Amex and the Till-Free Shop

The unmanned, or more accurately, untilled store in which you walk in and ‘Just Walk Out’, as Amazon has it, continues to be something that is rather more written about than seen on the ground. Yet as a sector (and it is mainly about convenience retail, for the moment at least) it continues to develop and the latest example of what is being done opened last weekend in the Barclays Center, an indoor sports arena, in Brooklyn.

This is the American Express Shop and in many ways it looks and feels like an Amazon Fresh unmanned store insofar as shoppers just pick from the shelves, leave and money is then taken from their accounts. Unlike Amazon, however, which relies on cameras and motion sensors, this one uses sensors to monitor the collective weight of the products that have been taken by a visitor and then works out how much should be charged.

As this is a sports ground shop, it is about drinks, food and snacks, as well as a range of Brooklyn Nets merchandise (baseball caps, for the most part). It looks good and should make match day convenience shopping easier.

Pics: American Express