There was a buzz outside the new Amazon Fresh store in Ealing, West London. Word had got around about this new till-less shop, the first of its kind in the UK. The concept is cashless – grab what you want and walk out. No checkouts. No queues.
Customers simply need to activate their Amazon app and so-called "Just Walk Out Technology" does the rest.
"I think it is quite seamless, it is a very efficient way of doing groceries especially during COVID-19," said shopper Apple Ines.
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Self-confessed tech geeks Shane and Simon came from the other side of town to test out the tech themselves.
"It was strange not scanning anything but it was good. Pity it wasn't bigger," said Simon.
Shane hopes to see it catching on, with other supermarket chains introducing similar innovations: "I would like it to become standard. It is easy and interesting."
The Amazon Fresh store in London is the first in Europe where customers can purchase goods without having to visit the till. /Niklas Halle'n/AFP
If this is the future of grocery shopping, it might take some getting used to.
"Honestly, it feels like you are stealing," one millennial shopper told CGTN Europe. "Because you're just walking out – I've become so used to scanning," he said.
Already trialed in the US, this is the first time the tech has been applied in a European grocery store.
"It's not a gimmick," said Richard Cuthbertson, director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management. "We see a lot of these stores in China. It's part of the future of grocery shopping and development of retailing, but it is not the whole future."
Most of the technology is in the ceiling – cameras and motions sensors connect with AI to act as shopkeeper. It is very much like what firms like Amazon use in driverless cars. Machine learning means the technology registers if something is taken off the shelf – and if it is put back again – and only charges for what ends up in the bag.
Customers scan a QR code on the way in and then cameras and sensors identifying the items they pick up. /Niklas Halle'n/AFP
Supermarkets have been enjoying strong sales during the pandemic, but it's online grocery sales that have been grabbing a bigger slice of market share. So this move to a bricks-and-mortar physical store by Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, is arguably a bold move.
Is it about saving the high street and supporting local producers by cutting out delivery costs? Or is this a shop window to showcase and sell the technology wholesale?
That's arguably the Ocado business model. Created 20 years ago with the ambitious goal of revolutionizing the online grocery market, Ocado now sees itself as a tech company rather than a retailer. It has done big international deals for its proprietary smart software, with retailers ranging from Marks & Spencer in the UK to U.S. supermarket megachain Kroger.
"Amazon is a technology company," said Cuthbertson. "Just look at the share price, in terms of their revenue and profit reflects that they are a technology company, it does not reflect that they are a retail company. So there is definitely something about a tech play here.
"But I think also that Amazon is a very customer-centric company and there is something also here about connecting with customers," he said. "Capturing more data about customers and understanding that customer journey more."
It's not quite the total surveillance shopping experience – there's no facial recognition... yet. But the Amazon Fresh experience highlights how businesses can use consumer data, and track what we buy. The space is smaller than a typical supermarket, but the disruption potential is big.
Video editing: Patrick Atack and Terry Wilson