Amazon Go. Photo: Interim Archives/Getty Images
It was only a matter of time before Amazon Go, the online giant's futuristic new cashier-free stores, made it to San Francisco. Amazon is slated to open its first store in the city’s Financial District, according to records obtained by the SF Chronicle.
Why it matters: After directly contributing to the decline of a number of brick-and-mortar stores and chains through the benefits of e-commerce, Amazon now wants to own physical retail, too — but with its own twist of being cashierless, Kia Kokalitcheva writes.
- Its other forays into physical retail include its purchase of Whole Foods and its chain of Amazon Books.
Not the first: A number of other startups are developing automated stores or tech to sell to retailers so they can automate on their own.
- Standard Cognition and Zippin, for example, have already each opened a location in San Francisco.
- Even WeWork has been testing similar tech at one of its San Francisco offices, where it hopes to make purchasing snacks easier for its tenants.