Whole Foods Market has opened a 21,500-square-foot store in Washington, D.C.’s Glover Park neighborhood that is one of the first of two stores expected to open this year to feature Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology. The next location implementing the technology is slated to open in Sherman Oaks in Los Angeles later this year.
With Just Walk Out Shopping, customers can choose to simply shop, bag, and leave with their groceries without stopping at a register. The technology uses computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning to automatically detect when products are taken from or returned to the shelves and keeps track of them in a virtual cart.
Customers can pay in three ways: Using an in-store code in the Whole Foods Market or Amazon app linked to a valid credit or debit card; Amazon One linked to an Amazon account; or a credit or debit card linked to an Amazon account. Customers who do not want to use the technology, enter the store through the gate that says “Pay at Register.”
In addition to the new way to shop and pay, the Glover Park location features many local products across all departments. In the produce section, local offerings including packaged salads from Bowery Farming’s Nottingham, Maryland, farm and Gotham Greens’ Baltimore farm, as well as dressings from Tessamae’s.
The seafood department is enhanced with products like smoked fish from Ivy City Smokehouse, Maryland crabmeat from M. Clayton Seafood Company, whole fish from George’s Seafood, and “Skinny Dipper” oysters from True Chesapeake Oyster Co. The full-service butcher offers smoked meats from Wellshire Farms that are exclusive to Whole Foods Market, and Animal Welfare Certified pork from Thompson Farms.
Local offerings in the cheese department include the Merry Goat Round Spruce Reserve from Firefly Farms, Bourbon Barrel Aged Chocolate from Harper Macaw, and Everything Crackers from Firehook. And an extensive selection of more than 250 beers and more than 500 wines from 50 local suppliers is available, including traditional bottled and canned wines from Maryland’s Old Westminster Winery and C. beers from Atlas Brew Works, and Right Proper Brewing Company.
To give back to the Glover Park community, Whole Foods Market will be supporting STEM For Her programs in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
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