Amazon Go

What do you do with your children? What about your non-Amazon co workers who came out with you to get lunch? Do they stand on the sidewalk while you shop? Do you swipe them in? Do they get swiped in as guests (who then shoplift cupcakes?)

Don't get me wrong -- this is exciting and impressive -- but needing to swipe in to enter a store is, I think, a very significant change to how we think of stores as public places.

> but needing to swipe in to enter a store is, I think, a very significant change to how we think of stores as public places.

CostCo rule #6: Your membership card must be shown on entering the warehouse and at the tills.

I don't think it's really that much of a change, this is already par for the course when it comes to bulk-purchase stores.

Another one of CostCo's rules:

> Parents are responsible for their children. They must be kept with them at all times.

And one last one:

> Members will be required to purchase any packages opened or damaged by them or their guests.

These are all pretty ubiquitous rules for this kind of store and I can't imagine people will really notice the difference. You'll use your card to swipe in you and your guests, when you leave as a group, your card will be charged.

If you come with someone who also wants to buy things, you jut enter one after the other instead of as a group.

it's unclear how the act of purchasing a product works -- it might require the buyers phone to be near the item when it leaves the shelf

That's a good point -- but in general, CostCo or any similar discount club I've been to doesn't really prevent physical access -- there's no turnstile. (Though my experience is limited - I'm not a member - so I typically am with friends or family.)

The only difference is CostCo employs a "turnstile", whereas Amazon will build one.

It's not spelled out but it doesn't seem like it'll be a requirement. The only additional thing they could get from the phone without really limiting the number of supported devices is a rough location and that information can be replaced with tracking customers through security cameras.

One person in a group must have a CostCo card. The turnstile in the video suggests that all people in a group must have the Amazon Go app running.

I'm not installing Amazon Go on devices for each my children, so does Amazon Go let them in, or not?