Amazon’s
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And while the company is at pains to point that the decision is an adjustment to its store estate rather than reflecting a downscaling of its ambitions, the promised 100-store roll-out remains hardly off the starting blocks.
Instead Amazon’s dream to disrupt the major grocery chains in the same way that it has created Bedlam in just about every other sector remain a distant ambition and, whatever it says, the long-term future of its grocery stores is surely anything but certain.
So, what has actually happened?
Amazon announced this week that its first checkout-free store in the U.K., which opened in west London just over two years ago, had been closed by the online retail giant.
The Amazon Fresh shop opened in Ealing Broadway, West London, in March 2021 to great fanfare and was the company’s first Just Walk Out grocery store outside of the U.S. However, it permanently shut on Sunday along with two other Amazon Fresh stores in Wandsworth and East Sheen, also both in London.
Another outlet in East London, Amazon Fresh Dalston, was closed earlier this year, less than 18 months after the store was first opened.
Amazon Stores Open And Close
With the four latest closures, the company has a total of 17 stores across the capital, including central locations in Southwark, Euston, Chancery Lane and Kensington, with just its Sevenoaks store outside London, in the commuter-belt county of Kent.
Amazon said that the stores were closed after an assessment of its “portfolio of stores”, but insisted that new outlets were planned.
Speaking about the closures, Amazon told U.K. news service the BBC: “Like any physical retailer, we periodically assess our portfolio of stores and make optimization 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.”
It added it was “committed to our investment in grocery and, as we grow, we’ll continue to learn which locations and features resonate most with customers”.
As many as 100 Amazon Fresh stores had been planned for the UK, but just two new sites have opened recently in London, in Croydon to the city’s south and at Monument.
The company has also said that it will open new Fresh stores in Moorgate and Liverpool Street, London, but has not confirmed exactly when.
Palm Payment At Whole Foods
Separately, Amazon has confirmed that it will enable shoppers pay with their palms at all Whole Foods stores by the end of the year.
Amazon One is a biometric technology that lets users enter and pay for items at stores by placing a palm over a scanning device. Shoppers first have to connect their palm to a stored credit card. After that, they can pay by simply waving their hand over the kiosk.
The technology was first introduced by the company in its Go cashierless stores, but later Amazon began rolling the innovation out to Whole Foods supermarkets.
Amazon One is now available in more than 200 Whole Foods locations, and the company said it will be on offer in all of the grocer’s circa 500 stores in the U.S. in the coming months.
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