My ‘smart’ supermarket sounds like anything but

An estate agent friend once told me what to look out for when buying a property in an up-and-coming area. As these days only the super-rich can afford to look elsewhere, I will share it with you now.

Look out for pointless knickknack shops. Decadence. Any shops selling room diffusers, weirdly expensive soaps and anything made of slate is testament to the inchoate gentrification of a postcode.

That’s assuming gentrification is what you want. I’ve lived in my corner of north-east London for two decades now and, boy, has it been transformed. The latest arrival is a hipster Amazon Fresh “Just Walk Out” supermarket.

What is it? It’s scary, that’s what it is. So scary I haven’t yet crossed the threshold because everything about it feels wrong.

From what I gather, you gain entry by scanning a code on the turnstile. Then you take what you want – and leave. The deep cyberstate surveillance detects which items are removed from the shelf and by whom. Once you leave, the amount is debited from your account. Crikey.

Way back in the Noughties, I took a trip to the Bahamas. Our hotel was so sophisticated that there was a selection of highly covetable consumer items temptingly arranged in a glassfronted cupboard.

Once I clocked the cost, I unilaterally put the kibosh on treats. But when we checked out a week later, we were charged for all of it. The lot. More than four hundred dollar’s worth.

On further investigation, it emerged that our then toddler had taken every item out for examination before putting them back. The smart cupboard had registered their removal, but not their replacement. Our bill was amended accordingly.

Until I am assured that won’t happen, my Amazon Fresh will remain the preserve of Generation Z – and up-andcoming house buyers.