The long-awaited Amazon Fresh store opened its doors at 7am this morning and drawn enormous queues to The Broadway shopping centre in Ealing, West London.
Following years of speculation, the opening of Amazon’s first bricks-and-mortar store outside of the US features its patented, cashierless technology. Powered by hundreds of cameras, pressure sensor technology on the shelves and artificial technology, customers simply swipe a QR code on their phone through Amazon’s app to enter the store and, once they’ve finished shopping, can walk out.
Amazon has put on hundreds of new, own-brand products sourced from British suppliers into the store, alongside lines from Morrisons, Booths and other FMCG brands.
While the queues were snaking back into the shopping centre, and the media were out in force, the test will come in the coming weeks to see if that kind of interest persists.
Amazon launched its similarly cashierless Go c-store format in the US in 2018, but to date has only opened 28. The titan is also reportedly open to selling the technology to third parties, which may present a quicker and easier route to growth than expanding a wide estate of Fresh stores.
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