Power to the Middle

CHAPTER 4 The Great Rebundling From Job Eliminator to Job Re-Imaginer

Recently a woman entered a grocery store in Franconia, Virginia. Casually walking down the wide, clean aisles, she put into her cloth tote bag three just-ripe avocadoes, two Roma tomatoes, a bulb of garlic, and, after a quick squeeze, a single lime. Then she walked right out of the store. No outraged store employee chased after the woman demanding that she pay for her items. That’s because she’d already completed her purchases without going anywhere near a cashier or a self-checkout machine.

The store, an Amazon Fresh grocery store, uses what’s known as Just Walk Out technology. When the woman first entered the store, she took out her phone, tapped on an app, and scanned ...