Amazon opened a new retail store in Seattle that carries only “4-Star” rated and above products. The store does not take cash, so customers will have to use Amazon’s Go’s cashier-less setup to purchases Amazons most highly rated products.

On August 15, online retail giant Amazon.com opened what it calls a “4-star” store in South Lake Union. The 4,000 square-foot brick-and-mortar shop only contains products that are highly ranked at Amazon.com. Each product on sale there meets the following conditions:

  • The average customer review on Amazon.com is 4.0 or greater.
  • It is a top seller in a specific category.
  • Amazon considers the product “new and trending.

At the grand opening of the store, which is located at the intersection of Westlake and Lenora not far from the company’s headquarters, a steady stream of customers poured in to explore a shop that is arranged by category much like the online store. These categories include:

  • Books
  • Kitchen Supplies
  • Seasonal Items
  • Electronics
  • Toys
  • In-House Products

On every item sold in the store, you will find not only a digital price tag, but also its current customer rating at Amazon.com as well as the number of ratings there. Some items also include excerpts from customer reviews.

Including digital price tags on the items is not just a store gimmick. The price of the item in the store is synced with price of the item in the online store. So, if the online price of an item fluctuates, either up or down, so will the price in the 4-star store.

Another interesting aspect of the store is a table labeled “Trending in Seattle.” Here you can find products that local residents specifically have liked on Amazon.com. At the moment, you can find items such as a pour-over coffee maker, an environmentally friendly lunchbox and a popular Dungeons and Dragons game.

Jeanine Takala, who is a spokesperson for Amazon, said that the idea behind the store is that a customer would know, before they even enter the place, that any item that they select from it would already have been pre-qualified by consumers just like them.

Takala went on to say that the items available in the store are not selected solely based on how highly they are rated. She said that the store also employs human curators to help it decide what to showcase in the store.

Tyler Oleski was one of the people who ventured into the store during its grand opening. He was not expecting much when he entered, but when he left he did so with lots of products. He said that he found stuff there that he was not even looking for.

While Amazon is almost synonymous with Seattle, this is not first 4-star store the company has opened. It is actually the fourth, with the first 3 opening in New York City, Berkeley and Denver. The company also has plans to open a fifth 4-star store in Dallas. Amazon further has other types of physical stores, which now number close to 600 across the country. These include:

  • Amazon Books
  • Amazon Go
  • AmazonFresh Pickup
  • Presented by Amazon Mall Kiosks
  • Package Pickup Storefronts
  • Whole Foods Market

If you do plan on visiting the 4-star store, keep in mind that, for time being, they do not accept cash. You can either pay for items using your Amazon app or with a card.

You can also return any items bought online to the store.