Cameras reportedly are taking a more important place in the world of grocery, perhaps to the detriment of cashiers. That’s according to The Wall Street Journal, which said that the technology, “pioneered” by Amazon for its Amazon Go grocery stores, will allow such merchants to “cut costs and alleviate lines as they face an evolving threat from the eCommerce giant.”
The effort is unfolding in Europe, the paper reported. “European efforts to scale up the technology in traditional stores —economically and without upsetting privacy advocates — will likely be closely watched in the U.S. Grocers in the U.K. often pioneer new technology like online delivery and self-payment kiosks that their American peers eventually adopt.”
More specifically, a project from U.K.-based Tesco involves opening its self-styled “pick and go” or “frictionless shopping” store to the public next year after testing with employees. Eventually it wants to use the technology, developed by Israeli startup Trigo Vision, in more of its smaller grocery stores.”
The Tesco plan, according to the newspaper, makes use of “150 ceiling-mounted cameras to generate a three-dimensional view of products as they are taken off shelves. In its recent demo, Tesco’s system detected shoppers as they walked around the store. It also identified a group of products when a person holding them stood in front of a screen, tallying up their total price.” The project also could grow to include app or loyalty card identification of shoppers to further the frictionless commerce and payments ideal.
