Amazon bought Whole Foods a couple years back. This was the company's first major foray into the world of physical location shopping. The company claimed its stake by being an online entity.
Recently, the organization is trying out the concept of AmazonGo which are convenience type locations where one enters, has the Amazon account scanned, and shops without checkout.
The procedure works because all items are scanned as they are taken from the shelves. Once in the basket, the total is computed when one exits the store.
This is all in line with Amazon's goal of automating the shopping process as much as possible. We already saw a great deal of automation enter the warehouses it operates throughout the country.
Now the company is looking into microfulfillment. This is the latest move in the eGrocery industry which is expected to cross $100 billion within two years.
The idea is to have robots pull from a select amount of items, in under 5 minutes. This allows shoppers to place their orders and pick them up.
This will allow the company to operate dozens of locations, placing it closer to customers.
Instead of operating a single industrial warehouse outside of a metropolitan city, Amazon can now leverage this technology to open dozens of smaller neighborhood stores closer to customers, as WSJ reported last October. Many of these leases are owned by Paragon Commercial Group, which recently invested $500mm to buy up a portfolio of strip malls in Northern and Southern California.
This is major innovation in the world of shopping. It is ironic that we are seeing the shift away from Big Box locations to smaller ones that are closer to customers. The difference from the past, this is under the ownership of a major corporation instead of being a bunch of small businesses spread over a geographic area.
There is no doubt that Amazon is bringing technology to every aspect of its business. This is forcing other companies in the space to keep pace.
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