Amazon opens new cashierless grocery stores in California

4/21/2022

Shoppers in Southern California have several new options for skipping the checkout line when they buy groceries.

Amazon is opening three new high-tech Amazon Fresh grocery stores in the Southern California market. Each of the three stores – located in Mission Viejo, La Verne, and Murietta – measures approximately 35,000 square feet and features Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” technology. Of the 30 Amazon Fresh stores (locations at end of article) opened to date, 14 are in Southern California.

The new stores are the latest Amazon Fresh locations in California to feature Just Walk Out. Customers who opt for Just Walk Out shopping can enter the store by scanning the in-store QR code in their Amazon app, use the Amazon One proprietary palm payment solution, or insert a credit or debit card linked to their Amazon account to open the Just Walk Out gates.

Just Walk Out leverages a combination of computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning that enables shoppers to shop the store, pick out what they want and skip the checkout when they’re done. Anyone shopping at the new Amazon Fresh store can utilize the cashierless technology, which connects to their Amazon account or credit card.

Once inside the store, customers can shop like normal. Anything they take off the shelf is automatically added to their virtual cart, and anything they put back on the shelf comes out of their virtual cart. At the end of their trip, customers scan their QR code or palm again to exit.

Amazon is opening its latest high-tech Amazon Fresh location with Just Walk Out shopping a couple of weeks after opening one in Fairfax, Va., and about a month after opening a Just Walk Out-enabled Amazon Fresh store in Naperville, Ill. So far in 2022, Amazon has also provided Just Walk Out at a newly opened Amazon Fresh store in Moorpark, Calif., as well as launching the autonomous checkout experience in its Whole Foods Market division at a store in Washington, D.C. The company plans to additionally open a “Just Walk Out”-enabled Whole Foods store in Sherman Oaks, Calif., during 2022.

Originally available only in Amazon Go convenience and small-format grocery stores, Amazon then began rolling out Just Walk Out to select Amazon Fresh high-tech grocery locations and also licenses the technology to third-party retailers.

Amazon focuses on frictionless shopping
Amazon continues opening grocery and convenience stores equipped with self-checkout and automated checkout options as it prepares to close 68 brick-and-mortar stores, including its Amazon Books locations and Amazon 4-star locations, along with Amazon Pop Up sites.

“We’ve decided to close our Amazon 4-star, Books, and Pop Up stores, and focus more on our Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Go, and Amazon Style stores and our Just Walk Out technology," an Amazon spokesperson recently told Chain Store Age. "We remain committed to building great, long-term physical retail experiences and technologies, and we’re working closely with our affected employees to help them find new roles within Amazon.”

Amazon now operates 30 Amazon Fresh stores across the U.S., including 14 in California, seven in Illinois, four in Washington state (including one designed to be zero net carbon), two in Virginia, and one each in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Amazon Fresh stores are designed from the ground up to offer a seamless shopping experience, with extra features for members of the Amazon Prime paid loyalty program.

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