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Shoppers check out sale items as they wait for the new Amazon Fresh store to open on E. Colorado Street on Thursday, September 15, 2022 in Pasadena, California.
Medianews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images | Medianews Group | Getty Images
Amazon will eliminate cashier-less checkout systems at its U.S. fresh supermarkets, the company confirmed, marking the latest realignment of its grocery strategy.
The company does not plan to implement the system, called “Just Walk Out,” at existing Fresh stores or new stores scheduled to open later this year. Instead, it will rely more on Dash Cart, which tracks and aggregates items as shoppers add them to their carts, allowing them to skip checkout lines.
“We have spent a lot of time over the last year redesigning many of our Amazon Fresh stores to deliver more value, convenience, and a richer overall shopping experience. “We’re seeing positive results: customers’ shopping satisfaction scores have improved and their purchases have increased,” Amazon spokeswoman Carly Golden said in a statement.
Golden continued, “Customers have told us that they’ve enjoyed the benefits of skipping checkout lines with Just Walk Out, but also the ability to easily find products and sales near them, view their receipts while shopping, and learn how to… We’ve also heard people say they want to shop in-store and save a lot of money.”
information We previously reported on Amazon’s decision to discontinue Just Walkout in some Fresh stores.
Amazon’s Go convenience stores, along with smaller Fresh stores in the UK, will continue to use Just Walk Out technology. The company will also continue to license its cashierless systems to third parties.
Amazon debuted cashierless technology at a convenience store on its Seattle campus in 2018. The system relies on a series of cameras and sensors installed throughout the store to monitor which items shoppers take home and automatically charge them when they leave. It was the pet project of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who saw it as a way for Amazon to differentiate itself in the grocery market and “take away the worst parts of brick-and-mortar stores.”
“There’s no one who doesn’t like waiting in line,” then-CEO Bezos wrote in his book. 2018 Letter to Shareholders. “Instead, we envisioned a store where you could walk in, pick up what you want, and leave.”
Since then, Amazon’s strategy regarding Just Walk Out has changed. In 2020, the company began selling its systems to food and retail stores at airports and sports stadiums, and more recently to hospitals. The division was moved from Amazon’s retail group and folded into its cloud computing division.
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