Amazon opens first supermarket with no checkouts at all

E-retail behemoth says it want to provide a shopping experience where consumers do not have to waste time by waiting in line

E-retail behemoth Amazon is ringing in a new era for shoppers by opening its first supermarket with no checkouts at all – human or self-service.

The company on Monday will open the doors to the Amazon Go store in its hometown of Seattle to the public.

Shoppers who have the Amazon Go app can enter the store, choose products from the shelves while monitored by cameras, before leaving. The technology means that their Amazon accounts will be billed for their purchases automatically, without them having to scan the items.

The shop, which is open five days a week from 8am until 9pm, stocks ready-to-eat meals as well as groceries. It covers an approximately 1,800sq ft space in the centre of Seattle.

On its website, Amazon says that the motivation behind creating the store was to provide a shopping experience where consumers do not have to wait in line. It has reportedly been testing the shop since late 2016.

The move underscores Amazon’s efforts to expand into the world of bricks-and-mortar retail after years of dominating online.

Last year it announced that it was buying high-end grocer Whole Foods for close to $14bn (£10bn). It also operates a string of physical bookshops in the US.

Back in October, Amazon said that revenues from Whole Foods had significantly bolstered results in its third financial quarter to the end of September. Overall group revenue rose by 34 per cent to $43.7bn, beating analyst expectations, while sales at Whole Foods hit $1.3bn.

Amazon’s soaring success over the last few decades has propelled founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos to the top of the world’s rich list. According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Mr Bezos had an estimated total net worth of around $109bn on Monday.