Amazon opened a shop without tills in Chalk Farm on Wednesday – where customers can walk straight out after collecting their groceries.
To get into the Amazon Fresh convenience store – based at the former Evans Cycles in Chalk Farm Road – customers need to use the company’s app to scan a QR code.
Customers will type in items they are looking to buy on the app. Goods are then added to a virtual receipt as “just walk out” technology automatically detects when products are taken from or returned to the shelves, keeping track of them in a “virtual basket”.
Once shoppers have picked up their order from the aisles, they walk out and a receipt is sent via email, with a charge issued to the customer’s Amazon account. The shop, which reduces face-to-face interaction, will be open seven days a week, from 7am to 11pm.
The convenience store is Amazon’s fifth in the UK, with others in Wembley Park, Ealing, Canary Wharf and White City. The checkout-free shop uses the same types of technologies in self-driving cars – computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning.
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