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Perfect time to launch this. Often people don't have loose change but will have a contactless card, iPhone, Apple Watch...or any other contactless device. 

There is always a risk of theft in any retail environment and any potential up lift in theft can be off set through increased product display, customer throughput, sales and loyalty. Merchants can implement a number of measures to mitigate against it which could include a robust signup verification process, initial spend limits, entry and exit scans / gates, random security checks and checks across x number of users and auto billing post exit. It is down to each retailer to decide what is the best approach while balancing this with the frictionless shopping goals but one thing for sure is that we are now seeing increased interest and deployment across a number of large retailers including Walmart and Sainsbury's.

Amazon Go is indeed highly innovative and helping raise awareness of frictionless shopping technology. While it is in its infancy the solution requires more hardware infrastructure so mobile phone based Scan and Go is far easier to implement and allows retailers to introduce new payment / checkout technology in the most cost effective way.