Amazon Files Patent for Next-Generation Retail Store

Amazon.com perfected online shopping. It may now want to do the same with brick-and-mortar stores. A recently filed patent application by Amazon reveals details about a new kind of retail establishment that would allow shoppers to pick items and leave without stopping at a cashier station or kiosk. Based around the idea of complete convenience, such a store would work using a system of cameras, sensors or RFID readers that would be able to identify shoppers and the items they've chosen, according to the application, which was filed in September and published in January.