Amazon launches 'cheapest' meal deal at £1 - but there's a catch

Amazon’s convenience store brand Amazon Fresh has launched a £1 meal deal, including wraps, sausage rolls and hot drinks. The move by the web giant's high street outlets comes as it bids to tempt people away from the supermarkets and big coffee shop chains.

However, there is a catch that - at least for now - as you can't get it online. Instead, you will need to go to an Amazon Fresh store.

Alas, except for one outlet in Kent, all of them are in London. Amazon Fresh stores use Amazon's Just Walk Out technology, which allows customers to walk out of the store without queuing at the till or using a self-service checkout.

Visitors scan a smartphone app when they enter the store and sensors along product shelves detect which items are being bought, which are then charged to the shopper's account. Customers can purchase a main, snack and drink from the retailer’s £3.90 meal deal range for just a pound until January 31, as part of what Amazon is dubbing “London’s Best Value Meal Deal”.

As part of the £1 offer, customers can enjoy a hot drink, including Oatly coffee options at no extra cost. Iced drinks are available at Amazon Fresh’s Holborn and Liverpool Street stores. The meal deal is available at Amazon Fresh stores at Southwark, Holborn, Moorgate, Wood Wharf, Euston, Liverpool Street, Monument, Hoxton, East Croydon, West Hampstead and Aldgate East.

Customers need to claim the deal by first visiting here and pay at the gates or self-checkout using the Amazon app. Within the deal are a selection of Amazon Fresh own label ‘ByAmazon’ mains, including ByAmazon Chicken Caesar & Bacon Wrap, ByAmazon Sausage Roll and ByAmazon Arabiatta Chicken Pasta Salad, which were all bestsellers in 2024. The snack options include brands such as Huel, Bol and Nourish.

The retailer’s £5.50 premium meal deal isn’t included within the offer, and the £1 meal deal is only available in store and not online or via Deliveroo. The company launched its first Amazon Fresh store in the UK – which was its first physical retail site outside North America – in Ealing in 2021.

Its new high-tech outlets were supposed to revolutionise shopping trips and Amazon was expected to roll out hundreds of outlets in cities across the UK. However, this has not materialised, while some outlets have closed. In November, Amazon opened its first new Amazon Fresh store in a year in West Hampstead. It brings Amazon’s total physical store count in the UK to 21, all of which are in London except for the Sevenoaks store in Kent.

A spokesman said: "There’s something for every taste bud. From eating healthy to saving money after the festive period, Amazon Fresh is helping Londoners beat the January blues one meal deal at a time.”

Amazon Fresh joins Iceland in aiming to deliver value for shoppers in January, with the supermarket kickstarting the year with its “biggest-ever deals event” to support families through the month.

It has expanded its £1 or less range to now include over 1,000 products. At the same time, Poundland introduced a further 900 products to its £1 or less range this week.