Amazon Opens First Whole Food Store Equipped With Cashier-less Tech

For the first time, Amazon introduces a cashier-less  Whole Foods store which is guaranteed to deliver a shopping experience to customers without having to interact with any kind of cashier rather with technology. Located in Washington, DC’s Glover Park neighbourhood, the Whole Foods store although now revamped with modern technologies has been in existence in that neighbourhood for over 20 years.
 
While Amazon has been known to operate cashier-less grocery stores that run using technology, this is the first time it involves technology with a Whole Foods store. In 2017 about $13.7 billion was spent for the purchase of the grocery chain with little or brand integration with Amazon until now. 
 
The Whole Foods store isn’t the largest of Amazon’s cashier-less technology store, it’s about 21,500 square feet in comparison to Amazon Fresh store with Just Walk Out technology which is about 25,000 square feet located in Bellevue, Washington DC’s Glover Park. But despite the size and ecstatic properties the cashier-less Just Walk Out stores have shown or proven Amazon’s confidence in its technology and the company’s willingness to bring its unique technology to a preexisting store that does not share the name Amazon. According to reports, it’s unclear if Amazon is looking to add more cashier-less Whole Food stores and the location its technology would be deployed declined as the company declined comments on that. But we can’t wait to see more exciting technological powered facility such as this in Africa and other parts of the world.

According a New York Times reporter who visited the Whole Food store explains some of the fantastic features of the store, however, the reporter also didn’t fail to let us in on how people are reacting to the tech store. First on entry into the facility is Amazon’s palm-recognition technology that generates each customer a QR code. Although you’ll find a number of employees around various counters within the facility, they have all been strategically positioned to help explain how the cashier-less technology works especially for customers who were used to shopping at the Whole Foods prior to its renovation but the choice of self-service checkouts still remains if they don’t want to use Just Walk Out. The store also leans into self-service, like offering a bread-slicer for customers to slice their own loaves.

No doubt the cashier-less technology has proved divisive with customers who aren’t used to such shopping technology as stated in the New York Times Report. Various customers have one thing or the other to say about the technology, one customer who commented likened the technology to the surveillance state seen in 1984, while others were willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and try new things. The Washington, DC store is one of two Whole Foods stores the company has previously informed the public about equipping with cashier-less technology, the second in Los Angeles has been scheduled for opening later in the year.