The first Amazon Go store opened last month in Seattle. Photo / AP
The first Amazon Go store opened last month in Seattle. Photo / AP
Amazon may be bringing its futuristic checkout-free supermarkets to more cities.
The internet giant could open as many as six of its "Amazon Go" grocery stores in 2018, Recode reports, citing sources close to the situation.
A few of the new stores are likely to open near Amazon's headquarters in Seattle, where the first location opened last month, while other locations may be coming to Los Angeles, according to the Daily Mail.
Amazon has held "serious talks" with LA developer Rick Caruso about bringing an Amazon Go store to the Grove, his 600,000-square-foot outdoor shopping Mecca, Recode noted.
The firm worked on Amazon Go's "Just Walk Out" technology for at least four years, ultimately pushing back the first location's public opening because it needed more beta testing.
Amazon Go supermarkets have no checkouts and instead work by tracking what users buy with AI-powered cameras and weight sensors.
Customers scan their smartphone with the Amazon Go app at a turnstile near the store's entrance, pick out the items they want and leave.
By combining computer vision, machine learning algorithms and sensors, the online retail giant can tell what people have purchased. It then charges their Amazon account.
If someone puts an item back, they aren't charged.
A customer scans his Amazon Go cellphone app at the entrance as he heads into an Amazon Go store. Photo / AP
The Go stores are part of Amazon's wider effort to disrupt the traditional brick-and-mortar retail industry.
Amazon also opened a brick-and-mortar bookstore in New York City's Columbus Circle area last year.
The firm now has more than a dozen Amazon Books stores across the United States, which also sell toys, electronics and small gifts.
It's unclear whether Amazon plans to bring any Go stores to the east coast, but Recode noted that the firm could consider adding the Go system of cameras and sensors to Whole Foods stores.
However, with Whole Foods counting 473 locations across the country, there may be some logistical challenges involved in that.
Amazon Go stores may be cashier-less, but they aren't entirely without employees.
Each store has employees that make food, stock shelves and help customers.
To start shopping, customers must scan an Amazon Go smartphone app via a QR code and pass through a gated turnstile.
Sleek black cameras monitoring from above and weight sensors in the shelves help Amazon determine exactly what people take.
