Amazon moves one step closer to disrupting the grocery industry
After Amazon acquired Whole Foods, it seems that many forgot about its prior effort to disrupt the grocery industry with Amazon Go. Now the company has shared that it is close to bringing this worker-less concept that relies on its mobile app and a litany of sensors to allow shoppers to do their thing all without standing in line to pay. That sounds like a nice combination of our Connected Society, Disruptive Technologies, and Cashless Consumption investing themes. Certainly not welcome news to those grocery companies like Kroger (KR), Sprouts Farmers Market (SAFM) and a number of others look to contend with Amazon-Whole Foods.
For the past year, Amazon employees have been test driving Amazon Go, an experimental convenience store in downtown Seattle. The idea is to let consumers walk in, pick up items and then pay for them without ever standing in line at a cashier. Amazon is vague on the mechanics, but the store relies on a mobile app and some of the same sensing technology that powers self-driving cars to figure out who is buying what.
Amazon Go represents Amazon.com Inc.’s most ambitious effort yet to transform the brick-and-mortar shopping experience by eliminating the checkout line, saving customers time and furthering the company’s reputation for convenience.
On Wednesday, Whole Foods began offering deep discounts on Thanksgiving merchandise, including antibiotic-free turkeys, and signaled that the markdowns will get more aggressive as it adopts Amazon’s Prime subscription service. Shares at Kroger and Sprouts tumbled after the announcement.
Source: Amazon’s Cashierless Store Is Almost Ready for Prime Time – Bloomberg
