When Amazon debuted cashier-less technology, it was hailed as the future of retail. But now, Amazon is walking back its “Just Walk Out” technology at its grocery stores, reining in grand promises of an automated, friction-less checkout.
Amazon said it is removing the technology at US Amazon Fresh grocery stores which allows customers to pay for their groceries without waiting in line for a cashier or using a self-checkout machine. Instead, Amazon said it’s replacing it with Dash Cart at its more than 40 locations, a “smart shopping cart” which allows shoppers to scan groceries, link to online shopping lists and check out their groceries. The company has been testing Dash Carts at some Fresh and Whole Foods locations in the past.
Customers just haven’t bought into cashier-less technology, especially in grocery stores where they purchase larger quantities and face extra tasks such as weighing produce. Amazon says the checkout technology may be more seamless in smaller stores – that could include the Amazon Go convenience stores.
In a statement, Amazon said it will continue using the Just Walk Out technology in Amazon Go stores, at smaller format Fresh stores in the UK, and third-party locations such as certain sports stadiums and college campuses. Amazon had used roughly 1,000 humans in India, according to some news reports, to help monitor accurate checkouts. The company told CNN it’s “reducing the number of human reviews” while developing the “Just Walk Out” technology. Amazon said besides data associates’ main role in working on the underlying technology, they also “validate a small minority” of shopping visits.
Customers entered Fresh stores using Amazon One palm recognition, the app or a credit or debit card. Amazon said “sensors, cameras, and deep learning tools” caught what customers took off the shelf, automatically charging them.
Amazon says it is also installing self-checkout kiosks and assisted checkout options at Fresh locations once they’ve transitioned to using Dash Cart.
Retailers from Dollar General to Walmart and Costco are rethinking the reliance on self-checkout, as they find it leads to higher merchandise losses from customer mistakes and shoplifting.
Amazon Fresh struggles
The tech giant opened its first Amazon Fresh store in 2020, and has more than 40 locations across the US. After Amazon bought Whole Foods in 2017, it added cashier-less checkout in those stores as well.
In 2021, Amazon eliminated checkout lines in a full-sized, 25,000-square-foot Amazon fresh store in Washington state, and announced it was ramping up openings of the stores. But Amazon Fresh has faced setbacks since it debuted, including challenges getting shoppers to buy groceries in its Amazon Fresh grocery stores, and it laid off workers.
Starting in 2023, the company said it was pausing Amazon Fresh store expansions.
“We’re doing a fair bit of experimentation today in those stores to try to find a format that we think resonates with customers,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in February 2023. “We’ve decided over the last year or so that we’re not going to expand the physical Fresh [stores] until we have that equation.”
In response, Amazon has redesigned Fresh stores in Chicago and Southern California. For example, in two Chicago-area locations in 2023, Amazon added hundreds of new name brands, more quick meal options, self-checkout kiosks and the Dash carts.
CNN’s Nathaniel Meyersohn and Moira Ritter contributed to this report.
