The retail robots are here. Amazon will open its first New York City cashier-less store at Brookfield Place.
The e-tailer’s Amazon Go will open in the Winter Garden atrium at the Lower Manhattan complex next to the Oliver Peoples eyewear store at and the 200 Vesey Street office tower, Recode reported.
The store – which uses censors, cameras and computer vision to automatically ring up purchases without a cashier as customers leave – is one of six locations Amazon has either opened or plans to open.
The online retailing giant has already opened an Amazon Go in its hometown of Seattle and two in Chicago. The company plans to open another Chicago location and at least one in San Francisco.
Amazon, which has discussed opening as many as 3,000 Amazon Go stores by 2021, is betting that the convenience of skipping the checkout line will prove popular with rushed professionals during busy mealtimes.
The stores feature prepared foods like sandwiches and salads – similar to a Pret a Manger – while others include a limited selection of groceries. The Seattle location even sells wine.
And while the new concept expands Amazon’s reach deeper into traditional bricks-and-mortar retailing, company executives repeatedly said they don’t plan to roll out Amazon Go’s technology at Whole Foods stores. [Recode] – Rich Bockmann