Amazon has begun the process of phasing out its patented Just Walk Out technology from its US grocery stores.
Senior vice president of the retailer’s physical stores, Tony Hoggett, told The Information that Amazon will now prioritise smart trolley technology in the US, although he stressed the changes would not affect UK stores.
Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology first launched in 2016 and, as the name suggests, allows customers to pick up items inside shops and leave without paying at any form of checkout. Customers are instead charged through their Amazon accounts.
The retailer opened its first checkout-free grocery store in the UK at the height of the pandemic in 2021 in Ealing Broadway, West London. Amazon paused the rollout of these stores in 2023.
The Ealing Broadway store closed last year, along with a number of other stores in Wandsworth and East Sheen.
Amazon boss Andy Jassy said the company was “not going to expand the physical Fresh stores” until it had established how it could provide a “different offering”.
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