Both Amazon and AiFi have opened new checkout-free concession stands at the Australian Open this year, the first such deployments we are aware of at the tennis season’s first “major” event.
Partnering with caterer Levy Australia, Amazon has opened two of its “Just Walk Out” stores ahead of this year’s tournament, one in the Rod Laver Arena (the main venue) and one somewhere else on the grounds. AiFi, with partner Mastercard, opened a popup-style stand that the company said will be moved somewhere else after this year’s tourney is over. Again, we’re not sure exactly where the store is located on the sprawling grounds of Melbourne Park, but if we had to guess we’d say it’s located somewhere near the Mastercard suite just behind the Margaret Court Arena.
We apologize for the lack of precise details but in these days of no press releases we are doing the best we can with some LinkedIn posts, some from Levy Australia about the Amazon stores and one from Mastercard about the AiFi store. (If anyone at the tourney can provide more details or some more photos, please send them here!)
Amazon’s two stores look like well-thought out deployments, with plenty of ingress gates and lots of space inside to move around. According to a video accompanying one of the LinkedIn posts, one of the Amazon stores can serve 40 customers per minute. The one inside Rod Laver Stadium looks similarly as large as the other one, both constructed into the walls of their respective buildings on the side of what looks like major throughput concourses.
AiFi’s cute little checkout-free cabin (you can see a video of it here) looks like a fine place to get some crisps and beverages, and they even have some patio furniture out front where fans can rest up. AiFi is also using Levy Australia to stock the store, per their posts.
According to our unofficial count of checkout-free stores market-wide, the two new Just Walk Out stores brings Amazon’s market-leading stadium-specific stores to 100, ahead of second-place provider Zippin, which has 87 stores. AiFi inched closer to the leaders, with now 70 stadium stores total. See more of our research on checkout-free concession stands here!
