Digital Explainer Screens Key Parts Of First Whole Foods “Just Walk Out” Store
February 25, 2022 by Dave Haynes
High-end grocery retailer Whole Foods Market has opened its first store using Amazon’s frictionless Just Walk Out Shopping technology – a 21,500-square-foot store in Washington, D.C.’s Glover Park neighborhood.
The store, which opened Wednesday, is the first of two Whole Foods Market stores expected to open this year that use the cashier-free technology developed by parent company Amazon.
Up until now, the stores that pair a smart phone app and a lot of sophisticated sensors has been used primarily in smaller convenience store, with lower foot traffic and a much smaller number of SKUs.
The shopping process is very different than the fill up your cart and head to the cashier or self-service scanner routine that most consumers know and love (or hate). So the stores use digital signage at the entry and exit areas to reinforce and explain how things work and what to do.
I like this and think it is important in for stores that significantly change up how they do things, or add new things like pick-up in-store lockers or other self-service, low-contact options. All these kinds of stores have staff around to also explain what and what not to do, but we can assume the hope is that as consumers grow familiar, those staffers are doing other things.
There are also digital menu displays at the deli counter, and lots of e-paper fact tags in produce.
I wonder what the net impact on employment automation like this creates.