Amazon Opens First Whole Foods Store with Cashierless Technology

Amazon has opened its first Whole Foods store featuring the company’s “Just Walk Out” cashierless technology.

The Verge reports that Amazon has introduced its Just Walk Out technology to a Whole Foods store for the first time ever. Breitbart News has reported extensively on Amazon’s grocery store technology which allows customers to shop and leave the store with their items without having to go through a checkout or deal with a cashier.

Customers shop at a Whole Foods Market, Monday, Aug. 28, 2017, in Tampa, Fla. Parent company Amazon has announced they will drop the prices on certain food items at the stores. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

Whole Foods Protest (Rick Gershon/Getty)

The store opened on February 23 in Washington DC’s Glover Park neighborhood. Amazon has been running its cashierless grocery stores Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh for some time, but this is the first time the tech has been seen at a Whole Foods store. Amazon purchased Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in 2017, but the company has not placed its ownership of the company front and center, choosing instead to simply offer discounts and free delivery for Prime members while maintaining the Whole Foods brand separate from the Amazon brand.

The cashierless Whole Foods location is 21,500 square feet and although it’s not the largest of Amazon’s cashierless stores, it is on the bigger side. The company maintains a 25,000 square foot Amazon Fresh store in Bellevue, Washington. Amazon has not commented on whether it plans to bring its Just Walk Out technology to all Whole Foods nationwide.

The newly updated Whole Foods in Glover Park features Amazon’s palm-recognition tech for entry as well as typical QR codes. The store does still have staff members helping shoppers and staffing various counters, but is primarily a self-service store. Although the Just Walk Out technology is front and center, the store still has self-service checkouts if they don’t want to use the new technology.

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