Amazon share price: Amazon Go opens to the public in Seattle

Amazon shares are seen opening higher Monday, as the global tech giant opens the doors of its checkout free supermarket Amazon Go to the public in Seattle. After being tested by Amazon staff for over a year, the store is now deemed ready for public use.

Amazon shares closed 0.10% higher at $1,294.58 in the US Friday. The Amazon stock exceeded the $1,300 level earlier in January.

Amazon Go open for business

Amazon Go is a supermarket with a difference.

Rather than selecting your goods and paying for them at the till, like traditional stores, the AI tech installed across the store – including weighing tech in the shelves and cameras that can recognise whether a customer has picked up an item to and left the store with their ‘purchase’.

Then, the customer – who swipes their phone with the Amazon Go app as they enter the store – will be charged for the goods through their Amazon account.

As well as being a novel experience and something that could save customers time, it was likely a challenge for the Amazon tech experts to create a cashier-free store that could accurately identify a customer’s shopping basket.

Delayed public opening

After opening for employee testing late in 2016, it had been expected the downtown Seattle Amazon Go store would open for business to the public sometime in early 2017. However, it appears the technology wasn’t initially as reliable as it needed to be and the opening was delayed until Amazon was happy with the final till-free store setup.

But, even after all the testing and investment, right now there don’t appear any plans to create and open another Amazon Go store.

That doesn’t mean Amazon is without a strong bricks and mortar presence, though. Amazon’s investments and agreements mean that as well as Amazon Go and Whole Foods, it also has a physical presence in Kohl stores and operates a number of Amazon Books, stores.