I think the curated mix of those Go Stores and small footprint may help deter theft. There are not many spaces you can go in the Go, and not have an employee within eyesight of you.lake52 wrote: ↑April 23rd, 2022, 6:39 pm
Agreed that this is not similar to a large format grocer, however in a city with a theft problem at CVS/Walgreens, these Amazon Go stores carry a decent assortment of similar high theft items like laundry detergent, batteries, womens health products, etc.
I’d imagine the Bay Area will see a Whole Foods with just walk out before an Amazon Fresh store. Just not enough real estate and whenever retail becomes vacant, it doesn’t stay retail.
Also the Go stores tend to not have much on the shelves- a handfull of SKUs of laundry and only a few packages per unit vs. a normal store with 30 feet of laundry and the bottles overflowing off the shelves they are stocked so well.
... and maybe that is another answer other retailers need to look at for deterring theft... fewer SKUs and less on the shelves...
Given the Amazon Fresh takes hours to mail you a receipt I don't think this technology is as advanced as they make it out to be. I think there is literally a lab room somewhere of Amazon employees who watch you via the cameras and tally up your total manually. That is why it takes them hours to figure out how much you spent. If this was properly automated you could at any time while shopping get a "subtotal" and upon exit would certainly be told what your total spent was.