Amazon Closes Till-less Grocery Store in Ealing
It was the company's first store of its kind outside the US
The Amazon store in Ealing
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July 27, 2023
Amazon has closed the grocery store it launched on Ealing Broadway two years ago.
The Amazon Fresh shop was the first ever ‘just walk out’ store from the company ever outside the UK.
It closed this Sunday (23 July) with the giant online retailer describing the move as an ‘optimisation’. Similar stores launched later in Wandsworth and East Sheen were also axed on the same day.
The concept was that you scanned in using an app as you entered the store and then cameras would monitor what products you took. Hundreds of cameras and sensors operate in the store using highly sophisticated software to track each shopper. You were automatically billed when you left the store.
In a statement about the closure 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."
The store was hailed as a huge step forward in retail technology when it opened but many were concerned about the privacy issues raised by the way it used technology.
When the store opened, Silkie Carlo of Big Brother Watch described it as a dystopian, total-surveillance shopping experience saying, "Amazon's intense tracking of shoppers will create larger personal data footprints than any other retailer. Customers deserve to know how and by whom these records and analytics could be used."
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