Amazon has just recently launched its first-ever checkout-free store in all of Britain this Thursday. This makes everything a huge step forward since shoppers won't have to just line up at the cashiers anymore, but they can totally pay automatically and grab their produce and walk out!
Amazon automates buying process
The store is called Amazon Fresh and is located over at Ealing in London. This store will allow consumers to basically come in, pick up whatever they pick out the items that they wish to buy, and simply walk out without having to line or pay at the cash register. According to the story by CNBC, the items will actually appear on another virtual receipt that is linked to the customers' Amazon account sometime later.
This will also be Amazon's first-ever bring-and-mortar store to ever launch somewhere outside of the UK. The bold move is in direct contrast to Disney, which has just announced that the company is closing down 20% of the total physical Disney stores. Amazon Fresh is expected to use the exact same technology that is also pioneered by the tech giant's very own Amazon Go stores over in the United States.
Cashierless purchases
The store initially opened to the public back in 2018 and is said to use scales, sensor technology, shelf cameras, and even a number of other technologies that track items whenever they are taken a right off the shelves. Last year, the firm had launched the smart shopping carts that would track goods whenever they are added and the shoppers would be automatically charged the moment they remove their grocery bags.
Amazon, however, isn't really the only high-tech shopping experience in the whole of the United Kingdom. Other supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury have already tried to replicate the technology used by Amazon Go. The United States e-commerce will try to compete directly against Britain's popular grocery chains.
'By Amazon' and 'Our Selection'
The company, in fact, is actually launching a new brand that it calls "by Amazons" which would allow them to sell food over at its Amazon Fresh store. This move comes into the picture as the country looks at gradually lifting its strict coronavirus lockdown restrictions over the course of the next few months. If everything would go by as planned, the government now hopes a full reopening will be able to take place sometime on June 21.
An article by the BBC notes how Amazon has also launched "Our Selection," a sub-brand for the "premium" products, including desserts. Other items come from Morrisons and Booths, a supermarket with which the company already has ties. The store also reportedly contains a booth where certain orders can be delivered straight from its online store.
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Written by Urian Buenconsejo
