Amazon Go: The future or flop?

The future is autonomous, and cars are just the tip of the iceberg. For those that do not follow the tech news of today, Amazon has now made the shopping experience as easy as walk in to a store, pick out your items, and walk out. Too good to be true? Maybe not.

Amazon has finally taken the covers off their newest product: Amazon Go. Let me just give you a brief summary of what Amazon Go is and how it will work. Amazon Go is a grocery store that (it appears) is completely hands-off and devoid of employees, and all one needs to shop there is a smartphone and an Amazon account. Customers will scan their phone on the way through the door as a way of identification while cameras and sensors track their every movement as they are in the store. As individuals pick items off the shelf, their Amazon cart will automatically update to show the items they have selected and update their total bill (it even detects when you put items back). After you are finished shopping, you simply walk out of the store and Amazon will charge your card that is on file. Simple and painless right?

Now, is there more to the process than that? Of course. There are employees on-site to handle fresh ingredients as well as make ready-to-eat sandwiches (I would say there are stockers, but there are robots that can handle these tasks). There will also be an employee at the exit which I assume to be similar to Sam's Club or Costco.

Will the system be perfect? No. Is there a chance you may be charged for something that you put back on the shelf? Yes, but Amazon does have an incredible return policy. While I find this set-up to be not only fascinating, but incredibly convenient, I am sure there are many with (probably justifiable) concerns. For instance, this will (obviously) eliminate cashier jobs if the technology works effectively, and there will also be privacy concerns as these cameras can track your every movement. Being such a new concept, it is hard to say what impact this idea will have on the grocery store market; this is clearly more intensive than just the introduction of self-checkout.

What do you think of this new set-up? How do you feel about cameras and sensors tracking your every move in the store, and do you think it is a good idea to be charged based on the store's perception of what you actually bought? Is this the future of grocery shopping (this is only one store in Seattle, WA currently? Let me know your thoughts.