Amazon announced Tuesday that its first convenience store in New York, its 12th in the United States, will open this week, according to media reports. In a departure from the past, the Amazon Go unmanned convenience store in New York will accept cash for the first time.
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The unmanned convenience store, located on the second floor of the enclosed shopping center, will open to the public this week, the e-commerce company announced Tuesday.
But it is the first Amazon Go in New York, and the others are mostly on the west coast, including Seattle and San Francisco.
At an internal meeting in March, Steve Kessel, amazon’s senior vice President of physical stores, told employees, the company plans to set up “” additional payment mechanisms” “in its Amazon Go store, accept cash payments to allay criticism that its cashless model discriminates against low-income people who do not have bank accounts.
While the store still does not have a cash register installed, customers can opt to use paper money or coins and have staff bring mobile devices to help them check out and pay, the company said.
Catering to those without credit CARDS or bank accounts has become a bigger issue. Philadelphia was the first city to ban stores from refusing to collect cash. New Jersey then passed a statewide ban. Similar laws are being studied in New York and San Francisco.