Amazon Grocery Stores: 3,000 Cashier-Less Spots Could Open

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Good news for anyone who hates waiting in lines for on-the-go snacks: Amazon may be opening 3,000 more of its Amazon Go cashier-less grocery stores by 2021. Sources close to the company told Bloomberg that Amazon is currently considering this plan, which would threaten some of our fave chain snack and lunch spots like 7-Eleven and Panera Bread, plus any other place where we may have to wait in line for food.

Although nothing is set in stone, we can’t help but get a little excited for the idea that an Amazon Go might be coming to a corner near us sooner than we thought. Amazon opened the first Amazon Go in 2016 near its Seattle headquarters. Shoppers simply scan an app on their smartphone at a turnstile to enter, grab the salad or sandwich of their choice, and exit without needing to wait in a checkout line. Sensors detect what the shopper purchased and bills their account. That type of advanced technology and experience sounds pretty sweet.

Since then, the company announced two more locations, another in Seattle and one in Chicago. All locations are slightly different in what they carry, with on-the-go meals taking priority at one store while grocery items are more readily available at another, so it’s hard to determine which angle Amazon would take with these 3,000 new stores.

Amazon Go: A Lot Of Money, Less Jobs

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Opening 3,000 new Amazon Go stores could cost a really, really pretty penny. The original Amazon Go store in Seattle required more than $1 million in hardware alone. If Amazon was to duplicate that 3,000 times, it could end up costing the company $3 billion. Although, with its recent valuation topping $1 trillion, Amazon may be able to afford it.

Although convenient for shoppers, 3,000 stores with no cashiers mean fewer jobs for people and our economy. And if Amazon Go stores wipe out the competition — 7-Eleven, Wawa, Kroger and many more — even more jobs could be eliminated in the future.

As Amazon is still only considering this plan for 3,000 new stores by 2021, we won’t get ahead of ourselves just yet. We will, however, keep a close eye on what CEO Jeff Bezos is up to in case there’s any inkling that this idea is turning into a reality.

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