When Amazon debuted its automated convenience store in Seattle in early 2018, I was impressed with the consumer experience but also aware of the long-term ripple effects. At a time when the self-checkout machine market was expected to grow, due in part to labor shortages and lowered kiosk prices, Amazon leapfrogged over that technology and many others, such as mobile payments. They went from self-checkout to no-checkout. The company had, in effect, done the exact same thing that allowed it to dominate the e-commerce side of things: They made shopping easier. To use industry lingo, they reduced the friction of transactions.