Life after Just Walk Out: Amazon continues Dash Carts push at Stateside Whole Foods Market stores

Amazon is continuing its roll-out of the newest generation of Amazon Dash Carts at Whole Foods Market stores in the US.

In a LinkedIn post, Leandro Balbinot, CTO and Head of Supply Chain at Amazon Grocery/Whole Foods, said: “If you are around downtown Austin, come to our Lamar location and check them out! While the skip the line checkout gets attention, the great experience is how Dash Cart keeps you informed throughout your shop.”

“You see your running total update in real-time as items go in or out of your cart, making it effortless to track your basket. The design philosophy? Don't eliminate interaction - enhance it by putting the right information at your fingertips exactly when you need it.”

He concluded: “This newest generation incorporates significant enhancements and new features specifically requested by customers for an even better in-store grocery shopping experience.”

Farewell, JWO!

In 2024, we reported that Amazon was removing Just Walk Out technology from its Amazon Fresh stores.

This was replaced by the aforementioned smart carts, with Amazon continuing to offer the frictionless shopping tech to third-party companies.

“We’ve invested a lot of time redesigning a number of our Amazon Fresh stores over the last year, offering a better overall shopping experience with more value, convenience, and selection, and so far we’ve seen positive results, with higher customer shopping satisfaction scores and increased purchasing," said spokesperson Jessica Martin.

“We’ve also heard from customers that while they enjoyed the benefit of skipping the checkout line with Just Walk Out, they also wanted the ability to easily find nearby products and deals, view their receipt as they shop, and know how much money they saved while shopping throughout the store.”

To label the initiative a failure was naive at best and at worst a complete misunderstanding of tech creativity, argued Brand L. Elverston, Founder/Principal at Elverston Consulting.

He commented: “For the pessimists, this is a colossal "I told you so." For others, it is easily understood this is how iterative innovation evolves.”

“The idea, the whiteboard, the alpha, the beta, the limited test, adjustments, reworks, and refits - and learnings all the while. Collateral, unintended innovation often occurs when pursuing some completely different goal.”

He added: “Pursuits such as these are exactly what sparks imagination and creativity. Not all are going to become resounding, earth shattering, take the world by storm events. In fact, few do.”

“When Amazon unveiled the first Amazon Go store in 2016/17, it immediately caught the eyes of countless tech firms and retailers - how many others followed with their own solutions?”

2026 RTIH Innovation Awards

In-store technology will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.

The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.

Check out our 2025 winners here.

Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”

“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”

He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”

Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.