Amazon Go, Amazon’s autonomous grocery store is here and there’s been a lot of talk about it.
Yes, you read right…autonomous. It is designed to let customers walk-in through a subway-style turnstyle, pick up items, and purchase them without standing in a line, taking out a form of payment, or engaging with a person.
Only customers that have the store’s smartphone app can enter the store and make purchases, it’s powered by magic. No, just kidding it’s powered by the same sensory hardware that’s used in self-driving cars. So…. basically magic.
Customers enter, grab the items they need, and leave. The items they take are billed to their account. So, what does an autonomous grocery store mean for jobs, like cashiers?
Everyone calm down! We’re not there yet. Yes, there are a lot of businesses that have become more efficient with less workers, but it doesn’t mean those jobs are completely gone. Think about ATMs at the bank or ticket kiosks for public transportation. Bank tellers still exist, and so do ticket agents, right?
So, yes, Amazon Go is here, but you should still be prepared to wait in line—even to get into the line eliminating Amazon Go which had people lining up to check it out. We don’t see cashier jobs disappearing overnight. Plus, nothing can replace, “Have a nice day.” from an actual person. I asked Alexa to tell me to have a nice day and it just seemed forced.
Image Source: SounderBruce – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56922594