Aggies fans cheer checkout-free stores

  • July 18, 2022
  • Steve Rogerson

A checkout-free food and beverage experience is coming to Kyle Field, home of the Texas A&M Aggies American football team.

Three shops debuting for the 2022 Aggie Football season will be the first in a collegiate sports venue anywhere in the world to feature Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One, Amazon’s palm recognition service.

Chicago-based restaurant chain Levy, which specialises in innovative food and beverage experiences at iconic sports and entertainment venues, plans to bring three food and beverage stores equipped with Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology to Kyle Field.

The three stores, which will be equipped with Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One, are due to open this autumn so Texas A&M Aggies fans can experience the stores during the college football season.

Kyle Field is one of the ten highest capacity stadiums in the world, with over 100,000 spectators attending most games, making it a suitable setting for Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One, technologies designed to make shopping convenient in high foot traffic areas such as sports stadiums, airports and grocery stores.

To shop, fans enter the store by inserting their credit card or hovering their palm over an Amazon One device at the stores’ entry gates. Just Walk Out technology determines which items shoppers take from or return to the shelves and, when they leave, the credit card they inserted or linked to their Amazon One ID will be charged for the items they took, with no checkout required.

These stores are a collaboration between Texas A&M Athletics, hospitality partner Levy, and Levy’s DBK Studio innovation studio, and are powered by Amazon technologies. When the stores open in the autumn, it will mark the first time Amazon’s checkout-free technology and palm recognition service will be used in a collegiate venue, anywhere in the world.

“Since we first teamed up with Amazon to announce the first location for Just Walk Out technology in sports in 2020, fans have embraced the offer, and their expectations are at an all-time high for how it can enhance their experiences,” said Andy Lansing, CEO of Levy. “DBK Studio was created to support this evolution and has worked with the best innovators to scale these experiences to meet fans where they are. There is no more fitting environment for what will be one of the most extensive and accessible frictionless food and beverage programmes in sports to-date than for the 12th man at Kyle Field.”

Ross Bjork, director of athletics at Texas A&M, added: “Texas A&M seeks to always be on the cutting edge of technology so it’s fitting that Kyle Field, home of the 12th man, would be the first collegiate venue in the world to feature Amazon’s innovative customer shopping experience. We must always make the fan experience better and I know that Aggies and our guests will love having the ability to avoid the line and get back to the football game as fast as possible. This exciting customer experience, enabled by the combination of Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology and our hospitality partner Levy, makes our concessions operations that much better and will be an incredible benefit for the 12th man as we continue our mission of creating opportunities through championship athletics.”

Two stores will be located in Section 125 and the third will be in Section 129. The stores will offer fans products such as snacks, chips, soda, bottled water and alcoholic beverages. Fans purchasing alcohol will be required to show their ID to a store attendant for age verification.

“We’re thrilled to work with Levy and Texas A&M to enable a fast and effortless shopping experience for fans when they visit the three stores at Kyle Field equipped with Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One,” said Dilip Kumar, vice president at Amazon. “Our physical retail technologies are designed to eliminate checkout lines and remove friction for shoppers, and we’re excited to enable fans at the stadium to grab what they need quickly without missing a moment of the game.”