A Morrisons supermarket in Ashton-on-Ribble, near Preston, has become the first UK store to trial "smart trolleys" that let shoppers scan, weigh and total their items automatically without visiting a checkout. The AI-powered Caper trolleys, made by Instacart, register products as they're placed in the cart and suggest related items, with payment completed via the trolley's own screen. Morrisons hopes the technology will succeed where Amazon Fresh's checkout-free stores failed to catch on in Britain, and plans to expand the trolleys to other supermarkets nationwide.

The trolleys, already deployed in more than 100 cities worldwide, are similar to the Dash Cart used in Amazon Fresh stores outside the UK. Customers in Lancashire have given largely positive feedback: one shopper, who is autistic, said the trolleys helped him stick to an £80 budget by visualising spending in real time, while another called them "brilliant" and predicted they would become widespread. Not all reactions were entirely glowing, however, with one first-time user finding the trolley cumbersome to manoeuvre and suggesting a smaller version would encourage repeat use.