Amazon Fresh automated store opens in Ealing West London
Amazon has opened a convenience grocery store in Ealing, West London, its first physical outlet outside of North America.
UK shoppers will for the first time be able to use the e-commerce giant’s Just Walk Out tech, which was pioneered at the Amazon Go offering in the States.
The 2,500 square feet store is situated at 59 The Broadway. It will be open 7am-11pm Monday to Sunday.
Shoppers use the Amazon app to enter and buy items, bagging them as they go. At the end, they don’t need to stand in queue or check out. They are automatically billed as they leave.
According to a press release, the outlet will offer customers a wide selection of the new private food brand, by Amazon.
“This has hundreds of delicious products, including meat, poultry and fish, dairy, fruit and veg, bakery, freshly prepared meals and everyday essentials,” the press release states.
“by Amazon will also offer customers hot food throughout the day and tasty on-the-go meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
Keeping schtum
News of the Ealing launch broke over the weekend, with Amazon UK remaining tight lipped until the early hours of this morning.
It is declining to say how many of the stores it intends to open in the UK, or the capital commitment.
The US company is, however, planning to test a few across London, and may look at some city centre locations.
Amazon would also not be drawn on possible expansion into larger food stores located out of town, with the potential to serve as local delivery hubs.
Stateside debut
Last year, the first ever Amazon Fresh store opened in Woodland Hills, California.
This included the Amazon Dash Cart, which enables customers to skip the checkout line, and new Alexa features to help people manage their shopping lists and better navigate aisles.
According to Rick Watson, CEO and Founder, RMW Commerce Consulting, the fact that Amazon launched in LA and not its home town of Seattle signalled that the store concept was ready to scale.
"This is not a pilot. You don't like to screw up your biggest market unless you are (finally) ready to expand," he said in a LinkedIn post.
Also, the Just Walk Out technology not being based on computer vision in the aisles but rather on the Amazon Dash Cart itself, showed that Amazon is not about gimmicks.
"It is about iteration. Keep this in mind when you scoff at their drones. It's an approach that could fail. But the approach has a reason, a goal," Watson commented.
"It was obvious vision wasn't going to work by itself in a huge store soon. Maybe later," he added.
Watson also noted that Amazon Fresh is at a different price point than Whole Foods. "This is Amazon's foray into the mass market. I somewhat doubt they will open new Whole Foods stores. The Head of Grocery even said they saw them side by side."
“The real magic of Amazon grocery is the connections to Prime, technology convenience, pickup, and delivery. Will Walmart and Kroger be able to iterate as quickly? Amazon is betting no," Watson concluded.
