Amazon eyes West End location for flagship checkout-free supermarket
Amazon is reportedly planning to open a checkout-free store in the West End as the tech giant looks to expand its supermarket concept to the UK.
The online retailer is eyeing up sites near Oxford Circus for a flagship Amazon Go store, according to reports in the Sunday Telegraph.
Amazon is looking for sites between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet (sq ft) in size, industry sources told the newspaper.
Last week Reuters reported the company is looking to open branches in airports across the US as it looks to target time-pressed travellers.
Amazon Go first opened in the US in January and now has seven stores in Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle, which have been largely aimed at city workers looking to pick up lunch on the go.
Amazon is planning a vast expansion of the supermarkets and aims to open 3,000 by 2021, according to Bloomberg.
The supermarket concept scraps checkouts, instead using cameras and sensors to track items removed from shelves. The customer is then billed after leaving the store.
Nick Carroll, senior retail analyst at Mintel, said: “Amazon has long used the UK as a test-bed for bringing innovations from its US business to Europe, from Prime to Amazon Fresh, and it looks like Amazon Go will be the latest initiative to hit these shores.”
“While we may not see hundreds of Amazon Go stores across the UK in the short term, there is interest in this type of tech-driven convenience store, particularly among the younger generation,” he added.
A spokesperson for Amazon said the company does not comment on rumours and speculation.