Amazon Fresh, the till-free grocery shop that uses “just walk out” technology, is closing all 19 of its stores in London, just under five years after opening its first outlet. If you’re unfamiliar, the premise of the store is that shoppers identify themselves at the entrance, walk in, select the items that they want, and then a combination of AI, sensors and computer vision determine the items in their basket and process an automatic payment via a customer’s Amazon account when they walk out.
If that sounds weird and disorienting then I can assure you – having visited an outlet out of pure curiosity and having left distressed – it is. Among the reasons given for the venture’s failure, from location choices to struggling to differentiate itself in the market, one financial analyst has suggested that till-less technology “always felt a little awkward”. When I visited I wasn’t totally clear on how to get in or, frankly, how to get out. A sense of panic overwhelmed me as I wondered if the sensors would process me changing my mind about an item and putting it back on the shelf, or charge me for it. Would I be prosecuted if, say, a large box of cereal blocked the sight of a tin of sardines and thus escaped the sensors?
