Amazon’s Grocery Stores to Drop Just Walk Out Checkout Tech

Amazon’s grab-and-go checkout system, Just Walk Out, has been a centerpiece of its ambitions to transform bricks-and-mortar supermarkets. Now Amazon is gearing up to open a new batch of grocery stores after an 18-month pause—and it’s ditching the technology.

Tony Hoggett, Amazon’s senior vice president of grocery stores, said in an interview that the next generation of Amazon Fresh stores, the commerce giant’s answer to mass-market grocery chains, will focus instead on offering Dash Carts, which let customers scan items while they shop. This year, Amazon will also revamp the majority of its existing Fresh locations into “version two” stores, Hoggett said, removing Just Walk Out where it’s already installed while sprucing up the stores across the board.