In Washington, shopping is done by skipping the cash register

Entering a shop, choosing and leaving, without going through the cashier. That’s what Amazon is doing in its brick-and-mortar stores. A technology, called “Just Walk Out”, “just go out”, already tested in some stores and that will soon be introduced in the other stores of the ecommerce giant. The novelty is that for the first time it will be possible to use it in one of the largest stores, a regular-sized supermarket, which opened on June 17 in Washington. Over two thousand square meters of shop with fully stocked shelves. It will be an important test bed for the Just Walk Out system, which will have to prove that it is up to managing a complete expense, and no longer just small purchases in the brand’s physical stores. You don’t need to be a Prime customer to use it. Just insert your credit card at the entrance, shop, and go out. Or you can scan the QR code at the entrance to connect to your Amazon account, or use Amazon One which uses the scan of the palm of the hand to recognize the customer and his payment details. The receipt arrives via e-mail at the end of the purchase, in electronic format. Just Walk Out uses a combination of sensors, computer vision and deep learning to follow the customer while shopping, “see” what he takes from the shelf by adding it to his virtual account. Not only that: it is also able to recognize if the same customer thinks about it and returns the object to its place, eliminating it from the cart and therefore also from the bill. The system, after two years of testing, is available, from April also for purchase by third parties, who can install it in their stores using Amazon’s technical assistance, and without the need for customers to register on the site: it will work simply through your credit card. No worries about personal data, they assure: the customer can consider Just Walk Out like the CCTV cameras already present in most shops. physical shopping experience by minimizing contact between people, thus increasing health safety. Another cashless and queue-free system introduced last year is the Dash Cart, an intelligent cart that combines computer vision and sensors to identify the items inside. You connect via QR code, and at the end of the shopping you leave the supermarket on the special lane with the account that arrives automatically on the credit card. Although at first glance it might seem comfortable and intuitive, it has raised some concerns due to the small size and the need for a large number of operations to be carried out during the shopping, which make it decidedly less user friendly than a traditional cart. with the most advanced technologies for smart shopping, without fear of closing the outdated experiences. We saw it with Amazon Pantry (which allowed you to buy non-perishable food and household products at very advantageous prices) and also with Prime now, both merged into the main site and now collected under the Amazon Fresh brand, which provides shopping with delivery in two-hour slots and is also the brand that stands out on the new supermarkets. In the United States, the delivery of groceries in garages has started in 5 thousand cities and small towns, in order to guarantee their safety even in the absence of the hosts: just connect the smart opening system of your garage to the Amazon Key app, and choose it as your delivery method. The courier will have a scanner available to open the door (once only), he will leave the shopping and close the garage behind him.