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Today's topic is "Amazon Opens Cashier-less Grocery Store"

On February 25, Amazon opened its first cashier-less supermarket in its hometown of Seattle. Shoppers scan a smartphone app to enter the store, and cameras and sensors track what's taken off shelves. Shoppers never have to wait in line or open their wallets, and items are charged to an Amazon account after leaving.

Called Amazon Go Grocery, the new store expands on the company's 2-year-old chain of 25 Amazon Go convenience stores. It's 966 square meters – more than five times the size of the convenience stores – and stocks much more beyond the drinks and sandwiches found at Amazon Go.

Cameron Janes, who helps oversee Amazon's physical stores, said the technology had to be adjusted to account for how people squeeze tomatoes to see if they're ripe, or rummage through avocados to find just the right one.

Nothing at the store is weighed. One lime goes for 39 cents; a banana is 19 cents. There are no cashiers, but workers greet customers and walk around aisles restocking shelves. One employee stands by the alcohol section to check IDs.

However, cashier-less stores have been criticized for discriminating against low-income people who may not have a credit card or bank account. Amazon has since let customers pay with cash at its convenience stores, and the company said shoppers can do the same at the grocery store.

Amazon is not new to groceries. In 2017 it bought Whole Foods and its 500 stores, and it's also been expanding its online grocery delivery service. But it's still far behind rival Walmart, America's largest seller of groceries, which has more than 4,700 stores. Walmart's online grocery service has also been popular with customers, who buy online and then drive to a store to pick up their order.

Amazon would not say if it plans to open more Amazon Go Grocery stores, but it said there are no plans to bring the technology to Whole Foods stores.

Earlier in February, 7-Eleven said it was also testing a cashier-less store for employees inside its offices in Irving, Texas.

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