Tesco follows Amazon with checkout-free store
TESCO is due to open its first hi-tech, checkout-free store for shoppers.
The supermarket chain is gearing up to unveil a state-of-the-art branch in which customers can simply pick items off the shelves and walk out.
The “frictionless” shop is similar to one that online giant Amazon opened in west London earlier this year.
As with Amazon’s effort, Tesco’s cashier-less store is likely to work through a network of cameras and sensors that track what shoppers put in their baskets.
When customers leave the shop, they are automatically billed for the groceries.
The announcement comes almost two decades after
Tesco introduced self-service checkouts, which require no staff to operate – a controversial move at the time.
The concept has been trialled at Tesco’s head office in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.
Its first store without tills is due to open in a few months’ time at an as-yet-undisclosed location.
Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy said: “It is leading edge technology but it is a learning curve. It will be a while before it is ready to roll out.”
Meanwhile, Mr Murphy reassured shoppers that prices were not likely to jump, in the short term at least, amid evidence of cost pressures and supplier shortages of certain materials.
Mr Murphy said prices had actually fallen in the last three months, adding: “We don’t anticipate any price increases.”
He also insisted Tesco was taking measures in the face of an industrywide lack of lorry drivers.
His comments coincided with results showing sales at Tesco’s UK supermarkets rose 0.5 per cent to £10billion in the 13 weeks to the end of May.
Its wholesale Booker business saw the strongest growth, with sales up 9.2 per cent to £1.77billion as the leisure sector started reopening.
Group-wise, quarterly sales increased by 1 per cent to almost £13.4billion, and were up 8.1 per cent on a two-year basis, from before the pandemic.