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Greetings! It looks like Amazon has finally realized most people go to grocery and convenience stores to browse and shop—not to be wowed by technology. Case in point: Amazon is closing more of its futuristic cashierless convenience shops and launching mini Whole Foods stores that are comparatively low tech. When Amazon opened its first Go store to the public in 2018, it touted the grab-and-go Just Walk Out technology as the future of shopping. Amazon had opened as many as 28 Go stores by early 2023, but it has been winnowing that number down, with its latest closure of three New York shops leaving just 17 Go locations. (An Amazon spokesperson said the company "couldn't make the economics work" at the newly shuttered New York shops.) Amazon has given up altogether on using the checkout technology in bigger stores in the U.S., removing Just Walk Out from dozens of Amazon Fresh grocery stores earlier this year. The Amazon spokesperson said the company is "committed to the Amazon Go format" and noted that Just Walk Out is now in over 190 locations operated by other retailers in settings like airports and stadiums. But Amazon also isn't using the technology in a new, smaller version of Whole Foods called Daily Shop that it plans to roll out nationwide. Amazon's first Daily Shop location, a 9,100-square-foot Manhattan store that opened last month, does manage to squeeze in old-school grocery attractions, like a juice and coffee bar and displays of fresh produce and seasonal items. In a Grocery Dive interview today, senior Amazon grocery executive Christina Minardi said grocery stores become "very restricted" when using Just Walk Out. It "takes weeks" to adjust product displays because Just Walk Out has to map them, Minardi said, giving the example of adding a new mozzarella display. Whole Foods might try Just Walk Out again if the technology improves, Minardi said. Those are the kinds of complaints about Just Walk Out's clunkiness I'm used to hearing in hushed tones from Amazon staff and retail rivals, not from executives in on-the-record interviews. Back in 2012, Jeff Bezos said Amazon would only open physical retail stores if it could come up with a "truly differentiated idea." While Just Walk Out may be truly differentiated, it doesn't look like it will be the future of Amazon's retail stores. It is stunning to read that in 2024, sexism is still common enough that, as Julia Black reports in this deep dive, a tech company worker would say of a job candidate that she was "smart—for a woman." That was one example of how women are losing ground in Silicon Valley as efforts to attack bias have sputtered out, Julia reports in our Weekend Big Read. Julia's reporting includes conversations with over two dozen women in the sector and a variety of disconcerting data. This story is a must-read. In other stories this week: - If you followed headlines this week about OpenAI's giant funding round, you'll want to read Cory Weinberg's profile of Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar, who has played a key role in the AI startup's fundraising efforts.
- Sylvia Varnham O'Regan wrote a deep dive on Google's smart glasses efforts, with inside details on the progress Google has made and the drama that has unfolded behind the scenes.
- TikTok isn't just facing an existential threat from the U.S. government—regulators in Europe are also increasingly taking a hard look at the social media platform and its data handling practices, Kaya Yurieff reported.
- Wayne Ma and Steve LeVine scooped Tesla's plans to build four new batteries by 2026 for its electric vehicles, including the Robotaxi and Cybertruck.
- Anita Ramaswamy wrote this analysis of what Waymo could be valued at today, using Uber as a point of comparison.
- We scooped the news that Lightspeed Venture Partners is looking to raise roughly $7 billion for a trio of new funds.
- Meta Platforms previewed Movie Gen, a set of AI tools that will allow people to generate and edit both video and audio content, though the new features won't be available until next year (more here).
- Waymo will use Hyundai's electric vehicles in its fleet of self-driving cars (more here).
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