Amazon confirmed Tuesday that it will open one of its automated Amazon Go convenience stores in downtown Seattle at Fourth Avenue and Pike Street, the former site of an Office Depot store.
Like the company’s larger Amazon Go
Grocery stores, Go stores allow
customers to shop without stopping
at a checkout stand. Instead,
customers scan an app on their phone as they enter, then are automatically charged when they leave with their groceries. The transactions are cashless and touchless – a key selling point during a pandemic.
Go stores, which have been around since 2018, use cameras throughout the store’s ceiling and shelves to record what customers place in their shopping baskets. The stores typically have only one employee on the premises. Customers gain entry by scanning their Amazon phone app and items removed from shelves are automatically added to a shopper’s virtual shopping cart.
The stores, largely a novelty for now, offer a glimpse into a future where cashiers are obsolete and transactions are cashless.
Amazon currently operates six Go stores in Seattle. Those stores are located at:
- Stewart Street and Terry Avenue
- Madison Street and Minor Avenue
- 5th Avenue and Marion Street
- 300 Boren Ave. N.
- 7th Avenue and Blanchard Street
A sixth is located in the former Macy’s Building downtown, where Amazon leases the top six floors. That location is currently closed, according to Amazon’s website. There are currently 26 Go stores throughout the U.S. The company uses a similar model for its much larger Go Grocery stores. Amazon operates two Go Grocery stores in the Seattle area – one on Capitol Hill at 610 E. Pike St. and another at the Overlake Regency shopping center in Redmond.
by Tony Lystra, Tech Editor, Puget Sound Business Journal
Photo: Anthony Bolante, PSBJ
