People are waiting in a line wrapped around the block to shop at Amazon's new store that claims to ban lines

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People are waiting in a line wrapped around the block to shop at Amazon's new store that claims to ban lines

Amazon Go

Amazon

Amazon's first retail store in Seattle.

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  • Amazon opened its first cashierless store to the public on Monday, January 22 in Seattle.
  • The store claims to make shopping easier by eradicating cashiers and lines, but the excitement has drawn more would-be customers than could be allowed inside.
  • Lines to get in were getting long as of mid-day Monday.


People are excited about the new Amazon Go store.

The store uses cameras and sensors to determine what items customers have taken down from the shelves, eliminating the need for the typical check-out process. Amazon calls it "just walk out technology."

That promise was apparently a bit too enticing for Seattle locals, who were eager to get into the store after a year of delay. Twitter users were taking pictures and posting photographs of the line that formed around the block. 

 

 

 

The store - the first of its kind - is somewhat of a novelty. Though it is designed to make shopping easier by making getting in and out quicker, it's likely the newness has attracted a bunch of gawkers. 

Inside, shoppers will find Amazon-branded meal kits, prepared to-go foods, and products from its own private labels like Happy Belly and Whole Foods 365. Other than that, though, there's not much different in the store apart from its exciting new tech.

The store itself is not huge - only about 1,800 square feet in total, so it's likely that it's fire department regulations and not limits on the technology that's keeping people lined up outside.

The real test for Amazon Go will be how it stands up to real, everyday use. Amazon has stayed mum on the prospect of expanding either the Amazon Go store models or taking the technology and putting it in other kinds of stores, but we doubt they're fine-tuning this technology just to limit it to this one location.

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