Tesco has become the latest retailer to open a checkout-free store in the UK. Replacing traditional tills with high-tech cameras, weight sensors, and a mobile app, the supermarket giant is launching its first high street store trial, called GetGo, in London on Tuesday.
Tesco said it was aiming to “improve the shopping experience” and save customers’ time.
The firm – which is one of the UK’s largest employers – stressed that the move away from cashiers will not reduce the number of staff in stores, with the High Holborn site continuing to employ 22 workers, which it said is in line with other convenience stores.
It comes after Aldi opened its own till-free shop last month in Greenwich, with Amazon having launched its first Amazon Go grocery shop seven months prior in Ealing, before expanding to five more sites in the capital.
Morrisons, Lidl, and the Co-op have also trialed checkout-free technology in their stores.
Sainsbury’s, however, became the first UK supermarket to open a checkout-free store in April 2019, also in Holborn. But it abandoned the project five months later, saying: “Take-up was not as we had expected and it’s clear that not all our customers are ready for a totally till-free store.”
Tesco is reported to have been testing its “frictionless” technology at a trial site within the supermarket group’s headquarters in Welwyn Garden City since 2019.
The retailer said the technology had now been lifted from the trial site after a lengthy period of testing and improvements.
To shop in the new store, shoppers will need to use the Tesco app, which will be scanned as they enter the building. They will then pick up the items they wish to buy and walk straight out of the store, receiving a receipt and being charged for the products once they have left.