Amazon focuses on AI and computer vision at new research centre in Germany's Cyber Valley

Amazon has opened a new research centre in Tübingen, Germany's 'Cyber Valley’.

Over 70 employees are working in the areas of artificial intelligence, computer vision and causality.

In a LinkedIn post, Amazon said: “If you're in the area, come visit - the ground floor is open to the public and will soon host a café, inviting the community from neighbouring research institutions to gather.

Amazon Go and Fresh

Amazon is to close eight of its Go convenience stores in the US.

It will shutter two locations in New York City, two in Seattle, and in San Francisco, on 1st April.

Amazon says it will work to help affected employees secure other roles at the company.

“Like any physical retailer, we periodically assess our portfolio of stores and make optimisation decisions along the way,” says an Amazon spokesperson.

“In this case, we’ve decided to close a small number of Amazon Go stores in Seattle, New York City, and San Francisco.”

“We remain committed to the Amazon Go format, operate more than 20 Amazon Go stores across the US, and will continue to learn which locations and features resonate most with customers as we keep evolving our Amazon Go stores.” 

In a LInkedIn post, Brittain Ladd, a supply chain and retail technology consultant and former Amazon executive, said: “The brutal truth is this - Amazon Go is an example of an idea that although cool and revolutionary, it hasn’t resonated with consumers.”

“Worse, the stores are incredibly expensive to build and operate yet the technology has failed to increase sales.”

He added: “7-Eleven and Casey's are two of the leading convenience store retailers. Nether one has technology like Amazon Go yet they continue to retain and attract new customers.”

“Why? Because they understand what their customers want and they provide it to them - snacks, pizza, gasoline, groceries, and convenience.”

“The team that designed Amazon Go stores convinced themselves that what customers want is a shopping experience free of friction. Maybe some customers do but not the majority. Amazon Go is a gimmick store.”

“Amazon believes the way to create a better convenience store is through its Just Walk Out technology. The team convinced themselves that technology was the answer. False. The team believed that they could design and build a better convenience store than the leaders in the industry. Also false.”

“The mistake Amazon made was placing people with a skill set in technology to create their convenience retail strategy. Convenience retailing is about pleasing customers and exceeding expectations through food, fuel, and assortment.”

“Amazon Go stores became fixated on technology and it is remains at the forefront of everything.”

MEANWHILE, IN THE UK…

In January, Amazon Fresh UK closed its Dalston, London location, less than 18 months after opening it in a blaze of autonomous retail glory.

Its first UK checkout-free store arrived in March 2021, in Ealing, west London.

It then quickly opened another 18, predominantly in the capital, and said lots more (100 or so) were in the pipeline.

Yet in August of last year, we reported that Amazon had slammed on the brakes, due to sales falling short of expectations and fit out costs being multiple times higher than with a standard location.

According to a report by The Sunday Times, the US giant was understood to have walked away from talks on dozens of sites, and stopped its search for more locations.