Amazon opens second till-free supermarket in UK expansion push  

Amazon Fresh store in Ealing

Credit: HENRY NICHOLLS/Reuters

Amazon has today opened its second till-free grocery store in the UK just weeks after it launched its first site outside of the US in Earling. 

The second Amazon Fresh shop, which has opened in Wembley in north west London, will sell both own-label “By Amazon” products such as milk, butter, eggs as well as established brands.  

The stores use tracking technology to allow customers to walk out without having to go to a checkout to pay for items they have picked up, instead having their Amazon accounts just charged later.

Matt Birch, the director of Amazon Fresh Stores UK, said the company’s technology "enables customers to take what they want and just walk out, making shopping for essential grocery items even more convenient".

Amazon's UK stores will not have any checkouts. Instead, shoppers scan a barcode on their phones to enter and are charged automatically for any items they walk out with

Credit:  HENRY NICHOLLS/Reuters

Amazon has said it is planning to open more of these sites in residential areas across the UK. Prior to the opening earlier this month, Amazon had around 20 grocery stores in the US, but had held back on expanding the business overseas. 

Its move to open more stores comes amid a push to seize more of the grocery market. Last summer, Amazon said it was starting to offer all its Prime customers free grocery delivery, as millions more people turned to online stores for their weekly food shop during pandemic restrictions.

Groceries are  just one of part of Amazon’s business which has seen huge surges in demand during lockdowns, and the company has also experienced sales spikes in its online commerce operations and entertainment. Figures from the company’s UK revenues hit $26.4bn (£19bn) in 2020, which marked the fastest level of growth in all of Amazon’s other major markets. 

Despite this, the company looks set to reduce its UK tax bill, following an announcement in the Budget earlier this year that a new "super-deduction" would be introduced. The proposed measure would allow companies investing in new plant and machinery assets to cut their tax bill by up to 25p for every £1 that they invest.