UK’s first Amazon Fresh checkout-free, which opened in west London just over two years ago, has been closed.
The Amazon Fresh shop opened in Ealing Broadway in March 2021 and was the online giant’s first “just walk out” grocery store outside of the US. The store was permanently shut on Sunday (23) along with two other Amazon Fresh stores, in Wandsworth and East Sheen.
Amazon said they were closed after an assessment of its “portfolio of stores”, but new outlets were planned. The shops used the firm’s ‘Just Walk Out’ sensor technology, which allows customers to pick up items and leave, with purchases billed to their Amazon accounts. Visitors to Amazon Fresh shops scan a smartphone app when they enter and are then automatically billed for the items they pick up as they depart, without having to visit a till.
The opening of Amazon Fresh checkout-free stores were hailed as a “watershed moment” and a dawn of new era though questions were raised on user privacy concerns about how they operate.
Speaking about the closures, Amazon said: “Like any physical retailer, we periodically assess our portfolio of stores and make optimisation decisions along the way.
“While we decided to close three Amazon Fresh stores, it doesn’t mean we won’t grow – this year, we will open new Amazon Fresh stores to better serve customers in the greater London area,” an Amazon spokesperson told BBC.
It added it was “committed to our investment in grocery and, as we grow, we’ll continue to learn which locations and features resonate most with customers”.
Amazon’s East Sheen branch opened in November of the same year, and Wandsworth the following month.
