Amazon Targets Airports For Checkout-Free Store Expansion (reuters.com) 66
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Amazon is looking at bringing its futuristic checkout-free store format to airports in an effort to win business from hungry, time-pressed travelers, according to public records and a person familiar with the strategy. For months, the world's largest online retailer has been expanding Amazon Go, where customers scan their smartphones at a turnstile to enter, and then cameras identify what they take from the shelves. When shoppers are finished, they simply leave the store and Amazon bills their credit cards on file. Amazon is evaluating top U.S. airports for new locations, according to public records requests to several airport operators.
Really great idea for airports... (Score:2, Insightful)
Scan your Amazon code, get in, grab water bottle and snack and you are out.
Though mostly I refill water bottles these days at airports with filling stations, sometimes I forget a bottle or the water at the airport it a bit too odd, then it usually takes a while for everyone in line to get through so I can just buy something simple.
Or just to get a yogurt or banana with no delay would be fantastic.
Amazon may be a giant soul-crushing monolith, but by gum are they becoming an indispensable soul-crushing monoli
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People can do that with vending machines and gas cards. This type of theft is definitely factored into the price of stuff.
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Thieves would much rather interact with humans than with a gazillion security cameras following every move and phone tracking. Humans are easy to trick and have bad memories.
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" yogurt or banana with no delay would be fantastic."
Until you realize you paid $37 for a $3 product.
That's why they want airports (Score:2)
No, even then... (Score:3)
Sometimes I need good food badly enough that a $5 yogurt that would be $1 elsewhere starts to look acceptable.
Not like it's going to be cheaper anywhere else in the airport.
And if you don't have a water bottle? Any amount is fine thanks because you really don't want to roll the dice getting on a plane these days without your own personal supply of water in case you are stuck on the tarmac for several hours.
Riiiiight (Score:3)
Right, I must be fat because I want yogurt instead of chips or some greasy fast food?????? Ahh, AC's of Slashdot - never change.
P.S. The fact you are "hearing" my posts suggest you should seek medical attention. Those voices ain't mine buddy.
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Well, a youtube commenter asked me a few days ago: "does your mum know you are up late at night?". He probably does not know that the world is a sphere and that one half always has daylight ...
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You're forgetting the security screening and requirement to have bought a ticket also keeps out, shall we say, the "riff raff" element who would mostly shoplift at a checkout-free store.
It's probably as big a deal as anything else.
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Scan your Amazon code, get in, grab water bottle and snack and you are out
Then have water bottle and snack confiscated at security.
Why not get international exposure? (Score:2)
Seems like this is a great business decision. If you can get your app on international phones, that is a huge market. This seems like a smart way to penetrate the Alibaba market.
--
Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct. -- Thomas Carlyle
will they have free wifi or now prime will pay rom (Score:2)
will they have free wifi or now prime will pay roaming fees?
Free WiFi already there (Score:2)
Most airports now have free WiFi now and I've not paid data roaming fees in like a decade? Probably only five years, but you know internet time.
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Anyone else ? (Score:3)
If anyone else targets an airport it is an act of terrorism, but with Amazon it is a strategic business decision. It is probably a good thing the Amazon rep. and the $10K/hour consultant they hired to come up with this idea were not discussing it at the actual airport. The TSA would have declared it an emergency situation, locked down the airport, every school in a 30 mile radius, and cancelled every flight in the continental US.
Re: Anyone else ? (Score:3)
"Security is no laughing matter. Anyone making jokes about the TSA *will* be arrested!"
- recorded message broadcast every five minutes on the public address system at DFW airport
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why (Score:2)
Either you prepare accordingly and arrive at the airport with all stuff you need and you just shop to pass some time until your flight is due.
Or you simply run out to the airport and shop for whatever you forgot?
Which approach would be cheaper?
Or how do USSAsians fly?
I don't use Amazon (Score:2)
Time-pressed travellers? (Score:2)
My overal experience of airports is waiting, waiting, waiting. Are there really people with such great timing skills that they manage to show up at the gate exactly at the moment when boarding starts?
At my local airport (Amsterdam, the 11th largest in the world), on a quiet day it takes half an hour from the station to the gate. And on a busy day you'd better have the full three hours, or you might not make your flight...
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So what's your secret? Are you paying for Privium by any chance?
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I prefer small airports like Rotterdam. Until recently you could rock up 20 minutes before departure, park right next to the terminal and still have time for a quick coffee in the terminal. Best time I made was 30 minutes from touchdown to unlocking my front door.