It looks like Amazon Go, the e-commerce company’s much-heralded cashierless store that first debuted in Seattle earlier this year, is coming to the East Coast. The Information (paywall) reports that the company posted a slew of new job listings for New York-based roles adjacent to the Amazon Go stores. The positions include “a store manager, an assistant store manager, a learning and development manager, and a training lead associate.” The company confirmed to the Information that, yes, an East Coast store is on the horizon.
Though Amazon has alluded to Go expansion plans for a while now, up until now customers could only experience it in Seattle. According to the new report, more stores are planned for Chicago and San Francisco, in addition to New York.
Meanwhile, other non-Amazon cashierless stores are popping up too. For instance, there’s the company Standard Cognition, which has begun testing out its own stores with similar technology in the Bay Area today. There’s another one called Zippin, also in the Bay Area. All of these brick-and-mortar trials aim to do generally the same thing–take out the pesky human interaction involved with shopping.
This, of course, means they also contribute to eliminating important jobs like cashiers, which is a bit of a frightening prospect. For instance, we could eventually see this Go technology implemented in places like Whole Foods, which Amazon owns. Employees at that grocery chain are already feeling the squeeze of their Seattle-based overlord, leading to a unionization drive.
For the time being, Amazon and the others are just testing out the technology to show consumers that it works. But with Amazon Go coming to New York, it’s only a matter of time before it comes to every city.
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