You might have heard about Amazon Go, the 'just walk out' style of supermarket, but now there's a very British rival that's open in London's Holborn: Tesco GetGo.

GetGo aims for a checkout-free experience, with customers able to download the Tesco Grocery & Clubcard app - available for Apple iOS and Android devices - and then simply walk out of the store after making their selections.

Cameras around the GetGo store, combined with artificial intelligence (AI), will automatically recognise what you've packed into your basket and then you can leave for automated billing via the app.

It's not totally checkout-free, though, as restricted items such as tobacco and alcohol, require a staffed station to verify customers' legal ages prior to such sales.

Tesco GetGo arrives after trials of a similar setup at the supermarket giant's headquarters, in Welwyn Garden City, were a success. It's a little on the heels of Amazon, of course, as the US giant has already rolled out many of its Go stores in the USA, before its first Amazon Fresh equivalent opened in Ealing, London, back in March 2021.

So is this the future of shopping? Tesco says it's going to run the one GetGo store trial to see "how customers respond". If it's a success then we'll surely see more contact-free and checkout-free experiences roll out across various parts of the country. And we suspect its main rivals, such as Sainsbury's and Waitrose, won't be too far behind either...