This is now. This is not the future. This is real. This is example number 1 of how your business can (perhaps will be) disrupted by a digital marauder. If you have no eCommerce capabilities and now you can’t deliver a stunning customer experience in the store with digital technologies, you are probably toast.

Retail isn’t going away completely. It will be disrupted significantly by digital solutions that make the customer experience radically different. No one likes to stand in line to check out. Period. It is digital that is changing this. Still not ready to play in this bold new world? Yikes is all I can say.

With 3,000,000 cashiers in the United States, think of your career choice. It won’t stop with cashiers however. Digital businesses are rapidly changing the future of the career marketplace.

“Amazon’s much-heralded convenience store of the future, Amazon Go, may seem like a crazy experiment. But the company plans to open as many as six more of these storefronts this year, multiple people familiar with the company’s plans have told Recode.

“Some of the new high-tech stores are likely to open in Amazon’s hometown of Seattle, where the first location is based, as well as Los Angeles, these people said. It’s not clear if Amazon will open up Go stores in any other cities this year. 

“And in Seattle, Amazon had identified at least three locations for additional Go stores as of last year, according to one source.”

Source: Amazon plans to open as many as six more cashierless Amazon Go stores this year – Recode

So what is Amazon Go?

“Amazon spent four years crafting a system — dubbed Just Walk Out Technology — that allows shoppers to scan their phone upon entrance, grab desired items off a shelf, and automatically get charged the right amount after exiting without the need to stop at a cash register to pay. (Here’s a photo tour of the first Amazon Go store.)

“Amazon is hoping that by making convenience store trips even faster, it will raise the bar for brick-and-mortar shopping in much the same way that Amazon Prime did for online shopping and delivery.”

Source: Amazon plans to open as many as six more cashierless Amazon Go stores this year – Recode

So will Amazon just use this technology to crush your in-store experience? Will they lease it to you and crush your margin?

Now is the the time to think it through.