Inside Amazon Go, the Convenience Store of the Future | Eater
"A 1,800-square-foot, fully automated, cashier-free shop in downtown Seattle advertises a literal "Just Walk Out" experience: customers scan a phone at subway-like gates, use complimentary orange shopping bags, and are tracked by overhead cameras and sensors that automatically charge their accounts as they leave. The store feels like an upscale convenience market centered on a back wall of grab-and-go meals — many prepared in a window-lined kitchen at the front — offering items such as Turkey Basil Wraps, Butter Chicken with Cilantro‑Mint Chutney, Simple and Half Simple Salads, and more indulgent options (sold-out items are replaced with playful orange "So Good It’s Gone!" signs). Shelves also hold staples and snacky bits like chips, cupcakes, sandwiches, frozen food, branded meal kits, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Haribo gummies, chocolates, and soda. There are no traditional checkouts: staff primarily restock, answer questions (with staff skittish about journalists), and a single employee checks IDs for the small alcohol selection. Opening-week lines and hesitant customers — many of them tech-company employees, tourists, and novelty seekers — undercut the convenience for now, but the concept is positioned to compete aggressively during lunch rushes; the grocery industry is watching closely as a data-driven retail experiment. The bright, picturesque interior is offset by an ominous ceiling of cameras, sensors, and cables that creates a mildly unsettling, quasi-surveillant atmosphere that some customers describe as feeling like shoplifting without the crime." - Chason Gordon
