You'll be able to leave your wallet at home when you walk into Amazon Go, a new type of cashierless storefront that the online retailer is bringing to Chicago. According to the Chicago Tribune's sources, Amazon has leased spaces in the Willis Tower and an office building near Ogilvie Transportation Center that will host the company's high-tech grocery stores. The Amazon Go stores won't be the company's first physical storefronts in Chicago—there's also the Amazon Books store in Lakeview, which opened in early 2017.
The original Amazon Go model launched in Seattle, where the company is headquartered, in 2016, though access was limited to Amazon employees. Earlier this year, the futuristic grocery-shopping concept opened to the general public, allowing guests with an Amazon account, a smartphone and the Amazon Go app to simply pick items off the shelves and scan the app as they leave to purchase them (a network of cameras and sensors catalogs the items that customers buy). The 1,800-square-foot Seattle location sells groceries, prepared foods, meal kits and liquor, so it's likely that the Chicago locations will follow suit.
There's no word yet on when Chicago's Amazon Go locations will open, but the report is in line with Amazon's statements to the Seattle Times last month, which confirmed that the retailer is hoping to open stores in Chicago and San Francisco. While it's tempting to read into this development, the arrival of Amazon Go stores in Chicago probably doesn't signal that the city is being favored as the home of the company's second North American headquarters—Amazon simply wants to sell you more stuff.