
GeekWire’s Todd Bishop with his historic first grocery order outside the AmazonFresh Pickup location in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. The AmazonFresh delivery service often uses insulated bags, to account for the fact that the items will be left on the doorstep for an extended period in many cases. The groceries were packed much like they would be at a traditional grocery store, in paper bags with plastic bags inside containing the vegetables. I have a hunch that time will shrink further as they get up to speed, along with the automated check-in process. The workers were helpful and fast, and even with the manual check-in, we were in and out in five minutes. Opening of Amazon Fresh Pickup in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) I’ll test this out on a subsequent visit. This auto check-in is in effect unless customers change their settings to opt out. It appears to work using sensors in the sign at the front of each parking space.

It took him a little bit of time to check me in using the tablet, but this is the issue that Amazon is aiming to solve using the automated license plate check-in, which works after the first visit, once Amazon associates you with your license plate.
