Amazon flags check-out free Just Walk Out technology milestone as it hits 100 third party stores

This past weekend, Amazon opened its 100th third party store powered by Just Walk Out technology.

In a LinkedIn post, Ritu Subash, Principal PM - Physical Stores Tech - Just Walk Out at Amazon, said: “Milestones like these make the work we do worth it! On to the next 100.”

The tech can be found in airports, stadiums, schools, grocery and convenience stores around the world.

Further details here.

Amazon Fresh

Amazon Fresh customers can now pay at self-checkouts in the Monument, London store, in addition to using a Just Walk Out technology powered checkout-free option.

In a LinkedIn post, Charlie Mills, Head of In-Store & Local Marketing at Amazon Fresh, said: “Customers get the choice of scanning and paying for items using the self-checkout and they can still checkout at the gates using our Just Walk Out technology.”

“The Amazon Fresh in-store shopping experience is made possible by the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning.”

“Our Just Walk Out Technology automatically detects when products are taken from or returned to the shelves, and keeps track of them in a virtual basket. Using the self-checkout adds another convenient way to shop. Pretty cool.”

Amazon has in recent weeks also been busy tinkering with its Amazon Fresh checkout free convenience stores in Kensington, White City, and Southwark, London.

The ultimate aim here is alleviating some of the friction associated with Just Walk Out technology.

AMAZON GO

Amazon recently shuttered a five year old Amazon Go convenience store in downtown Seattle, three months after it announced that eight of its automated checkout locations (two each in Seattle and New York City and four in San Francisco) were closing across the US.

“We’ve closed our 5th and Marion Seattle Amazon Go location, and are working closely with employees to find new opportunities within Amazon, including at other nearby stores,” an Amazon spokesperson said.

“We continue operating more than 20 Amazon Go stores across the US, and look forward to opening more in the future.”

The spokesperson didn’t give reasons for the closure, but it should be noted that urban stores reliant on office workers have struggled amidst the rise of remote working in a post-Covid world. 

Unlike in the UK, where the strategy is very much a London centric one, the focus of late has been on larger suburban locations that feature a made to order kitchen.