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Finally, a fruit scanner that will tell you if your avocados are ripe
The OneThird freshness scanners use proprietary algorithms and near infrared lasers to tell you if your guacamole will be a success or not.
Amazon's cashierless tech could be ready for full-size supermarkets
Planning documents for a Connecticut location include a similar setup to Amazon Go outlets.
Amazon UK's first checkout-free Fresh grocery store opens in London
Amazon has opened its first checkout-free Go grocery store in the UK in the West London borough of Ealing.
Amazon may open checkout-free supermarkets early next year
There have been plenty of rumors about Amazon's plans to shake up the grocery industry with cashierless stores. The latest is that Amazon plans to launch checkout-free supermarkets in the first quarter of 2020. The company may also license its Amazon Go cashierless tech to other retailers, a person close to the project told Bloomberg.
The UK gets its first checkout-free grocery store
The days of spending your precious lunchbreak standing in line for a sandwich are increasingly numbered, as supermarket chain Sainsbury's has launched the UK's first ever till-free grocery store. The busy store in London's Holborn Circus has been given a mobile-first makeover, so customers can scan and pay for their goods via their smartphone, while staff previously chained to checkout areas are free to spend time helping customers on the shop floor.
Ford's futuristic shopping cart can brake on its own
Ford has been applying its automotive expertise to create some amusing, impractical devices like a conveyor-belt bed and noise-cancelling doghouse, because why the heck not? Now, the automaker has come up with another doozy. It's a self-braking shopping cart based on its Pre-Collision Assist technology that's designed to prevent any supermarket mayhem. If your kids use it as a skateboard or if it runs away in the parking lot, a sensor can detect objects in the way and bring it to a smooth stop.
Tesco Direct to close as it falls to other online retailers
Online shop Tesco Direct -- the non-food outlet of British supermarket Tesco -- will close this summer. The store, which sells electronics, clothing, sports goods and video games has "no route to profitability" according to bosses. The site and its distribution center will close on July 9th, with 500 workers facing redundancy.
Tesco's mobile payments app is now called Pay+
Tesco's in-house mobile payment app PayQwiq has been around for a few years now, though it was only accepted in all Tesco stores from the beginning of this year. PayQwiq doesn't roll off the tongue all that well, but today it assumes a new name: Tesco Pay+. As always, the app functions as a virtual Clubcard and keeps a record of your receipts, but its main purpose is allowing you to brandish your phone at checkouts to pay for up to £250 of shopping with a tap.
M&S is tentatively trialling one-hour food deliveries
Marks and Spencer (M&S) is finally coming round to the idea of letting customers order food online for speedy home delivery. The upmarket retailer has confirmed it's taking some very tentative first steps with a home delivery service in the Camden area of London, and a collection option in Woodley, near Reading. This is only being offered to "selected Sparks members" for now, though, making it a particularly limited and exclusive trial.
Ocado’s Alexa skill lets you call out your shopping list
With Amazon now a major player in the UK grocery market, supermarkets have been forced to adapt or risk losing some of that all important market share. Some have mimicked their rival by offering one-hour deliveries, while others have attempted to match the online retailer's technological prowess. Already a pioneer of grocery-sorting robots and autonomous deliveries, Ocado has stepped things up a notch, today becoming the first UK supermarket to launch a dedicated Amazon Alexa skill.
Tesco's same-day grocery delivery option is going UK-wide
Tesco is today claiming a win over supermarket rivals and the logistical magicians at Amazon after kicking off the expansion of same-day grocery deliveries to cover the whole of the UK -- or 99 percent of households, at least. More than 300 stores are preparing to ship your weekly shop that very evening, provided you order before 1PM that is. There's no item limit, though the delivery fee can range from £3 to £8 unless you're a Delivery Saver member, who can enjoy the service free for a limited time.
Tesco is secretly testing one-hour shopping deliveries
It's no longer enough for supermarkets to offer online ordering and home deliveries. Amazon raised the bar two years ago with one-hour Prime Now grocery drop-offs, and since starting out in London, it's expanded to other cities while its product selection has grown. Sainsbury's was the first supermarket to rival Amazon in the capital, but it turns out that behind the scenes, Tesco has also been testing a one-hour delivery service of its own.
Tesco's mobile payment app is ready for everyone
To keep up in the supermarket wars, Tesco is rolling out support for its PayQwiq app nationwide. That means you can walk into any UK store, peruse the shelves for your weekly shop and then pay with the app at checkout. You can spend up to £250 in one sitting -- considerably more than a contactless card -- and get a copy of your receipt beamed across instantaneously. Better yet, your all-important Clubcard points will be calculated and banked automatically, removing the need to mess around with receipts. Yes, it's another app to keep on your smartphone, but if Tesco is your supermarket of choice it's probably worth checking out.
Amazon Prime Now delivers Morrisons products in an hour
To help expand its grocery delivery service quickly, Amazon teamed up with Morrisons, the UK's fourth biggest supermarket chain. It's allowed the online retail giant to add lots of fresh and frozen products to Amazon Pantry and Amazon Fresh, as well as open hundreds of in-store lockers in select Morrisons locations. Today, though, the two companies are expanding that agreement with the announcement that Prime customers can now choose from thousands of additional products to be delivered in under an hour.
Tesco trials receipts sent directly to your smartphone
Some receipts are just about worth keeping -- you may have second thoughts on the fit of those new jeans, after all -- but the scrolls you receive at supermarket checkouts are basically just paper waste. Every under-the-kitchen-sink plastic bag has one of these unread companions, but things could get a bit lonelier under there if Tesco's latest tech trial is successful. At one store in Harlow, Essex, the supermarket is testing out a paperless receipt system that skips the printer and sends it straight to your phone instead.
Sainsbury's expands one-hour deliveries in London
Sainsbury's will begin quietly bowing out of the digital entertainment game next month, shutting down its video streaming service and music, e-book and magazine stores. But while the supermarket is admitting defeat in one area, it's doubling efforts in another. Having trialed one-hour grocery deliveries in Wandsworth over the past few months, as of tomorrow Sainsbury's is expanding the service to cover a much larger area of London, spanning Wimbledon to the West End.
Sainsbury's to close its digital entertainment business
First it was Tesco, now it's Sainsbury's. The British supermarket will soon be closing its streaming and digital storefront services, called Entertainment on Demand collectively. These covered eBooks, music, movies and TV shows, and digital magazines. In a note to customers, the company said it was a "difficult decision," made "following a detailed review of our service." In short, the numbers just didn't add up. Or, looking forward, it wasn't worth the investment to compete with more popular and aggressive services, such as Amazon, Apple and Netflix.
Morrisons to open 'hundreds' of in-store Amazon Lockers
In the UK, Morrisons and Amazon have become unlikely allies. After partnering up on Amazon Pantry, the supermarket chain has revealed new plans to open "hundreds" of Amazon Lockers inside its stores. The complete roll-out will be "the UK's largest collection" of pick-up points, it claims, giving Amazon customers another useful place to retrieve their online orders. Morrisons will be hoping to lure these fly-by shoppers into making additional purchases in-store, thereby boosting its own revenue. It's a bold, but sensibly strategy -- if you're in the supermarket already, doesn't it make sense to pick up some supplies before heading home?
Amazon Fresh expected to launch in the UK this month
Although Amazon UK has made a small foray into the world of groceries, it has yet to fully take on Britain's supermarkets with the launch of its Fresh service. That could soon change, however, after The Grocer got wind that the company has already begun servicing a small number of customers from its east London depot. It's also apparently told suppliers to begin deliveries within the next couple of weeks.
Amazon UK to deliver fresh food with new Morrisons deal
Instead of taking the UK's supermarkets head-on, Amazon has decided to ally with them in order to boost the popularity of its Pantry service. The site, launched in November last year, allows Prime subscribers to remotely order more than 4,000 products with next-day delivery. Now, it's announced a deal with Morrisons -- a heavyweight supermarket in the UK -- that will add "hundreds" of new products to its platform. They'll also be available through Prime Now, a one-hour delivery service that's available in a smattering of cities. Morrisons says the new additions will appear on Amazon "in the coming months" and include fresh and frozen goods.
