Amazon aims at office workers with compact cashier-less food store
Amazon.com Inc on Wednesday opened a compact version of its cashier-less Amazon Go food stores, broadening its footprint in the bricks-and-mortar world in a move to add shops in places such as office lobbies and hospitals.
Located in one of the company’s Seattle offices, the eighth Amazon Go store is near the original and a quarter the size, at a mere 450 square feet. That is about the size of a New York City studio apartment. The new store is aimed at selling salads and snacks to office workers.
Selling food in physical stores is a key strategy by the world’s top online retailer to win more business from shoppers. Gianna Puerini, vice president of Amazon Go, said the tiny format could serve office lobbies, communal floors inside tall buildings and perhaps a hospital.
She provided no details on when or where Amazon would add other small stores. The new Seattle location, on the 6th floor of the city’s historic Macy’s building, is only open to Amazon employees and their guests.
Puerini declined to comment on a Reuters report from last week that Amazon was looking to add cashier-less stores at airports. However, she said, “Airports have a lot of hungry people in a rush, so you never know.”
Source: reuters.com