All of the usual suspects in the press–including us!–reviewed the new Amazon Go store that opened to the public in Seattle this week. There’s a lot of “what does this mean for the future?” beard rubbing by the media. Meanwhile, the everyday people who are trying it seem to love the novelty.
It’s billed as the first store without cashiers or a checkout counter–the promise being that you never have to wait in line. Using computer vision and a suite of sensors, Amazon tracks its customers, watching their every move, allowing them to just walk out with the goods they want.
But what is it really like, to the shoppers who poked their heads in? For that answer, we turned to the world of social media–Instagram, Twitter, Yelp, Foursquare, and Google–to see what people were saying about their first shopping experience.
The verdict? It’s overwhelmingly positive. People call it both “cool” and “creepy”–often in the same sentence–but no one is actually creeped out. Instead, they note that the store works as seamlessly as advertised, even when they attempt to fool the system. The selection is that of a 7-Eleven with really good sandwiches. And while there’s no line inside, there’s, ironically, a block-long line outside. Perhaps most notably, the Amazon Go store has been treated like any other FOMO destination by people online. It’s a place where visitors are smiling and taking selfies, welcoming the new era of shopping surveillance in the interest of not talking to a checkout clerk.
There’s No Line Inside, Because It’s Outside
the line at lunchtime for amazon go #AmazonGo pic.twitter.com/3pf54AX7fU
— Tom (@stripedypaper) January 22, 2018
I’m in Seattle and there is currently a line to shop at the grocery store whose entire premise is that you won’t have to wait in line. pic.twitter.com/fWr80A0ZPV
— Ryan Petersen (@typesfast) January 22, 2018
What About The Selection?
Many were almost thrilled with the variety of prepackaged foods and other goods available. Cody Severinski put it well on Google:
Seriously, people love those sandwiches:
How’s The User Experience?
To many, like Yelp’s John M. or “Anton” and Anatoliy Maslyanchuk on Google, the experience of Amazon Go is nothing short of a revelation.
Simply because of the UX, many people literally call the store “cool” or some equivalent, which is an absurd accomplishment for a place that is basically just a drug store.
It’s Fun To Shoplift
Perhaps we’ll laugh at the sentiment in a decade, but what was appealing to many people, like Yelp’s Adam S. and Hugo C., was the thrill of shoplifting . . . without shoplifting. The perfect crime?
