The Amazon Go Experience
Today I had the opportunity to visit the Amazon Go store in Seattle, Washington. I Instagramed some stories on the experience and got asked tons of questions about it so I decided to share my experience here with you.
Waiting line
I arrived expecting to see a long line to get in but there was none. I knew I had to download the Amazon Go app (iOS, Android) so I did it before and as I arrived I got in right away. In other words I had 0 minute waiting line.
How does it actually work?
An employee handed me an orange bag and I just scanned my app code at the turnstiles. Then I was already in.
I started wondering around, trying to understand how it worked. I saw some people grabbing things and putting them in their orange bags and some others just throwing tons of cans and packages into their backpacks.
The store doesn’t have electronics, nor clothes, furniture, it looks more like a pretty fancy grocery store. Everything is in place, tagged and in case it is consumed it is quickly replaced.
I grabbed a salad and checked what ingredients it had. At that moment I checked my app and nothing was impacted. Then I realized it had corn and I didn’t want corn so I put it back on the shelf. I did this with a bunch of things, salads, yogurt, wine but no one seemed to be worrying about the fact that I was grabbing things and putting them back on the shelf.
I then grabbed a mug and put it into my orange Amazon Go bag, I HAD to buy something. When I put it into my bag I looked around but no one seemed to care about it. I continued walking, thinking what else I could buy.
After some minutes I had already seen everything in the store and decided to head out and go to my next work meeting.
I left the place through the turnstiles but without scanning my code again and asked an Amazon Go employee what should I do next.”You’re all set, enjoy” was the answer I got to my question.
I walked away and it felt like I was shoplifting but, was I? I grabbed my phone three blocks after and I realized I had an email saying I had a new receipt from Amazon. I checked the app and I had my receipt with a message that said: “Thank you for shopping with us, your trip time was 3m 14s”. Wow, I thought, I spent as much time as I could playing around and I hadn’t event spent 5 minutes inside it. That’s quite efficient.
Pricing
I thought it would be super expensive. Well it wasn’t. I looked for an item I was familiar with: a yogurt: $1.59, it was actually cheaper than buying it at a local grocery store and probably at WholeFoods.
Technology
Amazon Go “Walk Out” technology uses “computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning” to track what you’ve grabbed, returned and purchased. The store is full of cameras like in the picture below. Anyone interested in working in a similar technology for a different application please ping me, I’m building a project at Wolox that might interest you.
Are there any humans inside?
The store has at least 8 Amazon employees that I could count. Two at the entrance, one assisting visitors to scan their apps at the turnstiles and a few of them inside assisting people that are shopping or replacing things being purchased.
Location
For now, the only Amazon Go Location is: 2131 7th Ave, Seattle, WA 98121 and it is right next to Amazon’s HQ where Jeff Bezos works.
Refunds
The answer is Yes. You get to ask for refunds from the app. I didn’t try it yet but after you finished shopping and left the store you could ask for a refund, item by item.
Customer Experience
Once again, Amazon nailed it in customer experience. If I had to define my experience in three words I’d say it was: Efficient, Engaging and Appealing.
I would definitely use it again. Well done Amazon!
