In Munich, discounter Netto has started testing a convenience store where customers do not need to go to the cash register. The retailer claims to be the first food discounter worldwide to use this technology.
Hybrid concept
The 250 sqm Netto Pick & Go uses sensors and cameras to record the purchases of customers who log in using the Netto app on their smartphone. Shoppers can freely put products in their bags and leave the store via the express exit without passing through the checkout: the credit is automatically deducted via the payment function in the app.
This is a hybrid shop concept: customers who do not wish to use the app can still go to a staffed checkout. The technology in this Netto Pick & Go comes from the Israeli company Trigo, which recently also set up similar shops for Rewe in Cologne and for Tesco in London. The concept is GDPR-proof, the retailer emphasises: the data is anonymised and there is no facial recognition or other biometric data.
Hype in food retail
Netto – a chain with over 4,000 stores, owned by the Edeka group – claims to be the first food discounter in the world with such a cashierless shop. Aldi is already testing an automated shop in London, but that is only open to its own employees. Early next year, Aldi will open a till-less pilot store in Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Such cashierless shops have been a real hype in the food retail world since the opening of the first Amazon Go in 2018. Sainsbury’s, for example, is testing Amazon technology in one of its own shops in West London. Recently, Carrefour opened a contactless store in Paris where shoppers can shop in ten seconds and only need ten seconds to pay – even without using an app. And in November, Belgian Colruyt Group opened its first autonomous city shop in the centre of Ghent. In this OKay Direct, shoppers can shop 24/7 with the Xtra app.
