OT: Amazon Go - the no-employee store of the future?

[burningbusch]

I guess the question is, what does Amazon charge the grocery stores and other businesses to "rent" the technology. What is the upfront cost of installation - I'm assuming it requires cameras in every aisle and some sort of marking of the products. What is Amazon's cut of the transactions? Higher than other credit card companies already take?

 

There's a privacy issue here as well of course. Now that Amazon will be watching you - knowing where you are, what you typically buy, what you look like, and other demographics and such. Heck, they'll know you needed vagisil this week or were running low on trojans.

 

Are customers willing to own the iPhone and install the app and have their phone on them to go grocery shopping to avoid having to do a traditional check out? The store will need at least one check out or self serve check out anyway for people who don't use the tech.

 

And I guess is all this cheaper and all that more convenient than salary+benefits of a handful of check out staff, most of which are part time?

 

In this store, if you don't have the app, you don't gain access. Just like you can't get into a club store without a membership card. So no need to accomodate those without the app (no additional checkout stands required).

 

I don't see anywhere that Amazon is looking to license this to others. I think, at the moment, this is a proof of concept. Amazon spends nearly every last dime of profit on R&D. They are huge into R&D. They have spent way more than, Apple for example. And they spend more on R&D than Walmart, Costco, Krogers combined.

 

Ironically, the company that has put more pressure on brick & mortar stores in the last 10 years (Amazon) is now the one showing brick & mortar operations the types of things they need to do to survive.

 

Amazon knows what people will buy online and what they won't. They have all that information. Malls are dying, but grocery stores are still full of people. They've tried some different ideas for grocery type goods. For example I can order groceries from Amazon, fulfilled by certain stores and have them delivered in a few hours. I think Amazon is weighing that approach with this concept store. But expect them to be a bigger player in this space moving forward.

 

Busch.

[Donsta]

I'm sure this will be incredibly expensive today, but not 10 years from now.