365 Retail Markets and Evergreen Refreshments have opened a checkout-free store at Lake Washington Institute of Technology in Kirkland, Wash., using Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology. The autonomous store, located in the college’s cafeteria, integrates Just Walk Out technology with the 365 Retail Markets platform Evergreen Refreshments already uses for its campus operations.

The deployment keeps Evergreen’s catalog management, payment processing and reporting within the 365 Retail Markets platform it already uses. Shoppers enter using a payment card, mobile wallet or the 365Pay app. Just Walk Out technology detects which products shoppers take from or return to shelves and creates a virtual cart. Customers leave when they finish shopping, and the system charges their selected payment method for the items they took.

Jeff Dumbrell, chief revenue officer at 365 Retail Markets, highlighted how the autonomous format allows “students [to] get a full retail experience with no lines and extended hours,” in a statement. The Just Walk Out technology lets the store process more transactions at once, reducing lost sales and abandoned carts caused by long checkout lines. The store also expands customer access by operating during hours previously served only by vending machines.

According to 365 Retail Markets, the location can help reduce abandoned purchases that occur when checkout lines build during peak periods. It also provides a consistent shopping option during hours when the campus previously relied on vending machines or had no retail service available.

365 Retail Markets, a member of Amazon’s Just Walk Out Certified Partner Network, managed the store’s design, installation, camera calibration and gate setup. The company also serves as Evergreen’s first line of support, with Amazon providing escalation support for more complex technology or hardware issues.

Why this matters for convenience services operators

• Campus environments provide a use case for autonomous stores because demand can fluctuate sharply between peak class periods and quieter hours.
• Checkout-free technology could help operators serve locations where peak demand creates lines, but staffing a conventional store for extended hours is impractical.
• Maintaining existing back-end systems can reduce operational complexity when operators add new unattended retail formats.