【Jin Seo】

We're still getting used to the idea of a store where there's no checkout,Jin Seo but Amazon isn't standing still. It's just launched a new, much more compact version of its cashierless Go stores.

Jeff Bezos is more than happy to dive into a new market and start disrupting it, but Amazon's success is due to how the company keeps relentlessly pushing an idea in new directions. That's why we don't just have one type of Go store anymore.

As Reuters reports, in Amazon's Seattle offices a new version of the Go store now exists and it counts as the company's eighth store. It's only a quarter of the size of the first Go store, which is also located in Seattle, and the products offered cater specifically to the needs of employees. That's why it's full of salads and snacks.

By launching a compact version of the store within the company's own building, it will be easy to monitor how well it does without the public looking on. It works just like the other Go stores, with payment automatically taken without the shopper needing to do anything other than take what they want and leave. In Amazon's opinion, the best point-of-sale system is one you don't even notice. It's hard to argue against that.

The implications of a compact store will surely have Amazon's competition worried. Amazon created this smaller store because it sees a place for them in new locations such as the lobby of an office block, in hospitals catering to staff and those waiting to see patients, and also in the communal areas of tall buildings, which would offer a much more convenient way to shop than having to take the time to leave the building.

Amazon is already proving that the cashierless concept works by now having eight functioning Go stores. The biggest concern for rivals such as Walmart won't be that Go stores will pop up to compete with its own stores, but that Go stores will soon start appearing where Walmart has no presence at all and no way of competing with Amazon... yet.

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