First, let's all remember that 'Things' are physical and require a physical space in which to operate. Amazon has had that through its distributions centers (DCs), but not in an publicly accessible space. At best, they've had a few experiments with Amazon Go and physical bookstores in select metros. With the Whole Foods thing, this changes.
In last week's post, I mentioned that these 450-ish stores give Amazon an opportunity to observe us shopping. Not to sell IoT products to consumers, but to use them on us. To see how we shop in physical spaces and then use that information to improve product placement, to optimize store layout, to optimize product choice. To improve the shopping experience, not for the shoppers, but for Amazon.
And, on the heels of the merger announcement, we saw a patent that may be the kind of thing that will result from that learning.
