Tesco picks High Holborn London store for autonomous retail push

Last week, we reported that Tesco was gearing up to deploy its Trigo powered version of Amazon’s Just Walk Out offering in a second UK location.

Tapping AI and computer vision technology, the Easyout solution enables shoppers to walk into a store, check in via a QR code, select items for purchase and leave without having to bother with pesky checkouts.

Chief Executive Ken Murphy recently commented: “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.”

According to social media chatter, that store can be found in High Holborn, on the edge of the City of London.

Last year, this became the retailer’s first cashless store in central London.

It may not be the first cashless Tesco, but this is no ordinary Express. Ceiling covered with cameras and computer servers, 20-somethings with laptops and tape measures moving stock & filling/emptying baskets. Will this be Tesco’s first till-less store? You saw it here first… https://t.co/yj6ZasDXGo pic.twitter.com/Vh6B3d9xIh
— Kien Tan (@kientan74) June 30, 2021

Tesco declined to comment when contacted by RTIH. It is, however, promising to share more details in the coming weeks.

Yesterday, we popped along to the High Holborn store and found that it has been refurbished and kitted out with cameras and computer servers. Place your bets on an imminent launch, we would say.