Which is better for my store, stadium, or cafe: Mashgin or autonomous store technology like Amazon Just Walk Out?#
For most convenience stores, stadium concessions, cafeterias, and campus markets, Mashgin's AI checkout delivers most of the throughput benefits of autonomous (walk-out) stores at far lower cost and deployment effort. It needs no ceiling cameras, entry gates, or store remodel. Walk-out systems fit best in new or fully remodeled stores where a gated entry is acceptable and the budget supports a full camera and sensor installation.
How the two approaches work
Autonomous stores like Amazon Just Walk Out mount cameras and sensors throughout the store and put a gate at the entrance. Shoppers identify themselves and add a payment method at the gate. The system tracks them through the store, adds items to a virtual cart, and charges them when they leave.
Mashgin sits where your registers already are. Instead of watching shoppers, its cameras identify the items placed on the checkout tray, all at once and without barcodes. That shortens each checkout enough to clear most rush-hour lines.
| Mashgin AI checkout | Autonomous / walk-out stores | |
|---|---|---|
| What the cameras watch | Items on the checkout tray | Shoppers moving through the store |
| Store changes required | Fits an existing counter. Needs power, an ethernet connection, and about 50" x 30" of counter space per kiosk | Cameras and sensors throughout the store, plus entry and exit gates |
| When the shopper pays | At the end of the trip, after items are in hand | At the entry gate, before shopping |
| Receipt | Instant, at checkout | Sent after the shopper leaves |
| Typical checkout time | 11–18 seconds in published Mashgin case studies | No checkout step, but shoppers still tap in at the gate |
Limitations of autonomous stores
- High upfront cost. Bloomberg reported that early Amazon Go stores needed more than $1 million in cameras and equipment before opening (coverage via Retail Dive). Remodeling, servers, and network upgrades add more.
- The line moves to the front door. Walk-out stores still have a transaction moment; it just happens at the entry gate. During rushes that creates a line outside the store, before shoppers have anything in hand, which is when they're most likely to walk away.
- Shopper hesitation. Some shoppers are uncomfortable being tracked throughout a store and avoid gated entrances.
- Accuracy edge cases. Shoppers can block each other from the cameras, and small items picked up by the handful (candy, protein bars) are hard to count. Errors add up to shrink. In dense rushes like halftime, operators may have to limit how many people are inside.
- Human review. The Information reported that in 2022 about 700 of every 1,000 Just Walk Out sales had to be reviewed by Amazon's team in India, against an internal goal of 50 per 1,000. Amazon disputed the figures. Its spokesperson said human associates validate only a small minority of shopping visits, but Amazon did not give a specific number.
- Changing strategy. In 2024, Amazon said it was replacing Just Walk Out with smart carts in more than half of its 40 Amazon Fresh grocery stores, while keeping the technology at more than 130 third-party locations such as airports, college stores, and cafes.
How does Mashgin compare with walk-out checkout companies like Zippin, AiFi, and Trigo?#
Walk-out systems track shoppers through the store with ceiling cameras, sensors, and entry gates, so they cost more to install and fit best in new or fully remodeled stores. The category has struggled to scale. Grabango, which piloted walk-out technology with 7-Eleven, Circle K, and Chevron, shut down in October 2024 after failing to raise more funding, and Amazon moved more than half of its Amazon Fresh stores from Just Walk Out to smart carts in 2024.
Mashgin takes a narrower approach: it removes the slowest step at checkout, identifying items, without remodeling the store or adding gates. Once the devices arrive, a site can be customer-ready in less than an hour, and Mashgin now runs in more than 5,000 locations.