Community Groceries in Kansas City is giving shoppers a unique grocery store experience powered by Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One.

Community Groceries, located at 18th and Holmes in the Crossroads, re-opened last week with a brand-new customer experience. The company has collaborated with Amazon to equip Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One in a Kansas City grocery store for the first time.

It’s also the first time Amazon has expanded both technologies to a third-party’s grocery store in the USA.

“Amazon’s technologies change the way we think about shopping,” said Alyssa Groenig, director of sales and marketing for Community Groceries. “I, like most people, have a very full schedule, and grocery shopping is a tedious task for me. This new experience will enable me, and all of our guests, to shop efficiently and be on our way with no checkout lines and no hassle.”

Shopping at the Community Groceries powered by Amazon’s technology is designed to be an effortless experience. A shopper can enter the store by dipping their credit card at the entry gates, or hovering their palm over an Amazon One device. Once the shopper is inside, the technology detects what they take from or return to the shelves in the store.

When they have completed their shopping, they will be able to just leave the store and the credit card they inserted or linked to their Amazon One ID will be charged for the items they took.

“We are thrilled to work with Community Groceries to unlock a fast and frictionless experience for their shoppers in Kansas City, one we believe they’ll enjoy very much,” said Dilip Kumar, vice president at AWS Applications. “Community Groceries is renowned for encouraging healthy lifestyles and focusing first and foremost on their local community, so we’re honoured to have them as our first customer in the grocery vertical to launch a Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One-enabled store.”

This is made possible by the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning. Anything a shopper takes off the shelf is automatically added to their virtual cart. Anything they put back on the shelf comes out of their virtual cart. For example, if they take a water bottle off the shelf, it’s in their virtual cart, but they won’t be charged until they’re finished shopping and leave the store.

Community Groceries wanted to change the customer experience and bring something innovative to the Kansas City area. The company’s goal is to provide healthy options in underserved communities. Now, the addition of these technologies will make it easier to serve the growing community and provide a service that is faster, more convenient and more memorable than a traditional trip to the grocery store.