Amazon Go Debuts First Store to Accept Cash

NEW YORK — Amazon Inc. opened its first Amazon Go store that accepts cash when it opened its first New York City location on May 7.

The new store is located in the Brookfield Place complex on Vesey Street near the World Trade Center.

While customers typically enter Amazon Go stores by scanning a QR code on the mobile app, employees at the New York store will swipe in those who intend to pay by cash at the entrance turnstile. Instead of having their purchases detected and automatically charged to their Amazon accounts, customers will need to have an employee scan each item with a mobile device to check out. There will be no cash registers in the store.

"This is how we're starting," Cameron Janes, vice president of Amazon's physical retail division, told the Washington Post, noting that its process for accepting cash could change in the future. "We're going to learn from customers on what works and what doesn't work and then iterate and improve it over time."

Amazon announced in April that it would start accepting cash after multiple cities and states began requiring stores to accept cash payments, as Convenience Store News previously reported.

The New York Amazon Go store has 1,300 square feet of retail space and features ready-to-eat meals and snacks prepared by Amazon as well as offerings from local vendors. The company anticipates that many of its customers will be people who live nearby, office workers who stop by to purchase lunch and tourists.

Amazon Go currently operates 12 stores in Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco.