whole new world
Amazon to open 2 cashier-free Whole Foods stores
Amazon's cashierless technology is coming to Whole Foods.
The company announced Wednesday it will implement its "Just Walk Out" technology, which allows shoppers to skip checkout lines, at two Whole Foods locations set to open next year in California and in Washington, D.C., CNBC reports.
Amazon, which bought Whole Foods in 2017, previously brought this cashierless technology to its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores. It uses cameras and sensors to detect what customers are picking up while they shop, The Verge explains. To use Just Walk Out, while entering the store, customers will need to either scan a QR code on their Amazon or Whole Foods app, hover their palm using Amazon One, or insert a credit or debit card that's linked to their Amazon account, Amazon said. Alternatively, shoppers at these stores will be able to use self-checkout or a customer service booth.
The Whole Foods locations that use the Just Walk Out technology will "employ a comparable number" of employees as similarly-sized stores, and how these employees "spend their time is simply shifting," according to Amazon. But CNBC notes that labor unions have condemned the use of Just Walk Out, with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union earlier this year blasting the "job-killing cashierless technology." Amazon says that for now, the technology is only being brought to these two stores, "and we'll go from there."