Amazon Fresh store opens at London's Holborn Chancery Lane
Earlier this month, RTIH reported that Amazon was working away on an Amazon Fresh store at Holborn Chancery Lane in London.
Said store opens its doors to the public today.
This is the e-commerce giant’s eighth such UK convenience store to feature Just Walk Out Shopping tech, which was pioneered at the Amazon Go offering in the States.
The other seven are in Camden, Ealing, Wembley Park, White City, Canary Wharf, Dalston and East Sheen. Opening hours are from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm, seven days a week.
Customers use the Amazon app to enter and put their phone away and shop for what they need. At the end of their visit, they can head for the exit, with no need to stand in a queue or check out.
They can shop from the ‘by Amazon’ food brand and also make use of an Amazon Hub counter to pick up or return items purchased on the Amazon UK website.
Further openings are planned in the greater London area, with reports suggesting Bankside could be next.
Let battle commence!
The Holborn store is in close proximity to Tesco’s first ever high street checkout-free offering.
Named GetGo, this made its debut last month.
Chief Executive Ken Murphy said earlier this year: “We have a system installed in our Express store in Welwyn Garden City (at head office), and we’re extending that to another store to check it in a more urban environment.”
He added: “It’s been opened about a year now, and it’s working really well… One of the joys of machine learning is it is continuously improving, so we’re feeling confident that we can put it into another store with a higher traffic.”
Tesco has deployed its Trigo powered version of Amazon’s Just Walk Out offering at Holborn.
Tapping AI and computer vision technology, the solution enables shoppers to walk into a store, check in via a QR code, select items for purchase and, erm, just walk out.
Kevin Tindall, Managing Director at Tesco Convenience, said last month: "We are constantly looking for ways to improve the shopping experience and our latest innovation offers a seamless checkout for customers on the go, helping them to save a bit more time.”
"This is currently just a one store trial, but we're looking forward to seeing how our customers respond."
It’s all happening in Holborn
Sainsbury’s is set to open a cashierless store in High Holborn later this month, using Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology.
This will make it the first known customer outside the US for said tech.
The SmartShop Pick & Go location is currently open to Sainsbury’s employees.
