Amazon tests checkout free food store

Amazon shoppers will be able to pull items from shelves and add them straight to their bags at the new store Amazon Go, according to the retail giant.

An Amazon.com package is prepared for shipment

Amazon is testing a new type of physical store in the US that promises no lines or check outs. (AAP)

Online retail giant Amazon is testing a new type of physical store in the US that promises no lines or check outs.

Amazon Go, located near downtown Seattle, offers ready-to-eat meals, snacks and pre-packaged meal kits to shoppers who have an Amazon account, a supported smartphone and the required store app, according to the company's website.

A video posted to YouTube on Monday shows Amazon Go shoppers using a mobile phone app to enter the store, then pulling items from shelves and adding them straight to their bags.

Items picked up are tallied automatically in a virtual shopping cart, according to the video.

The technology even updates if an item is placed back on the shelf, according to the video.

The shop is currently only open to Amazon employees but will open to the public in early 2017, according to the site.

Amazon opened its first physical store, Amazon Books, a year ago in Seattle.

The company now has bookshops in San Diego and Portland, Oregon, with locations expected soon in Chicago and just outside Boston.


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Published 6 December 2016 7:06pm
Source: AAP


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