Amazon testing cashier-free retail store

A cashier gives the change to a customer at a store in Mexico City on November 18, 2016.  AFP

SAN FRANCISCO, United States — Amazon on Monday unveiled a new kind of retail store, with no cashiers.

In the concept store in Amazon’s hometown of Seattle, Washington, customers can fill their shopping carts and walk out — with the costs tallied up and billed on their accounts with the US online giant.

Amazon Go, which is being tested in a single store with Amazon employees and will open to the public next year, is a “checkout-free shopping experience made possible by the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning,” its web page says.

“Our Just Walk Out technology automatically detects when products are taken from or returned to the shelves and keeps track of them in a virtual cart. When you’re done shopping, you can just leave the store. Shortly after, we’ll charge your Amazon account and send you a receipt.”

The store in Seattle of some 170 square meters (1,800 square feet) is selling a variety of food products including breads, cheeses and ready-to-eat meals, as well as Amazon Meal Kits, which has the ingredients for home-cooked dishes.

It was not immediately clear whether Amazon will expand this model with more physical stores or offer the technology to other retailers.

The online giant has been rumored to be looking at creating brick-and-mortar outlets but so far has only announced a handful of bookselling outlets. CBB