Amazon has opened a Go Grocery store in Redmond, Wash., its second in the state. This larger, cashierless store comes about six months after Amazon opened the first Go Grocery in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
The stores are an expansion of the high-tech shopping experience first ushered in by the smaller Go convenience stores two years ago, says the publication GeekWire. Amazon Go Grocery stocks many of the items found in full-size grocery stores but uses an array of cameras and sensors to log what people put in their carts as they shop, eliminating checkout lines.
While the new store may attract shoppers who work at nearby Microsoft, the location is also notable because Microsoft is not shy about also wanting to “redefine the shopping experience” through technology, GeekWire reports. The software giant has teamed with Kroger on projects including on a high-tech QFC store in Redmond, which features smart shelves and handheld devices to bring greater efficiency to grocery shopping, pricing, stocking and in-store advertising.
This Amazon Go Grocery will differ from the first location by offering a selection of hot food items prepared in a kitchen on site. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner food items will include breakfast wraps and oatmeal, soups, hot sandwiches, pizza by the slice, rotisserie chicken, chicken wings and BBQ ribs. The Redmond store is also catering more heavily to parents on the go with expanded baby products such as diapers, wipes, food, and other supplies.
Elsewhere in the store, the idea is to provide a version of what full-size grocery stores offer, including essential items, fresh produce, meat and seafood, baked goods, alcohol and ready-to-heat pre-made meals, says GeekWire.