Grocery shopping: It's a necessary chore that can be fun, but can also turn into quite the stressful experience sometimes.
After you've finally gathered everything from your shopping list, you get to the worst part - the checkout.
And of course, we always end up at the slowest line, with the slowest cashier and the people in front us taking ages to find their wallet and pay the exact amount in change.
Self-checkout isles have become very popular as the first attempt to solve this problem - but let's be honest, sometimes they don't work and it takes even longer.
Well, this experience might be a thing of the past soon.
Imagine a grocery store without checkout, without lines, without cashiers: you just take what you need and leave - and get billed later.
What sounds more like a dream than reality has just been announced by amazon yesterday!
"Amazon Go" is the new retail concept where you can just walk into the store, grab whatever you want, and go. The receipt will be sent to your amazon account where you can pay with your preferred payment method.
The first store has already opened in Amazon's hometown Seattle, Washington - but currently, it's still in a Beta Phase and only available for Amazon Employees.
The official launch for the public will be in early 2017.
So how does the Grab-And-Go Concept work?!
They call it the "Just Walk Out-Technology".
When you first walk into the store, you scan a QR Code from the Amazon Go-App on your phone.
With sensors, cameras and AI, they can detect whatever you pick up - and it will be added to your cart.
Using sensor fusion, computer vision and deep learning processes that can be found in self-driving cars, the technology promises to update your cart automatically.
So if you change your mind, no problem - put the item back and you won't be charged for it.
Apart from normal grocery store items, the company also introduced "Chef-designed Amazon Meal Kits": These are sets of fresh ingredients including a recipe, so that you can easily prepare a dinner for two without having to buy all the ingredients separately or having leftovers.
Future plans
Amazon is already one of the biggest online-retailers, but they want more!
They want to expand and open up physical stores - and the amazon go grocery store might just be the beginning.
After already launching Amazon Fresh and a couple of physical book stores, the company is also thinking about a drive-in store, as well as large discounter chains, similar to IKEA stores.
These are still theoretical ideas though, and it might take some time until they will be finalized.
All in all, it's Amazon's goal to become "the backbone of retail" online as well as offline, and challenge rivals like Walmart and Target.
Yesterday, I wrote about delivery guys being replaced by robots.
Today, it has been announced that cashiers will be replaced by technology.
What's next?
The future has already started NOW!
Maybe we'll soon have the opportunity to pay for more things in STEEM as well!
That would be awesome and the price is rising, so.. STEEM ON!
What's your opinion on Amazon Go? Would you prefer this futuristic concept, or would you rather shop at a traditional grocery store?
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