The store system's lightweight installation process requires no sensors, only overhead cameras
Located at 1071 Market Street, the store will be a testing ground for its system's scale and new features. Store hours, product selection and the total number of shoppers that the store can accommodate will expand quickly over the coming weeks.
Currently, Amazon doesn't have a store under its cashierless format open in the Bay Area, although it's planning to open one there. However, another technology company has announced in recent weeks a concept that's more similar to Amazon's than Standard Cognition's.
Zippin, another San Francisco-based company, now operates a concept powered by its checkout-free software platform. Introduced in August, the technology integrates its own software with readily available hardware, and combines overhead cameras and smart shelf sensors to accurately show what shoppers are picking up or replacing on shelves.
The company claims that while "early approaches" such as Amazon’s have relied solely on cameras to track purchases, which caused problems that resulted in a 10-month delay of the Amazon Go store’s public debut, Zippin's combined technologies assure the "highest level of accuracy," working even in a crowded store. The company has been issuing private invitations to access the concept store, and plans to open it to the public for limited hours during the week, beginning in mid-September.
Seattle-based Amazon, which is No. 8 on Progressive Grocer's Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States, currently operates two Amazon Go stores, both in Seattle, and has plans for several others in major cities, including at least one in the Golden Gate City and two in Chicago.