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Amazon Go cashlierless store opens to Seattle consumers

January 22, 2018

Amazon is opening its cashierless Amazon Go store to consumers in Seattle today, following a 14-month trial with company employees, according to The Seattle Times.

Upon entering, customers scan a smartphone app that registers them into the store. After grabbing their items, customers are free to leave the store.

Gianna Peurini, Amazon Go vice president, told NBC News the technology allows the customer to place the items for purchase in a virtual cart. If the customer returns the items to the shelf, they go out from the virtual cart.

Customers are automatically charged when they leave the store, which means no more waiting in long checkout lines. Hundreds of cameras throughout the store read labels through machine learning and sense the shopper's body type. The cameras work in tandem with sensors in the store's shelves, all of which collect data about customer buying habits.

Should an error be made, the system makes it easy for the customer to do a self-service return, Puerini said.