I used to regularly get lunch in < 30 seconds at Amazon Go. My record was 12 seconds for a soda and sandwhich. They added more processing time for that calculation at some point. But I basically could get things as quick as my feet could take me in and out.
It's really not the same experience. You should try it when you get the chance.
Here are my most recent trip times according to the app (assume a 15s overestimate to my real experience):
37s - Dr Pepper
32s - Dr Pepper
1m12s - Dr Pepper, sandwhich, cookies
33s - Dr Pepper
1m33s - Dr Pepper
36s - Dr Pepper
44s - Vitamin Water
46s - Sandwhich, cookies
30s - Vitamin Water
32s - Dr Pepper
31s - Dr Pepper
35s - Dr Pepper
I would estimate that most of these have a 15s overestimate.
This has not been a Dr Pepper advertisement.
Shopping at the Go Store is much faster. When you're grabbing a single item you can have times of ~10 seconds. Grabbing more items and you save more time by not having to check out. No checkout, no lines, no figuring out why your phone or card isn't accepted, or what error message is on screen etc. In and out as simply and efficiently as possible.
I wouldn't say it is revolutionary, but it does cut down the time it takes to go shopping. It's like a perfect version of self-checkout.
Another, more subtle feature is that I never wait in line because I have trained myself to never go at peak times. I waste a certain amount of time thinking about it.
That said, I find the idea of a cashierless store super-creepy and will be among the last adopters.
It's nice that you save a couple minutes, but I doubt it really has much impact on your day.
Or was that all on Thursday morning?
I absolutely guarantee it will change your spending habits this coming decade.
I'm not sure if there's a way to understand until you experience it being walking distance from your office.
I suppose it is not so likely there will be a store in walking distance the next few years.
I had previously tried other markets with handheld UPC scanners or mobile device scanning, but still ended up with delays I'd rather avoid (passing through the queue at self-checkout). Amazon Go really is completely effortless once you have checked in to the store, although doing things like putting items into your own backpack while shopping feels...very weird. But being able to waltz out the door with zero delays is a true luxury in urban areas where markets almost always have long queues for checkout (regardless of if they have a human attendant or not).
Using vision to solve a problem always seems inefficient but it scales out way better than anything else (ie the various ways google maps uses vision when in a world with perfect map data it wouldn’t be needed).
"Unidentified item in the bagging area!"
"Please place item in the bagging area!"
How would you like to pay? Pick credit card Please complete purchase on separate device to the right.
Do people really love even those voice / flow of these machines?
I've used amazon go. It is as far as I can tell very low friction. I'm not 100% sure how they figured out what I got but it was correct in my case.
Also, the Scan and Go system they have at Sam’s Club is awesome. I can scan items on my phone as I’m shopping. When I’m done, I tap purchase, and then walk out with my stuff.
Amazon's method may require you to log in or scan in with a barcode from the Amazon app, but just about everyone already has some basic experience with the Amazon service. And once you do a single scan, it just works.