OTG turns on the magic with Just Walk Out

In such an acutely time-sensitive environment as the airport, this is really a step up from anything that has existed. You talk of a frictionless experience in your press release. It’s certainly going to be a cashless experience, a queue-less experience, and of course the queue is the bane of the time-sensitive airport consumer. So, really it’s made for the airport environment, isn’t it?

It’s just perfect for the airport environment. People are stressed. Maybe you slept through your alarm in the morning and you’re harried and you’ve rushed around, but now you can just walk in, take what you want, and walk out. It's a magical experience.

And once again we’re putting control in the traveller’s hands. Whatever the traveller wants, whatever our customers want, is what they get. They can take what they like, walk out the door, and it’s simple. It just gives them their time back and it takes away that stress. Because as you know, we look at a line and we don’t want to wait in a line. We don’t know if we have enough time or how fast that line is going. This takes away all these lines. They’re gone!

It’s really the worst part of any experience to wait on a line. Our objective is to speed them up and reduce them to as little as possible.

Just for the uninitiated among our readers, tell us about the system and how it works. It differs, as I understand, from the Amazon Go stores, where shoppers use their smartphones with a companion app and walk in and pay for purchases automatically through their Amazon accounts. With you, it's about credit cards. Is that right?

Yes, so when you come into the store, you just dip your credit card and you walk right in. It’s very simple. You don’t need to use an Amazon Go app. You don’t need to use anything else. You use the credit card you like; it clears you and you walk in. It’s really simple as can be.

You’re introducing it initially on a limited basis to your CIBO Express concept, and then will you roll it out elsewhere?

Yes. We'll start with our CIBO Express Gourmet Markets in Newark, Terminal C. But then, you’re going to see, within some time thereafter, a very large rollout. This will become a very big part of the DNA of OTG and a big part of the OTG experience.

“We’re in our 25th year and I feel like we’re just getting started. The best is yet to come.”

–Rick Blatstein

Will it be part of the OTG and Starbucks experience? Because that’s a new relationship to you [following the recent breaking of the former exclusivity between Starbucks and HMSHost for US airports] and an important one.

Well, we’re extremely excited about our partnership with Starbucks. They’re a spectacular company. We’re going to offer Mobile Pay, we're going to offer pick-up stations, we’re going to offer experiential stores, we’re going to offer many different ways.

You will be able to get your Starbucks and it can be delivered in our restaurants and our gate hold areas. We’re also going to offer some new technologies. You never know what the future brings with mobile and technology and these kinds of partnerships. This is all part of the future and evolution of OTG.

Any data privacy issues around this? Amazon Just Walk Out is a proprietary system and you’re a third-party store operator, both with access to customer data. Any issues around that?

No. One of the things that we love about it is it does not use any facial recognition. So with privacy, which is very important to OTG and very important to everybody around the world, we’re not concerned with issues whatsoever.

It’s certainly an important innovation, which has caused a lot of ripples domestically and been very successful. OTG has an enviable track record in terms of innovation. How does this rank in terms of that heritage?

It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It ranks right up there at the top. You know, we introduced our new technology platform [iPad-ordering] ten years ago and we’ve changed the dynamics inside an airport restaurant in terms of you can get what you want, when you want it, as quickly as you want, and be able to just walk out after that.

This is spectacular for us. Our Starbucks relationship is spectacular for us. We have some other things that you’ll see in the future. We’re excited. You know, it’s funny, we’re in our 25th year and I feel like we’re just getting started. The best is yet to come.