Shelves at the Amazon Go store. Image Credit: Vegetable6 (CC by SA-4.0).
Amazon has announced plans for a new Amazon Go store to open in Fall of 2018 in the Madison Centre office tower. This is the first new store since the original location nestled by the Amazon Spheres open this past winter. Amazon Go is a grocery retail outlet that allows shoppers to pay for groceries simply by scanning their phone on entry. Sensors and cameras monitor what shoppers grab, and customers are automatically charged on their registered credit card as they exit the building. At 3,000 square feet, the new store nearly doubles the size of its Amazon campus predecessor. Plans for a Chicago and San Francisco store are also in the works.
The new retail outlet will provide a much-needed grocery option for downtown, where similar venues are mostly still concentrated in Pike Place Market. Amazon has met with some criticism since food stamps cannot currently be used at Amazon Go or on Amazon.com. Spokespoeple for the company have stated that current laws prohibit use of SNAP federal benefits on their platforms, but that they are working with the USDA on a solution.
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