Pick up and go: how Amazon supermarkets work

Enter a store, pick up the goods and just walk away, without stopping at the checkout. This routine is becoming a more common option in the United States, in a movement that grew with the pandemic.

The innovation is being tested and scaled up by tech giants such as Amazon and Apple and traditional retail names such as Walmart, Starbucks and McDonald’s.

Amazon has a system called “Just Walk Out”. The concept began to be tested in 2018 at Amazon Go convenience stores. In September 2020, the first unit of Amazon Fresh, a medium-sized supermarket that uses the technology, was opened. A year and a half later, the Fresh banner now has 26 stores across the US, in states such as California, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Virginia, in addition to the nation’s capital.

In three tests carried out by the report on Amazon Fresh in Washington, the charge was accurate. The supermarket has fruits, breads, meats, ready-to-eat food and cleaning products, in a limited variety and prices slightly above the average for the region.

At the entrance, there are blocks. To open it, the visitor needs to show a QR Code generated by the Amazon app. You can also insert a credit card or scan the palm of your hand, if it is previously registered.

Then, sensors and cameras placed on the store’s ceiling follow the customer through the aisles, and the system digitally records the purchases. Just take the desired products, put them in the bag —which can be the backpack or ecobag brought from home— and just leave, without showing anyone what was taken.

The technology can detect if the customer gives up an item and takes it out of the bag, even if they leave the product in another part of the store. To make tracking easier, items such as fruits and vegetables are sold by the unit rather than by weight.

Seconds after leaving the store, the customer receives an email detailing the purchase. The amount is debited from the credit card saved in the Amazon account, as in an online purchase.

When buying like this, you save a few minutes by not having to stop at the checkout or pack things at the end, but the process gives the impression that there was no expense. At first, there’s a strange feeling of doing something wrong by going out without talking to anyone.

The feeling of “stealing” was satirized in a recent sketch on “Saturday Night Live,” which shows black customers afraid to put things in the bag for fear of being accused of stealing, while white customers do not.

In late 2021, Amazon announced that it plans to expand Just Walk Out to other chains such as Whole Foods supermarket and Starbucks coffee shop chain. In November, a Sainsbury’s supermarket in London started using the system.

Other networks have focused on encouraging customers to use their cell phones to register their purchases. Walmart offers the Scan & Go service for those registered in the Walmart+ plan, which has a monthly fee of US$ 12.95.

In it, the customer uses an app to scan the barcode of the products they pick up. The application will warn the sum of the account. At the end, the buyer completes the payment using their credit card details, as in an online purchase.

Before leaving the store, however, you must go to one of the self-service checkouts and show a sensor the final code generated by the app. Items that need to be weighed, such as fruit and alcoholic beverages, cannot be purchased this way.

The Scan & Go model has been tested by Walmart for a few years, but has shown limitations and delays in expansion. Customers reported discomfort when having to scan dozens of items in large purchases, typical of a hypermarket, for example.

Also in the US, convenience store chain 7-Eleven offers Mobile Checkout, through which users can scan products using an app, similar to Walmart. The technology had been in testing for four years, but has expanded to around 3,000 stores in 2021 alone.

“After more than a year of living in the pandemic, Americans have a new perception of what convenience is. For many, it’s a contactless, no-waiting-in-line shopping experience,” said Raghu Mahadevan, vice president of 7-Eleven , announcing an expansion of the service, called Mobile Checkout.

Apple is testing a mobile payment model using the so-called clip app.

Since August 2021, in some of the brand’s stores, such as the one on Fifth Avenue in New York, you can scan a code that makes your cell phone download a small application. The program disappears after the purchase is completed and does not require a new registration, as it uses the data saved in Apple Pay. Just scan the products using your cell phone camera, confirm the purchase on the device itself and go.

Initially, the model was only valid for the purchase of accessories, such as cases.

In American restaurants, the large fast food chains have apps that allow you to order in advance and pay for it. When you arrive at the store, just pick up the item, as a delivery man would. To encourage the use of this model, chains such as Starbucks and McDonald’s offer discounts and free items, usually after earning points.

Technology advances with shortage of workers

The advance of cashless payment technology comes at the same time that US commerce is one of the sectors most affected by “great resignation”, a wave of workers’ layoffs that came amid pandemic.

In January, 4.3 million people resigned in the country, maintaining the monthly average recorded in 2021, according to data from the Department of Labor Statistics.

Thus, the lack of interested employees remains a problem. Unemployment in the country closed February at 3.8%. It is common to see, side by side in stores, posters advertising vacancies and encouraging customers to pay via the app, without triggering anyone.

“The adoption of these technologies reduces operational costs by generating a reduction of employees destined to the service, reducing the waiting time and improving the shopping experience. But it is necessary to train and try to direct employees to new functions. country like Brazil, because we have more than 12 million unemployed and there is a lack of public policies”, says Kelly Carvalho, economic advisor at Fecomércio-SP.

“During the pandemic, many physical store sellers became online sales consultants, they served customers by WhatsApp. .

Carvalho explains that the advancement of digital payments is part of the stores’ strategy to unify physical and digital sales operations. Both Amazon and Walmart work to expand sales through delivery, and it is common to see employees filling bags of purchases made via the internet, alongside customers who are beginning to get used to going out without paying.