"It feels like you stealing food". How does the world's first offline Amazon store works without cash registers and vendors?

The minimum of employees, constant supervision and full protection from thieves.

Entrance in the supermarket Amazon Go.

On January 22, after more than a year of closed testing, Amazon opens his first offline store.
Supermarket Amazon Go differs from any other by the absence of cashboxes and sellers. They are replaced by cameras and an artificial intelligence system that counts up purchases and automatically charges money from a customer's bank card.

To get to the store, you must first go through the chain of turnstiles with scanners QR-codes: showing them the code from the application Amazon, the buyer "enters" the system and starts the shopping session.

Turnstiles in supermarket Amazon Go.

Authorization with smartphone.

Going through the turnstiles, the buyer enters the trading floor area of more than 160 square meters. There, several cabinets with finished products are available to him, as well as rows of products and beverages of daily consumption in the format of the store "at hand."
Finished products Amazon Go.

Shelves with weight sensors and individually marked sections.

Another category of goods sold in Amazon Go are "food sets" from Amazon. They have enough ingredients to cook the dish indicated on the box in portions for two people.

A shelf with Amazon's "grocery sets".

When a customer puts any goods in a bag, his action is fixed by one of the many cameras under the ceiling of the store.

Cameras above the shelves of the Amazon Go.

The system automatically adds the product to the shopping list, which you can manage through the application on your smartphone. At the output, artificial intelligence automatically counts the check and writes off the final amount from a bank card linked to the Amazon account.

Due to the fact that several cameras look at the same point from different angles, it's almost impossible to steal anything. The system will write off the money from the customer, even if it carefully wraps the goods in a package or fabric and tries to take it out of the store.

Product page in the Amazon app.

Despite the complete automation of the process, the people in the store still work: consultants who also arrange the goods on the shelves, the cook of the finished product department and the alcohol department employee who checks the documents and packs the bottles in opaque bags.

Employee Amazon Go in a branded orange jacket.

The employee of alcohol department

The first time going to such a store leaves the feeling that the buyer seems to steal food. This is also due to the fact that the notification of the purchase comes only a few minutes after the exit through the turnstiles.