Amazon
In the heart of Seattle - next to the main office building of Amazon, on the ground floor of which is the Amazon Go - recently built new offices in the form of spheres. This is not exactly about the store, but I just could not help but mention them.
These areas - the most incredible modern architectural project of all that I saw. Unfortunately, my photos do not even closely convey the quality of engineering, style and courage of the building. It seems that from 2018 you were sent immediately to the year 2118. On the first floor of one of the areas - free entry to the showroom of technologies and ideas of Amazon, on other floors and other areas - office space combined with a garden / greenhouse.
Score
As I said, the store is located on the first floor of a skyscraper and occupies almost the entire wall. Next to the shop is a bike path and free parking for 15 minutes. A store, like spheres and a small park nearby, looks like the store of the future should look. At the same time, the architect managed to convey the “Amazon style” - i.e. something that is ahead of its time. Next to the entrance there is still a small “corridor” in order to organize a queue and a lot of curious people who take pictures, shoot videos and install the Amazon Go application for themselves.
Kitchen
Almost the entire wall is the windows to the Amazon Go kitchen, where they make “fast food”, which they sell right there. In North America, it is customary to cook in front of the buyer.
application
The Amazon Go app is where the store starts and how it ends. I pre-installed it myself, but many people did it near the entrance - free Wifi simplifies this process. It is interesting that when I took screenshots of the phone screen for an article, the application warned me that it was not safe and someone could get my QR code.
Turnstile
You need to enter and exit through the turnstiles. At the entrance you need to bring the screen of the phone with a QR Code to the sensor, after which the transparent doors will open and you can enter. There is an opportunity to spend one after the other several people using the same QR Code - while the entire amount will be written off from the owner of the phone. You also need to exit through the turnstile, but you do not need to scan anything.
Near the entrance is an Amazon Go employee who tells you what to do and how you can spend your entire family with one phone.
In my opinion, these turnstiles, the most "narrow" and wrong place in the entire store. On the one hand, they, like the turnstiles in the subway, do not protect against someone who wants to just jump over them. On the other hand, an inconvenient and somewhat thoughtful scanner for which you need to turn the phone down the screen and wait until the doors open. Of course, it is clear why this is done - so the system has time to remember the customer, “understand” his image and skip only him. But still somehow it is not right - I enter a regular store without this delay. In Amazon Go you need to wait for a pass not only at the entrance, but also at the exit!
I would do it in the place of the developers - turn on the phone, launch the application on it, just go at the entrance and hold the phone up - the cameras on the ceiling recognize the code and the phone by vibration and confirm that the client is recognized by the system and can start selecting goods. If a customer starts to take goods without such a warning, then an alarm will be triggered and the customer’s store will explain to him (the location and appearance of such a buyer), which explains the rules of the purchase (there are staff in the store anyway).
Ceiling
Devices on the ceiling are not striking, especially since in the shops (underground parking lots, restaurants, offices, etc.) of North America, the ceilings are usually “open” and all communications are visible - ventilation, wiring, fire extinguishing system and other pipes and cables . Cameras are black. They are located at first glance chaotically, do not look like cameras at all and do not cause any sense of tracking or observation from somewhere above. I would say that the ordinary buyer does not notice them at all and does not think about them.
It's amazing that it all works. Incredible and incomprehensible. The store is full of customers, a variety of customers, and they all move and act erratically, take something from the shelves, put it back, do everything quickly and all at once and as they like, and not so that it is as easy as possible to understand their actions and intentions. How AI understands all this chaos is completely incomprehensible to me, especially since everything that happens there cannot be described with the words “I went to the shelf, stretched out my hand, took the box, put it in my bag”. They can come close to the shelf, they can take it with two hands at once, they can push it from the shelf into a bag or on the floor, several people can climb at the same time for the same product, or they can take it, put it in a bag, pull something else out of it and deliver in place of what they took and it will all work. In general, it needs to be seen - I am writing an article and uploading videos of my purchases on youtube.
Shelves
The shelves are special. There are different partitions between different goods - somewhere there is more space, somewhere less. Probably, it makes it easier for machine vision to understand exactly where and how much it was taken, and so it’s more difficult to put something back in the wrong place - a large box will not fit into the place for a small one. There is a small cable under each shelf - probably this is a part of the system of built-in scales (if there is one, then each shelf is a large scale).
The range is very simple. A little bit of everything. Products of different categories, sizes, textures and weights, including those that are stored in the refrigerator and ending with alcohol (strong in this store is not sold). Mostly products, but there are also souvenirs - mugs and thermoses. Prices are normal.
Bags
Shopping can be stuffed in the pockets, and you can put in free paper bags or bags (one bag per buyer). At first I put everything in my hands, then in a paper bag, then I saw the bags and put the bag in the bag I took in my hands :)
Staff
Although this is the store of the future, it is full of workers. Someone is standing at the entrance, in the department with alcohol is a person who checks the age of the buyer (usually, for this show a driver's license), someone constantly brings goods in large gray plastic boxes and fills them with empty shelves. In addition, there are cooks, cleaners, etc.
Canteen
When the store has a small dining room where you can warm up and eat freshly bought fast food. There are disposable plates, glasses, spoons, forks, water, sauces, salt, sugar and so on.
Restroom
The most common, but with a combination lock. Code "1234 *".
Both the kitchen and the toilet are located at the entrance to the store, i.e. they can be used without an application and without purchases.
Output
I entered and exited several times, each time I scanned my QR Code at the entrance. First, I launched my wife and son into the store and went by myself. Then I decided to make a small video, left the store and went into it again. Then I walked out of the store again and went in again. My wife and child stayed inside all this time and chose “snack” products. In the end, we all left the store and I almost immediately got an account on the phone.
Total
Amazon Go is working. This is a store where you can make purchases. But at the same time, it can be said that this is a very, very small, especially by American standards, grocery store, which, at the moment, is more an attraction, advertising technologies, their “running in” and confirmation of efficiency. This is a story to everyone about the near future, where AI does what it should do and where, step by step, it is trusted to sell and manage.
It was a truly exciting adventure and a small, accessible to everyone travel by time machine here and now.
PS Food was very tasty.
Video