Tesco GetGo store in Holborn is latest to let shoppers walk straight out – but not everyone likes the frictionless experience
“Don’t worry, you’re just a dot on a screen like in Pac-Man,” says Bilal, a Tesco shop assistant, when a customer expresses concern about the hundreds of cameras tracking them as they browse in the new “checkout-free” store in central London.
From the outside this Tesco Express on High Holborn looks identical to thousands of others across the country. But inside there are no tills and no self-checkout machines. Instead you scan a QR code on your phone to gain entry, and a complex system of cameras and weighted shelves figure out what you have picked up. Once you’re done you just walk out and your phone (eventually) buzzes to tell you how much you’ve spent.
