I couldn't tell from any of the articles today if they're going to accept cash or not. Given the push back they received on the first round of convenience stores, it's interesting that it's not mentioned at all.
Does Seattle allow for stores that don't accept cash? I know NYC recently passed something that said you can't run a credit card-only store as it excludes the unbanked.
Or maybe there's a kiosk where you can fund your account with cash? I can imagine a bunch of ways to both accept cash and also have the Go concept. But I don't know, I don't live in Seattle and haven't ever been to a Go store.
Edit: Someone else posted this link[0] elsewhere. The stores are in SF & NYC which both have laws against cashless stores. So, contrary to your reply, the following is actually false:
(Presence of Amazon Go store) ⇒ (City doesn't have a ban on cashless stores)
Forgive me if this is an obvious question as I've only been to the Seattle convenience store twice and haven't heard about any pushback (but I could see it resulting from basically making the store inaccessible to people who can't afford a smartphone?), but how would they logistically accept cash without any cashiers?
I'm not sure the traditional self-checkout kiosks logistically fit into this model, though. In a "normal" store, everyone needs to pay somehow, and security (in person or in LP) can monitor/flag/stop people who try to leave without paying.
In Go stores, you authenticate as you enter the store through a turnstile, which ensures that even if you were to bolt for the door you'd still pay for what you have and there's no reason for anyone to stop you (besides potentially for suspicious activity).
However, once you start letting unauthenticated people into the store, that entire system flies out the window and you now need to once again monitor who needs to manually pay and whether they actually have or not as they're leaving. You need to worry about when they pick up a can of soup and put it in their pocket, but not worry about it for most other customers.
On top of that, accepting cash (even to a machine) requires additional hardware installed (which comes with its own challenges like how easy it is to integrate into whatever Amazon's using on their backend for inventory tracking, etc) as well as manpower (to track/refill drawers, handle issues if the machine has problems, etc). I imagine there could also be a potential need for more security in a store that contains registers full of cash and goods versus a store full of just goods. Lots of stores around here (in KC) are cashless specifically for the safety argument.
Just seems like a lot of extra work that Amazon wouldn't intentionally commit to for a store built on automating employees away.
Meijer already does this, it is just a normal terminal, that knows your order based on your phone or some other scan, which then accepts cash like every coin return machine. It just dispenses change.
Interesting! Do people using cash have a separate checkout flow / exit than everyone else? It seems like it'd be difficult for human security to differentiate between someone that entered the store with their phone (so they can come and go as they please) versus someone who needs to pay at the end before they can leave.