Pick and Go: Scanning is no longer necessary, cashiers swap supermarkets against cameras

Pick and Go without friction

Tesco, a UK-based company in 11 countries, is testing a boxless store concept that goes beyond the Amazon solution.

Tesco does not rely on barcodes, RFID smart tags or customer scanning.

Try to trade your crates for cameras with Amazon and supermarkets

Tesco is one of the many grocers who test non-crate stores with cameras that track what buyers choose. They just pay when they leave their house.

Tesco's 4,000-square-foot test shop uses 150 ceiling-mounted cameras to generate a three-dimensional view of products from the shelves. In its recent demo, the Tesco system detected customers walking around the store. She also identified a group of products when a person holding them stood in front of a screen and calculated their total price. Tesco plans to identify buyers through an app or a loyalty card when they enter the store and then upload their app when they leave.

Tesco told investors that its method cost a tenth of the systems used by its competitors, in part because it used only cameras. Amazon Go uses cameras and sensors to track buyers' choices. Amazon customers scan a QR code at a door when they enter a store, and then retire once the operation is complete.

The French retail giant, Carrefour SA, is also testing in at least two stores where cameras record what has been removed from the shelves and where customers are billed automatically upon departure. Carrefour is working with French startup Qopius Technology, whose cameras and software can read labels on products.

limitations

At the moment, Tesco's pick and go is only used in smaller stores and remains a test.

And what about something like a bunch of bananas or a handful of potatoes?

The technology seems better suited to department stores that do not have items at the weigh-in price and for which it would be easier to place an RFID tag.

Again, who needs department stores? Amazon and online retailers are killing these stores.

The bottom line is the same in both cases, the end of the cashiers arrives.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock