Amazon opens a grocery store without a cashier in London
Amazon has opened its first grocery store without a cashier, Amazon Fresh outside the US in London, UK.
The store uses the company's Just Walk Out technology, which allows customers to pick items off the shelves and take them out of the store without the need to stop and pay a cashier.
The invoices are processed automatically, but they require customers to scan their Amazon app to log in.
The launch marks a major expansion of the stores initiative without an Amazon cashier.
Store-assisted technology, which uses cameras to track shoppers and their purchases, made its debut at the first Amazon Go store in Seattle in 2016.
There are now more than twenty Amazon Go stores across the United States, and the initiative expanded last year with a larger grocery store called Amazon Go Grocery.
Amazon says: The London store stores a range of groceries and fresh meals, and there is also hot food that is prepared in the store and sold under the Amazon brand, and the goal is to offer customers everything they want from the local grocery store in their area.
The store opened its doors at 7 am this morning, and is open until 11 pm, seven days a week.
The store covers 2,500 square feet, making it the same size as the company's Amazon Go sites in the US, and much smaller than the first Amazon Go grocery store.
The company says: It is planned to establish additional stores in the Greater London area.
In the UK, the company uses its Amazon Fresh brand for its cashier-less store, rather than Amazon Go as it is in the US.
Amazon has an Amazon Fresh store in the US in Los Angeles, but it does not operate without a cashier, relying instead on high-tech shopping trolleys.
The company has a series of measures that focus on hygiene in the store due to the epidemic, so that the maximum occupancy is 20 to allow for social distancing, and personal protective equipment and disposable gloves are available at the entrance to the store.