​Our Guide To Amazon Go

Amazon Go banishes queues, cash and checkouts from the shopping experience.

- David Crookes

What is it?

Amazon Go (bit.ly/amazongo423) is a real-life grocery store that allows you to walk in, take any item you want from the shelves and then leave without passing through a checkout. It sounds worryingly akin to shoplifting, but the idea is that you pay for your goods via an app on your phone. This speeds up the shopping process by eliminating queues and freeing you from the usual faff of placing your goods into a basket, taking them out again to be scanned and repacking them into shopping bags.

What does Amazon Go sell?

Anything from staples such as bread, milk and cheese to drinks, easy-to-prepare meals and treats such as pastries and chocolates. The first Go store in Seattle has been trading solely to Amazon employees since December, with items stocked in a 1,800ft 2 (167m 2 ) space. But it’s still in a beta-testing phase and the public opening – originally pencilled in for the end of March – has been delayed.

Why does Amazon want a slice of the grocery market?

Analysts are unsure why Amazon wants to enter an industry in which many established companies are making a loss. They are just as baffled about why it wants a bricks-and-mortar presence when it has spent years undermining the high street with its successful online business. Yet the expansion of its brand and desire to reach into all aspects of our spending is hard for Amazon to resist.

How does Amazon Go work?