Amazon Fresh Just Walk Out technology powered convenience store coming to Moorgate, London
Amazon Fresh is gearing up to open a checkout-free store at Moorgate in the City of London.
This will be situated next to a big Marks & Spencer store and not far from a Tesco GetGo autonomous location in Chiswell Street.
Amazon Fresh stores initially involved a customer scanning a code in the Amazon app at an entry barrier.
The barrier then opened, enabling people to enter, pick items and walk out, receiving a receipt shortly after leaving.
The ‘frictionless’ process has been rejigged, however, with the two most recent stores binning the entry gates, and instead requiring customers to scan the app or a payment card as they exit. The entry barrier has also been ditched at the Angel and Islington, London stores.
Amazon did not respond to our request for comment as to the Moorgate location’s set up.
Amazon Go
Amazon recently shuttered a five year old Amazon Go convenience store in downtown Seattle, three months after it announced that eight of its automated checkout locations (two each in Seattle and New York City and four in San Francisco) were closing across the US.
“We’ve closed our 5th and Marion Seattle Amazon Go location, and are working closely with employees to find new opportunities within Amazon, including at other nearby stores,” an Amazon spokesperson said.
“We continue operating more than 20 Amazon Go stores across the US, and look forward to opening more in the future.”
The spokesperson didn’t give reasons for the closure, but it should be noted that urban stores reliant on office workers have struggled amidst the rise of remote working in a post-Covid world.
Unlike in the UK, the focus of late has been on larger suburban locations that feature a made to order kitchen.
Continue reading…