The Store: Amazon and Just Walk Out

On Tuesday, Amazon showed the world what a store looks like when the checkout disappears, and the store is called Amazon Go. The company announced a new kind of convenience store in Seattle, built on technology it calls Just Walk Out, where customers scan their phones at the door, pick up their groceries, and simply leave. The announcement is the December 2016 story, and the story is the lesson: the most valuable innovation is the one that removes the most annoying step.

The Store is the subject of this article: how Amazon Go works, what the technology does, why it matters for retail, and what it means for the future of work and shopping. The store was announced on December 5, in a video and a blog post, and the reaction was immediate. This is the story of the store, and the story is about the moment the checkout line became obsolete.

1. The Announcement

The announcement came on a Monday, and the announcement was a video. Amazon published a short film showing customers walking into a bright, modern store, picking up sandwiches, drinks, and snacks, and walking out without stopping at a register. The store was Amazon Go, and the technology was called Just Walk Out, and the message was simple: no lines, no checkout, no waiting. The video was the announcement, and the announcement was the future.

The store itself was a real place, a roughly eighteen hundred square foot convenience store near Amazon's headquarters in Seattle, and the realness was the point. The store was not a concept and not a mockup; it was a working prototype, open to Amazon employees, with plans to open to the public early next year. The announcement was the beginning, and the beginning was real.

2. The Technology

The technology is the heart of the store, and the heart is a combination of systems. The store is covered with cameras and sensors, watching the shelves and the customers, and the system uses computer vision to identify each shopper and each item they take. The shelf sensors detect when a product is removed, the cameras track the shopper through the store, and the deep learning models figure out what each shopper is buying.

The technology works without friction, and the frictionless is the design. The customer scans the Amazon Go app at the turnstile, shops normally, and leaves, and the charge appears on the app afterward. The system knows who took what, and the knowing is the magic. The technology was built on the same foundations as Amazon's other work in artificial intelligence, the computer vision and the machine learning that the company had been investing in for years.

3. The Friction

The insight behind the store is about friction, and the insight is the oldest lesson in retail. The checkout is the most annoying part of shopping: the waiting, the scanning, the paying, the time that feels wasted. Amazon understood that the store that removes the friction is the store that wins, and the understanding was the beginning of the design. The store is the friction removed, and the removal is the product.

The insight also explains Amazon's history. The company had built its business on removing friction from shopping: the one-click order, the fast delivery, the easy returns. The physical store was the next frontier, and the frontier was the checkout. The store was the continuation of the mission, and the mission was the removal of the annoying. The friction was the enemy, and the enemy was being eliminated.

4. The Retail

The store is Amazon's answer to the question of physical retail, and the answer is a new kind of store. The company had been opening bookstores, and the bookstores were the first experiments, and the Go store was the more ambitious bet: a store that combines the convenience of a corner shop with the technology of the cloud. The store is the physical version of the Amazon model, and the model is the customer first.

The store is also the warning to the rest of retail. The traditional grocery stores were already struggling with the competition from online delivery, and the Go store showed that Amazon could bring the same pressure to the physical world. The store that removes the checkout is the store that the others will have to answer, and the answering will be the industry's work. The retail was the battlefield, and the battle was announced.

5. The Labor

The labor question is the shadow of the store, and the shadow is the debate. The store that removes the checkout also removes the cashiers, and the removal is the question that every automation raises. The advocates of the technology point to the jobs it creates, the engineers, the technicians, the store staff who stock the shelves, and the critics point to the jobs it ends. The debate is the debate of the fourth industrial revolution, and the debate is real.

The store is a small step in the automation of work, and the smallness is the point. The cashier job was one of the most common jobs in the American economy, and the store showed a version of the future where the job disappears. The answer is not to stop the technology, and the answer is to prepare the people, and the preparation is the unfinished work. The labor was the question, and the question was the responsibility.

6. The Long Game

The store is part of Amazon's long game, and the long game is the company's signature. Jeff Bezos built Amazon on the willingness to invest for years before the profits arrive, and the store is the same pattern: the technology will take years to perfect, the expansion will take years to scale, and the payoff will come later. The store is the long game in physical form, and the long game is the moat.

The long game is also the culture. Bezos had talked about the Day 1 mindset, the refusal to settle into the comfort of success, and the store was the Day 1 thinking in action: the company that dominates online shopping was building a store where the checkout disappears. The long game was the strategy, and the strategy was the identity. The long game was the answer to the question of why Amazon, and the answer was because it could.

7. The Skeptics

The skeptics were part of the reaction, and the skepticism was healthy. The engineers who understood the technology asked how the system would handle the chaos of a real store: the crowds, the returned items, the customers who put things back in the wrong place, the corner cases that the demo never shows. The skeptics pointed to the history of automated stores, the attempts that had come before and failed, and the failures were the cautionary tales.

The skepticism was the counterweight to the hype, and the counterweight was useful. The technology was impressive, and the impressive was not the same as the reliable, and the reliable would be proven only in the real store with real customers. The company itself seemed to know: the store would open to the public in beta, and the beta was the admission that the technology needed testing. The skeptics were the testers, and the testers were the future.

8. The Lesson

The lesson of the store is about the value of removing friction, and the value is the most reliable source of innovation in business. The checkout was the friction that everyone accepted, and Amazon saw that the acceptance was the opportunity: the company that removes the step that everyone hates is the company that changes the industry. The lesson is that the best innovations are often the ones that make the ordinary easier, and the easier is the product.

The lesson is also about the courage to build the future before the future is proven. The store was announced with a working prototype and a long road ahead, and the announcement was the bet that the technology would work. The companies that wait for the perfect moment are the companies that miss the moment, and Amazon did not wait. The store is the December 2016 story, and the story is the lesson: the most valuable innovation is the one that removes the most annoying step, and the step was removed on Tuesday. The checkout is gone, and the going is the future. The store will open to the public next year, and the opening will be the real test of the technology. The companies that watch the test will learn the same lesson Amazon learned: the friction that everyone accepts is the friction that someone will eventually remove, and the someone who removes it first wins the customer. The store is the beginning of the physical chapter of Amazon's story, and the beginning is the most important part. The customers who walk out without stopping will not go back to the old way of shopping. The announcement was the latest proof that Amazon treats every part of commerce as an engineering problem, and the treatment is the company's signature. The checkout was the problem, and the problem was solved.

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#engineering #technology