Episode 19: Amazon Fresh

Join Andrew Grant and Darren A. Smith in the nineteenth episode of Grocery Guru. Today, the topic of discussion is the new Amazon Fresh store in Ealing, London and its innovative new checkoutless and frictionless operation.

You Can Read the Full Amazon Fresh Episode Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Welcome to episode 19 with the Grocery Guru, that is Andrew Grant. Andrew, how are you?

Andrew Grant:

Morning, Darren. Yeah. Very good thank you. Very good indeed.

Darren A. Smith:

Hey, hey. Good, good. Our topic this week, I believe is something to do with our friends at Amazon. Is that correct?

Andrew Grant:

Well, I think yeah, we try and make these things as topical as possible, and I don't think many people could have missed the fact that Amazon Fresh opened their first... Well, their first physical store, actually a physical food store in the U.K. yesterday, in Ealing.

Darren A. Smith:

Okay. Right, okay.

Andrew Grant:

On top of that, it happens to be one of these checkout less... Where you don't even have to scan the products, there's so much Artificial Intelligence technology in the store watching you, that it knows exactly what you pick up and charges you post your visit, which is quite clever.

Checkout just got fancy

 

Darren A. Smith:

It is. And I've got this article. This is the BBC's article, which you sent me yesterday across to discuss. And I can see some new terms coming out like, "Till-less. Checkout less."

Andrew Grant:

Yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

They're terms that are coming. That's what Amazon's driving here. And as you say, it's opened in Ealing. And you walk in, they scan you as you walk in, you grab your products and just walk out?

Andrew Grant:

Well, no. Interestingly, it's effectively a members-only club, because you've got to have Prime membership in order to be able to register before you go in. And I can imagine there'll be quite a few people wanted to grab a sandwich or grab a can of something and the barriers won't let them in because they're not a Prime member.

Darren A. Smith:

Never thought of that.

Andrew Grant:

Which yeah, would be quite interesting. So yeah, effectively, it's a members-only. A bit like a Costco, but on a smaller scale.

Darren A. Smith:

All right. So we've got Amazon Fresh with their first store in the U.K. It's in Ealing. Till-less. I'm just picking up some things here. It says, "Its first, just-walk-out shop outside the U.S." There's also some terms like, "Frictionless," that Amazon Fresh is putting out there. "Frictionless shopping." Never thought of that.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. Do you know what? Is that the big thing? I mean, I think yesterday will go down as a seismic change in U.K. retail, and I think I know that sounds very grand, but not because of a checkout less store. A lot of people will think it's very trendy, very hip and very easy. There will be some people who... And the press was full of it yesterday. Big Brother's arrived. Infringement on our civil liberties, being filmed picking stuff. And I don't think many people will worry about that.

Andrew Grant:

But hey, checkout less store, what's it going to save you? At busy times in a Tesco Express or a Sainsbury's Local, you may be two minutes waiting, to wait for the self-scanner. So I don't think that is going to be the game-changer, the fact it's checkout less. The game-changer is how many of these things suddenly appear on our high streets and how fast will Amazon roll this out?

Darren A. Smith:

And that's the worry, isn't it? Because they've barely made a dent in the U.K. grocery market, but they've got the cash, they've got the position, they've got the status, the experience, the speed to go, "Boom," and grab our high street.

Andrew Grant:

Well, look at what they did to bookshops. I mean, they started with books. They've killed the high street bookstore, effectively.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah.

Andrew Grant:

Absolutely. What are they worth?