Amazon (AMZN  ) has made another move towards dominating the world's retail markets last week with the launch of its first full-size cashier-less grocery store. Located in the company's backyard, Seattle, this store represents Amazon's first foray into the brick-and-mortar grocery business.

Only about 3% of groceries are bought online in the U.S. Amazon sees grocery stores as the next step in their mission "to get you to say 'Amazon' every day of your life", according to retail analyst Bredan Witcher. We shop in grocery stores more than any other in-person retailer, and Amazon wants to get in on this $800 billion industry.

This store has been under development for 5 years. The store is smaller than your average grocery store at 10,400 square feet and incorporates the same cashier-less technology in place at their roughly two dozen Amazon Go locations. This new Amazon Go Grocery store is meant to stock consumer's kitchens, while the Amazon Go locations are more akin to the convenience of a neighborhood market or 7-Eleven (SVNDY  ).

The store will stock roughly 5,000 items including baked goods, meats, dairy, fresh produce, seafood, household supplies, meal kits, and a liquor department with wines and beer. The produce at these new stores will mainly be sourced from Whole Foods' producers. Amazon purchased Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion.

"We're not trying to be Whole Foods," Cameron Janes, vice president of Amazon's physical retail division, said. "We're not trying to replace them."

The store was originally meant to open to the public after a beta period in 2017, but the launch date was pushed back due to problems developing the technology needed to "enable customers just to shop and not have to worry about the technology," Janes said.

This extended development timeline has given competitors time to find their own ways to mimic the technology. Big retailers in competition with Amazon have started working with start-ups like AiFi and Grabango to create their own autonomous systems.

7-Eleven opened its own cashier-less store in Irving, Texas, where its headquarters is located, earlier this month. The 700-square-foot convenience store is currently only open to employees.

Walmart (WMT  ) is also trying out their own cashier-less technology in a store in Dallas called Sam's Club Now.

While getting in on cashier-free technology seems to be an obvious goal for most retailers, Amazon's decision to get into groceries isn't as obvious.

"Nobody in their right mind goes into grocery. ... It is low margins, with perishable food, and it's challenging to scale," said Witcher. "But there is nowhere we shop more than grocery stores. That is [Amazon's] strategy. It doesn't need to be a profit generator."

Amazon has more than 150 million paid Prime members globally and a market cap of more than $1 trillion. They have Whole Foods locations across the country, Go stores in major metropolitan areas, 21 book stores, and 10 Amazon 4-Star locations which sell trending items from Amazon online. Suffice it to say, they can afford to experiment with and adjust their grocery division in a way other companies couldn't.

"Amazon is taking the long game here," Witcher said. "I don't know a single retailer that could work on something for five years without a single return on investment, and keep going."

Despite delays to the launch date of the grocery store and ever-growing operating losses, Amazon is still optimistic.

"We believe we can be profitable," Janes told CNBC about Amazon's grocery business.