Amazon.com Launches “Amazon Go,” Sending Dire Warning to $15/hour Min. Wage Advocates
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), the online retail giant, launched its cashless grocery store concept this week. It’s called “Amazon Go” and relies on technology that interacts with customers’ mobile phones. It’s not clear how the market will respond. But it’s clear that, if it’s popular, minimum wage jobs face a new and powerful risk.
For now, Amazon will be testing the “Amazon Go” concept in Seattle starting in early 2017. The online retail concept could have tremendous social impact. Indeed, should it catch on, it could terminate many minimum wage jobs, putting more pressure on the welfare system.
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For starters, as some have pointed out, such technology could make certain basic low-wage retail jobs redundant. Amazon’s new “Just Walk Out” technology does everything. (Source: “Minimum Wage Killer: Amazon creates grocery store without checkouts, cashiers,” Economic Collapse News, December 5, 2016.)
At an Amazon Go store, shoppers scan their phones as they enter. The Just Walk Out technology, in fact, makes sure you still pay, rather than simply walk out. It tracks items that shoppers take from—or put back on—shelves. Selected items are added to a virtual “shopping cart.” As customers exit, their Amazon accounts are charged automatically. (Source: Ibid.)
Amazon Go offers the thrill of shoplifting with the convenience of legality. The technology is sophisticated. It relies on the kinds of sensors and cameras that allow self-driving cars to function. From the point of view of the consumer, it goes without saying that speed is the main benefit.
The speed—and the virtual checkout—may benefit Amazon by encouraging customers to pick up more items. Moreover, just as on the regular Amazon.com web site, shoppers will get recommendations based on previous purchases.
Ironically, some suggest that the $15.00/hr minimum wage campaign is pushing the Amazon Go concept. The technology can be sold to other stores. The idea of establishing an arbitrary minimum wage has encouraged the search for solutions to reduce or eliminate jobs.
Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, once tested, could become popular beyond retail as well. Some fast food restaurants in particular could adapt it, saving consumers the need to tip as well. Anywhere the $15.00/hr minimum wage demands are loudest, the new technology could have this unintended, if predictable, effect.
In other words, Amazon Go transposes the entire Amazon.com shopping experience to in-person retail shopping. Sensors and computers replace human cashiers. Previous Amazon projects bode well. If successful, Amazon Go could prompt a whole chain of this new kind of supermarket across the United States.
And why not? Amazon Go comes down to taking what you want, leaving the premises without wasting your time queuing or talking to anyone while waiting to pay. The concept is to speed up the shopping experience, doing away with all those pesky delays.
The first commercial Amazon Go is expected to open in early 2017 in Seattle, Washington, not far from Amazon’s parent company. The 1,800 sq. ft. shop is now undergoing employee testing.
