Amazon’s announcement that it was closing all of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh locations will not impact the The Market at Towers or Pitt on the Go in the Petersen Events Center.
Those locations are powered by Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” technology, but are not part of the Amazon Go stores.
At the two Pitt locations, registered customers can scan their Transact mobile ordering app at the entrance, enter the Market and choose their items. The Just Walk Out technology detects what shoppers take from or return to the shelves for a “virtual” shopping session. When customers are done shopping, they simply leave the store without waiting in line. The app automatically deducts the total from the customer’s available campus funds in accounts such as Dining Dollars, Panther Funds or Pitt Cash.
The company said it used its Amazon Go locations served as “innovation hubs” where it developed the Just Walk Out technology, which now operates in more than 360 third-party locations across five countries.
The ecommerce giant also said it is cutting about 16,000 corporate jobs in the second round of mass layoffs in three months.