Supermarket checkouts: soon to be a thing of the past?

Are supermarket checkouts soon to be a thing of the past? Amazon opened a checkout free grocery shop in Seattle and now Tesco and the Co-op are considering bringing similar shopping tech to the UK.

Seattle’s Amazon Go shop opened in January. Shoppers are monitored using cameras and sensors and then the items they choose are charged from their cards as they leave the store. They swipe their way in with the Amazon Go app and are then closely monitored.

This system saw early issues and sometimes sensors would confuse customers of similar builds. While early teething problems can be expected Tesco and the Co-op are looking to bypass them with a simpler checkout free system.

Tesco is testing a system which sees shoppers scan the barcodes of their chosen items using an app on their phones. The Co-op are trialling a similar technology in Manchester.

This would remove the need for shoppers to transfer items from shelf to trolley and then from a trolley to their own bags. Instead items could go straight into their own carrier bags. Tesco and Co-op believe this could make shopping a smoother experience and make their stores more efficient.