Rollout of Amazon Fresh Stores is being Re-evaluated

Last year, Amazon opened its first Amazon Fresh store in the UK. In the meantime, it has opened another 18 around London. All stores have the “just walk out” technology, where customers enter the store by opening the door with a QR code generated by the Amazon app on their smart phone.

In the store, customers just take the items they want off the shelves and put them in their carrier bag. Machine-vision technology in the store record which products have been taken. When the customer has all the items, he just walks out the store and Amazon bills them electronically.

Upon the launch of the first store in the UK, Amazon had targeted hundreds of Fresh stores. Now, while the number of UK subscribers is decreasing and there is less footfall in the stores, the retailer increases the annual Prime subscription from £79 to £95. Amidst worker unrest in its distribution centers over low pay rises, Amazon is said to be reevaluating its expansion plans.