... AND AMAZON COULD SOON BE MOVING IN!

AMAZON is planning to open one of its high-tech till-free supermarkets in London’s West End, it has been claimed.

The Amazon Go stores allow customers to pick up their shopping and leave without having to go through a checkout, by charging them automatically through their phones.

The internet giant wants to open its first British bricksand-mortar store close to Oxford Circus, the Sunday Telegraph reported. There are already seven of the stores in the US – Seattle, where Amazon is based, Chicago and San Francisco. Another is reportedly planned in New York.

To use them, customers install the Amazon Go app on their phones. They then scan a code on their way into the shop and are tracked as they move around by hundreds of cameras and facial recognition software. Their credit card is automatically charged when they leave.

Amazon has so far stuck to opening convenience shops which sell staple items. It has reportedly been looking at vacant retail space in the UK for several months.

The company did not comment yesterday.