstract levels, then at the lower levels there will be foodtracks and mobile kiosks, where almost everyone pays with a cache, often there are simply no payment options with a card. But the higher you go through the levels, the less common is the cache. For example, in hotels it is hard to imagine paying in cash. And bills above $ 20 are usually found only among tourists. In some institutions you can even find announcements that pieces of paper $ 50 and $ 100 do not accept.

The second category is cash only, as a rule, these are historical places: cafes that work for 60 or 100 years.

About payment using a smartphone:

Only a couple of months ago at the central metro stations NY there was an opportunity to pay for entry using Apple Pay. In the vast majority of cafes and restaurants it is impossible to pay using a smartphone.

The subjective forecast is how wide and how fast such formats will move across the country:

The absence of cash desks in stores is, without a doubt, the near future. The strongest implementation barrier is the conservativeness of buyers and the issue of employing sellers.

In general, the majority of people are still not even aware of the impending changes, so I have not observed a public discussion. But in the US there are so many local businesses that jobs should be decent. Accordingly, the discussion “robots will deprive us of work” can be expected.

Such stores can only afford the large tech giants. Alternatively, Amazon will become a service provider for other players. I think the gas stations will be the first to switch to the lack of cash desks, now they need to refuel on them in California, and just need to bathe with payment. ”

At the moment, the Amazon Go chain of stores without cash desks includes 23 points, 2 more are temporarily closed and 1 is being prepared for opening. Amazon does not fully disclose the operation algorithms of this format, but it is known that it uses computer vision, machine learning and sensor fusion technology .