Amazon has announced that it will open its second and third checkout-free Amazon Go stores later this year, in San Francisco and Chicago.
There have been reports that Amazon could open as many as six new versions of the Go stores this year.
While the San Francisco store is said to be headed for Union Square, Amazon has not commented about specific locations.
FYI … MNB has covered Amazon Go extensively, and you can read our dissection and evaluation of the experience here.
There have been reports that Amazon could open as many as six new versions of the Go stores this year.
While the San Francisco store is said to be headed for Union Square, Amazon has not commented about specific locations.
FYI … MNB has covered Amazon Go extensively, and you can read our dissection and evaluation of the experience here.
- KC's View:
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The real question, I think, is what Amazon has planned for the Go format a year or two from now … which almost certainly is all planned out at this point. Whatever the pace of growth, it is a certainty that the cost of the technology will get lower as time goes on. That’s Moore’s law.
Could they adapt the technology to an Amazon Books store? A 365 by Whole Foods unit? Could they license it out? All are possible … while at the same time, we’re likely to see other retailers test similar technologies developed by other tech companies.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This advance in the store experience will end up being as important as scanning. No question in my mind.
Retailers that don’t think about this - how to adapt to it and/or compete with it - are making a serious mistake. To steal Michael’s metaphor from this morning, it means they are seeking darkness and thinking it is just a passing cloud. They’re ignoring the approaching meteor.
