Shopping? Just grab it and go
No queues, no cash in Amazon's new till-free store
Amazon Go, the internet retail giant's first-of-a-kind till-free store in Seattle, is occupied mainly by two types of people: Amazon employees, and tourists. The shop sits on the ground floor of Amazon's 37-storey headquarters in Seattle, making it the closest grocery store in range of its thousands of employees (a special door between the store and the office means they need not even go into the street). Outside, a small throng of tourists pose for selfies, probably the only convenience store in the world where this is the case. Amazon Go, which opened to the public in January, is the company's first checkout-free store. There are no queues, no cash. Instead, there are smartphone-controlled gates, and a lot of cameras. Entering the store requires shoppers to download a special app, which links to your Amazon account and credit card. Your phone then generates a code which a tube-style automatic gate will scan to let you in. From that moment, every one of your movements is being trac...
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