Community Groceries to open frictionless store with Amazon technology
A Kansas City-based local grocer is equipping its store with Amazon “Just Walk Out” and Amazon One cashierless shopping solutions.
Community Groceries, located in the Crossroads neighborhood of Kansas City, Mo., is set to re-open with a brand-new customer experience on Friday, Dec. 16. The company is collaborating with Amazon to deploy “Just Walk Out” technology and Amazon One palm-based payment in a Kansas City grocery store for the first time.
Shoppers enter the store by dipping their credit card at the entry gates, or hovering their palm over an Amazon One device. Once a customer is inside, the technology detects what they take from or return to the shelves in the store.
Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology 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. When they have completed their shopping experience, customers will be able to just leave the store and the credit card they inserted or linked to their Amazon One ID will be charged for the items they took.
This rollout will mark also the first time Amazon has expanded both its Just Walk Out and Amazon One technologies to a third-party grocery store in the U.S. However, a number of sports and entertainment facilities across the country have implemented both Amazon solutions to enable frictionless shopping at concessions stores.
For example, Lumen Field, home stadium of the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise, is opening a store featuring both Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” Amazon One solutions. And during the recent NASCAR Championship Weekend, Phoenix Raceway in Phoenix, Ariz., opened its first store equipped with the two technologies.
“Amazon’s technologies change the way we think about shopping,” said Alyssa Groenig, director of sales and marketing for Community Groceries. “I, like most people, have a very full schedule, and grocery shopping is a tedious task for me. This new experience will enable me, and all of our guests, to shop efficiently and be on our way with no checkout lines and no hassle.”
“We are thrilled to work with Community Groceries to unlock a fast and frictionless experience for their shoppers in Kansas City - one we believe they’ll enjoy very much,” said Dilip Kumar, VP, AWS Applications. “Community Groceries is renowned for encouraging healthy lifestyles and focusing first and foremost on their local community, so we’re honored to have them as our first customer in the grocery vertical to launch a Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One-enabled store.”