#Amazon unveils high-tech shopping cart that eliminates need for cashiers

Amazon is ramping up its mission to make shopping faster with a new high-tech shopping cart that eliminates the need for long lines at the cash register — and the cashiers who run them.

The “Dash Cart” the e-commerce titan unveiled Tuesday automatically rings up items that shoppers drop in their bags and charges them when they leave without a cashier’s intervention.

The carts — which Amazon plans to roll out at its Los Angeles grocery store slated to open later this year — use technology similar to the company’s cashierless Amazon Go stores, where shoppers can pick products off the shelves and leave without checking out. They are the latest effort by Amazon — run by billionaire Jeff Bezos — to streamline shopping, a campaign that has ruffled union feathers.

The company has opened more than two dozen Amazon Go stores equipped with its “Just Walk Out” technology, including a Seattle grocery store that debuted in February. Another cashier-free market is in the works for nearby Redmond, Washington.

The Amazon Go Grocery shop raised hackles from the United Food and Commercial Workers labor union, which cast it as part of a business strategy “designed to destroy millions of grocery worker jobs.”

But Amazon said the Dash Cart will not reduce the number of employees in its Los Angeles store, which will also have traditional checkout stations. The market will have a staff comparable to other grocery stores of its size, the company said without giving a specific number of employees.

Customers will have to scan a QR code in Amazon’s mobile app to shop with a Dash Cart, which uses cameras and sensors to detect the products placed inside it. The carts will need a little help with fresh fruits and vegetables — the shopper can enter the item’s price lookup code and weight on an attached screen.

Customers can also use that screen to pull up their Alexa shopping list, scan coupons and check the subtotal for their trip. When shoppers leave the store through a special “Dash Cart lane,” sensors will spot the cart on the way out and Amazon will charge the credit card on their account.

But don’t bet on the Dash Cart for a big weekly shop — Amazon says it’s “specifically designed for small- to medium-sized grocery trips” and only fits two shopping bags.