Amazon Fresh Is Adding Self

Amazon is planning several changes to its Amazon Fresh grocery stores. One of them is self-checkout, an already ubiquitous option at many retailers.

Amazon is redesigning several Fresh stores to include self-checkout kiosks, Bloomberg Businessweek reported on Tuesday. The stores, located near Chicago and in Southern California, will feature other changes, such as brighter decoration and Krispy Kreme counters that sell coffee and donuts. If shoppers like the adjustments, they could be rolled out to the just over 40 Amazon Fresh stores around the US, Bloomberg reported.

Some Amazon Fresh stores already include the company's Just Walk Out technology, which allows shoppers to do their shopping and exit without going through any traditional checkout. Cameras and computers in the store monitor what customers pick up and walk out with, then charge their Amazon accounts accordingly.

Amazon told Bloomberg that self-checkout is part of an effort to make Amazon Fresh attractive to more shoppers.

"The customers that enjoy Just Walk Out in the Fresh stores, they really love it," Tony Hoggett, Amazon's senior vice president of worldwide grocery stores, told Bloomberg. "But we also recognize that it's so new for many, many customers. The whole point for us is everybody's welcome in our stores."

"We are always looking for ways to make the shopping experience at Amazon Fresh as convenient as possible," an Amazon spokesperson told Insider. "We are adding self-checkout lanes to specific stores as another option for customers looking for added convenience."

The spokesperson did not say whether all of the renovated Fresh stores would include both self-checkout and Just Walk Out. But the spokesperson said Amazon will continue offering Just Walk Out and its Dash shopping cart.

Rolling out Just Walk Out has been one of the highest-profile efforts in Amazon's physical retail business over the last several years. Besides Amazon Fresh, the company has also added the technology to some Whole Foods stores and its Amazon Go convenience stores. It has also licensed the technology to non-Amazon businesses, such as concession stands at sports stadiums and stores in airports.

But Just Walk Out hasn't found widespread acceptance, especially at other retailers, The Information reported in May. Within Amazon, 25 Fresh stores in the US have the technology, an Amazon spokesperson told Insider. That's just over half of all Fresh locations in the country. It has also deployed Just Walk Out at two Whole Foods locations.

Self-checkout, meanwhile, is a well-established technology in the retail world. Retailers from grocery chain Kroger to Walmart have relied on customers scanning and bagging their own items for years to reduce labor costs and streamline operations.

But the technology has pitfalls. Walmart employees and customers told Insider last year that it's easier for customers to shoplift when using self-checkout than traditional, person-powered registers. This year, Costco started telling employees to verify a shopper's identity when they use self-checkout since some customers have been sharing membership cards.

Amazon opened its first Fresh store in 2020. It has just over 40 locations around the US. Over the last several months, Amazon has paused some planned openings or scrapped them entirely. Meanwhile, Whole Foods, the grocery chain that Amazon acquired in 2017, is ramping up its new store plans, CEO Jason Buechel said in January.

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