Amazon adds 13 new 'Just Walk Out' stadium stores at NFL venues

One of the new 'drink lane' Just Walk Out stores from Amazon at Lumen Field in Seattle. Credit: Amazon

Retail giant Amazon has added to its total of stadium-specific checkout-free concession stands, with the announcement of 13 new “Just Walk Out” stores in three different NFL venues.

Five of those deployments came at Lumen Field in Seattle, making that stadium the current venue with the most Amazon Just Walk Out stores, with 13. The other venues getting new Just Walk Out stores from Amazon include Commanders Field in Landover, Md., with seven stores opening for the NFL season, and M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Md., with one Just Walk Out store.

Combined with the recent launch of approximately 40 checkout-free stands at the Intuit Dome (using technology from AiFi), the overall market for stadium-specific checkout-free concession stands now includes approximately 245 stores, an increase of more than 100 stores since we took a detailed look at the market last fall. As our recent surveys have indicated, deployment of checkout-free technology remains a big focus for venues worldwide.

By our unofficial count — which we expect to fluctuate in the next month or so as more new stores are announced at football stadiums and basketball/hockey arenas — tech provider Zippin maintains a slight lead with 90 stadium-specific checkout-free concession stands open, while Amazon has 89. Amazon also has six separate merchandise-only stores in stadiums, which the company calls “Just Walk Out” stores since they are run by the same internal division. However, because the stores use technology that actually requires users to swipe some kind of payment information before leaving (instead of at entry), Stadium Tech Report is not including those stores in the checkout-free counts. Amazon added a second such RFID store to Lumen Field for this season.

Thanks to the all-in commitment from Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer to make every concession stand at Intuit Dome a checkout-free experience, startup AiFi has taken a big jump in the market race and now stands with approximately 66 stadium checkout-free stores deployed. Standard AI, which last year had three checkout-free stadium stores, has pulled out of the market for store deployments.

Behind the Intuit Dome, Lumen Field is now the stadium with the second-most checkout-free stores with 13. Previously, the leader in that category was Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, with 10 checkout-free stands using technology from Zippin. We are still waiting for information from the Intuit Dome, the Los Angeles Clippers and AiFi for the exact number of checkout-free stores that are currently open in the new arena.

Drink lane stores are the most popular

One fact that has emerged over the past couple years is that the “drink lane” store configuration has become the most popular type of deployment, regardless of technology provider. That makes a lot of sense since the checkout-free technology works extremely well in a focused deployment (like a single wall of coolers with a single-file, one-direction traffic flow). Deploying drink-only stands also alleviates customer pressure at other nearby stands with larger menus, making everyone happy by getting drinks quickly to fans who just want those items while reducing lines at other full-service stands. Zippin’s 10 stores at Allegiant Stadium, which are all drink-lane configurations, sold approximately 100,000 items during the Las Vegas Raiders’ NFL regular-season games last year.

*Fans select beverages at a Zippin-powered checkout-free stand at Allegiant Stadium. Credit: Paul Kapustka, STR*

Amazon’s drink lanes at Lumen Field seem to be a new form factor from the company, in what looks like an easy-to-setup box with gates at either end. Both Amazon and Zippin have said that finding ways to bring costs and deployment times down for checkout-free stands is a key to growth going forward. At Lumen Field, all five of the new stores are of the drink lane variety, while Commanders Field is opening four drink lane stores and three stores with more menu items, like grab-and-go hot foods and snacks. The M&T Bank Stadium store, Amazon said, is also a drink-lane configuration.

While Amazon would not provide any specific numerical statistics for any of its Just Walk Out store locations, it did say that Just Walk Out stores at Lumen Field and at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami have recorded higher percentages of sales when compared to regular concession stands previously located at the same physical space, according to the host teams. At Lumen Field in particular, the venue as a whole has seen a 32 percent increase in concession transactions per game since checkout-free technology was deployed, according to Zach Hensley, the Seahawks’ vice president of operations and the general manager of Lumen Field.

Stay tuned for more checkout-free concession stand deployments, which we are sure will be announced in the coming weeks.