Tesco trials virtual shop at airport

TELEPRINTER:WE'VE ALL BEEN there – coming home from holidays and realising as you turn the key in the door that there's nothing to eat in the house and you've to ditch the flip flops and the luggage in the hall and go back out to the shops to get some provisions in.

Tesco is wondering if the spectre of an empty fridge is enough to make you do your supermarket shop at the airport before flying off and is trialling a virtual supermarket at Gatwick airport in London for two weeks until August 19th.

The Tesco virtual store at Gatwick is made up of a series of walls featuring screen images of around 80 products.

Customers, who will have already downloaded the Tesco App, can browse the products by touching the screens and then, with their smartphone, scan product barcodes to add them to their basket.

They then select a home delivery slot and book a date, to coincide with their tanned arrival home, up to three weeks away.

The idea is that you shop before you go on holidays – around 30,000 people depart from Gatwick’s North Terminal each day and each has an average of 70 minutes of downtime while waiting for flights.

Last year Tesco launched the world’s first virtual store in South Korea, which allows commuters to shop in subways and at bus stops by pointing their mobile phones at billboards to select products for purchase.