It closed at least one grocery location in Dalston, East London, after just 18 months. Its other shops also include snazzy digital experiences, such as paying with a sensor that scans the palm of your hand.Īs recently as 2021, grocery was highlighted as a key area of focus for founder Jeff Bezos when he took on his new role as executive chair.īut so far, Amazon’s gimmicks have only had limited success. These added every item a user picked to their digital account, before billing them. The experience, which many found weirdly similar to shoplifting, was monitored by a web of cameras, scanners and sensors. They then simply picked up items and put them straight in their bag, before walking out of the shop without paying. Rather than queuing for the till, shoppers tapped in using the Amazon app. The company made waves in 2018 when it spent $13bn to buy upmarket grocery chain Whole Foods, before launching its Amazon Fresh shops and Go convenience stores that allowed customers to “just check out”.

Amazon, a name synonymous with online shopping, had plunged billions of dollars into physical shops and wanted to become a leader in grocery – an industry worth around $6 trillion.

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