Sainsbury's Launches U.K.'s First Amazon-Style Till-Free Grocery Store

By Adam Clark

J Sainsbury PLC (SBRY.LN) said Monday it has opened the U.K.'s first cashierless grocery store, as British supermarkets race to emulate Amazon.com Inc.'s (AMZN) automation technology.

Sainsbury's said its convenience store at Holborn Circus in London has been remodeled so customers will scan and pay for their shopping entirely through its SmartShop app.

The shop will have no checkout area or tills but there will be a helpdesk for customers wanting to pay by cash or card.

Amazon Go cashierless stores are already operating in several U.S. cities as the technology giant builds on its advance into food retail. Following Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods in 2017, analysts have widely speculated that it could choose to expand in the U.K, where it already has an online grocery service.

Sainsbury's said it will initially carry out the cashier-free "experiment" for three months.

"We'll be with our customers and colleagues all the way over the coming months, iterating continuously based on their feedback before we decide if, how and where we make this experience more widely available," Chief Digital Officer Clodagh Moriarty said.

Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN), the U.K.'s largest supermarket chain, said last year it was testing similar technology in a staff store at its own headquarters. The Co-operative Group has also a launched "pay-in-aisle" mobile app, citing a falling number of cash transactions.

Write to Adam Clark at [e-mail]; @AdamDowJones

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 29, 2019 08:10 ET (12:10 GMT)

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