Tesco has just opened its first cashless store in central London, following the trend that other retailers picked up.
Consumers will have the option to either pay digitally or use self-service tills at the store. However, the store emphasised that cash payments are not accepted.
Additionally, two of the till points are staffed due to cigarettes and alcohol purchases.
“We’re pleased to be opening this cashless store to help customers to check out and pay quickly,” Tesco said.
This will be Tesco’s second cashless store, having already opened one in 2018 at Welwyn Garden City headquarters.
The latest addition will be on High Holborn, on the outskirts of the British capital.
Concerns were raised a few ago as it was reported that digital payments could result in several problems as specific age groups do not know how to manage finances digitally and would not be able to cope in a cashless society.
“We need to make sure that this shift [to digital payments] doesn’t leave millions behind,” head of the Financial Ombudsman Service, Natalie Ceeney.
Shoppers appeared to find the cashless store very convenient, highlighted from comments made by billings supervisor, Steve Bugg, who told The Guardian that he had been “in and out of the shop in a couple of minutes. There were no queues … I will definitely be back.”
“It was all very quick, but I did find the scanner was very sensitive, and I paid for some items twice, which rather confused things. It’s just as well I noticed,” claimed barrister, Allie.
Back in January 2018, Amazon opened Go in Seattle – a “shop and walk out”. This led many to push for cashless stores to be introduced in the UK.
Previously, Sainsbury’s stopped its trial of a till-free grocery outlet as “Take-up was not as we had expected and it’s clear that not all our customers are ready for a totally till-free store.”
