Store gallery: Amazon turns up heat on Walmart with first cashier-less supermarket

The 10,400 sq ft new store, called Amazon Go Grocery, opened on Tuesday in Seattle and is the first Amazon-branded store to stock fresh produce.

The new supermarket is roughly five times bigger than any of Amazon’s 25 Go convenience store-style locations but is still smaller than an average Whole Foods – which the retailer bought in 2017 for over $13bn.

In a statement, Amazon said the Go Supermarket would carry some 5,000 SKUs, including “an array of fresh fruits and vegetables that change with the seasons” as well as meat, seafood, breads, baked goods as well as ready-to-heart and ready-to-cook meals.

As with Go stores, customers at Amazon Go Grocery will need to check into the store via a smartphone app.

Cameras then monitor the customer as they make their way around the store, registering what products they take from shelves and tracking it in a virtual cart. Once the customer has all they want, they leave the store and Amazon charges their account.

The opening of the new cashier-less supermarket, less than a mile from the etailer’s Seattle headquarters, is being labelled as Amazon “doubling down” in its battle with Walmart to win a bigger share of the US grocery market.

Amazon’s vice president of physical stores, Cameron Janes, said: “Customers on their way home, customers by their home, what they want is groceries. They want what’s for dinner tonight.”