Amazon demonstrated to the public the world’s most advanced shopping technology on January 22nd in Seattle, USA. It represents new convenience store differing from traditional one because there are no cashiers, shopping carts or checkout lines to slow shoppers down. Let’s see a public reaction to this.
Here is how it works. To shop in the new futuristic store Amazon Go, customers need the app and the link to a payment method. Then they open the app on their phones and scan it at the four turnstiles to enter the 1,800 square foot store. A computer vision system tracks the items people remove from the shelves, letting them walk out without talking to a cashier or using a self-checkout machine. The only staff buyers will likely see are for ID checking (when buying alcohol), greeters and the kitchen.
To know how it’s like to shop at Amazon Go we follow some videos and customers’ expressions on the Internet who checked it out. Video introducing new-format store was posted on YouTube and was viewed by 11,357,213 people.
Some customers shoot their own YouTube videos showing the future of shopping inside Amazon Go. One of these videos is most-viewed (nearly 400k views).
It not only explains how the system works but tells what customers should do in order to enter the shop, describes some «general rule of conduct» inside Amazon Go. It seems the idea of this video is appealing to most of the users who watched it (4,030 likes against 243 dislikes).
Basically, most YouTube users made positive comments to Amazon go, describing advantages of Go store concept. Someone really appreciates the idea of the futuristic grocery store and prepares for coming future:
Another one has doubts that stores like Amazon Go are needed in future. YouTube users presume that it looks like advanced data collection center which can be easily used by corporations or government:
As you can see some people are really scared that Amazon Go concept looks like ‘Black mirror’:
It requires some small clarifications. ‘Black Mirror’ is the science fiction anthology television series. It examines modern society, particularly with the unanticipated consequences of new technologies. That is why most YouTube users being under the impression of ‘Black mirror’ presume that stores like Amazon Go will influence people’s life mostly in future.
Regarding social nets, there are some hilarious and controversial comments put by people on Facebook and Twitter. Official news about great Amazon opening gets more than 7k twitter likes and 3,7k shares. As for Facebook, there are more than 4,5k thumbs up and lots of comments. Some people suppose that’s a really great idea for humanity and believe the future is near:
Another one can’t really believe in the efficiency of Amazon Go and wonders how it works:
Someone considers that the real talk is about possible unemployment caused by automation:
As a result, Amazon Go has gained so different and controversial opinions about it. As we can see, the discussion is not coming to an end. Probably, it will continue in the next 10 years.
Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, said one day:
“I very frequently get the question: ‘What’s going to change in the next 10 years?’ And that is a very interesting question; it’s a very common one. I almost never get the question: ‘What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?’ And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two.»