(Bloomberg) — Amazon.com is removing its cashier-less “Just Walk Out” system from its grocery stores, an ambitious technology designed to help shoppers skip the lines. It is a withdrawal from
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Amazon will be eliminating the system when it renovates existing Fresh grocery stores and will not be implementing it in new stores opening later this year, an Amazon spokesperson said.
Tony Hoggett, Amazon's senior vice president of grocery stores, will join the company in 2022 to lead a broader overhaul of the grocery business, which has struggled to build market share in an industry dominated by the likes of Walmart and Kroger. I started.
Amazon plans to rely more on its Dash Cart, which allows shoppers to scan items on the go. However, the company has reduced the complexity of the technology.
Carts originally used a series of cameras to automatically identify what shoppers picked up from the shelves. The new version removes some cameras and now requires shoppers to hold their items in front of a scanner that can read barcodes. Shoppers can also use the touchscreen to recall items such as produce that don't have barcodes.
The Information previously reported on the retirement of Just Walk Out technology.
The system uses ceiling-mounted cameras and shelf sensors, backed by algorithms, to determine what shoppers take out of the store. Customers will be automatically charged upon exit.
The company began developing the technology more than a decade ago, as then-CEO Jeff Bezos pushed to develop its own products as Amazon expanded into brick-and-mortar stores. It was part of it.
The technology debuted in 2018 with the opening of a convenience store in the lobby of Amazon's Seattle headquarters. The company built dozens of Amazon Go-branded convenience stores and later installed cashierless systems at two of his stores, a fresh produce store and a Whole Foods Market.
The technology has alienated some shoppers, who are turned away by entry gates and the feeling that Amazon has turned a visit to a grocery store into a high-tech vending machine. Receipts delivered digitally minutes or hours after shoppers check out also weren't practical for big-box stores.
Amazon Go stores will continue to use Just Walk Out technology, and the company will continue to license it to other retailers. Smaller stores in the UK will also continue to use the system.
(Updates details about Dash Cart in fourth paragraph.)
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