{"id":27636,"date":"2022-01-11T10:23:12","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T10:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/?p=27636"},"modified":"2022-01-11T10:23:12","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T10:23:12","slug":"do-smart-supermarkets-herald-the-end-of-shopping-as-we-know-it-retail-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/11\/do-smart-supermarkets-herald-the-end-of-shopping-as-we-know-it-retail-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Do smart supermarkets herald the end of shopping as we know it? | Retail industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

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W<\/span><\/span>elcome to the supermarkets of the future. They may look and feel like the supermarkets we are all used to \u2013 and stock the same bread, butter and bananas \u2013 but these shops are now fitted out with more than \u00a31m of the latest technology that their bosses promise will put an end to our biggest frustration (queueing) and our most persistent crime (shoplifting).<\/span><\/p>\n

Jill French, a legal secretary in her 30s, wearing a sharp navy suit and matching beret, has just left a Tesco Express on London\u2019s Holborn Viaduct empty-handed. It\u2019s coming up to 6.30pm on a Thursday and, like dozens of others, French has popped in for a few essentials on her way home. \u201cI just went in to grab pasta, milk and some broccoli,\u201d she says. \u201cBut there was such a queue I got frustrated and walked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

An eight-minute walk away is another near-identical Tesco Express where there are no queues. This shop is the cleverest of all the 2,700 Tescos in the UK.<\/p>\n

There are no checkouts (self-scanning or traditional), no checkout assistants, and \u2013 in theory \u2013 no chance of shoplifting. This Tesco, called GetGo, is filled with thousands of cameras, weighted shelves and artificial-intelligence technology that watches your every move, figures out what you\u2019ve bought and bills you directly as you walk out.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just Tesco that is trialling these new \u201csmart\u201d supermarkets. Retailers across the UK, and the rest of the world, are racing to deploy rival technology. The model for all of them is similar.<\/p>\n

First, you must download an app, register a credit card and scan a QR code on your phone to enter through train station-style gates. Barriers prevent those without the app from entering the shop. Once inside, the technology follows you around the store recording every item you pick up (and put back). When you\u2019re done you just walk out and after a few minutes your phone alerts you as to how much you\u2019ve spent.<\/p>\n

The supermarkets say time-pressed, easily frustrated people are crying out for a better, hassle-free shopping experience, and if these trial stores are successful they will roll out the technology across the country.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost 74 years since the first British supermarket opened in Manor Park, east London. At this branch of the London Cooperative Society, customers could walk round the store and take items off the shelves by themselves. It was revolutionary. In the years before, shoppers had to present the shopkeeper at a counter with a list of items that their assistants would fetch. Choosing your own tomatoes was banned, and touching the products could lead to prosecution.<\/p>\n

As with many innovations, the \u201cself-service\u201d supermarket concept was exported from the US, where retail pioneer Clarence Saunders<\/a> opened Piggly Wiggly in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1916. If you\u2019re wondering about the name, Saunders said it was named \u201cso people will ask that very question\u201d.<\/p>\n

Today all shops, big or small, follow a similar concept. But our retail needs are evolving.<\/p>\n

The days of \u201cthe big weekly shop\u201d are over, with Britons going to a supermarket at least twice a week, according to YouGov, while a growing minority admit to popping in more than twice a day.<\/p>\n

The new generation of AI stores is meant to respond to these changes, but are there dangers in tinkering with one of the last remaining social levellers?<\/p>\n

Supermarkets are more than just places to buy food; they provide a space for a daily mixing of people of different classes and backgrounds in our increasingly siloed world.<\/p>\n

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<\/svg><\/span>\u2018All of the supermarkets say the technology is designed to make shoppers\u2019 lives easier, but experts say the real desire is to improve their bottom line as they can cut back on the wage bill and save some of the \u00a35.5bn lost every year to shoplifting and employee theft.\u2019<\/span> Illustration: Pete Reynolds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If AI takes over, will those without access to the latest smartphone be barred from the great supermarket melting pot? Will lonely older people lose their friendly chat with the cashier, which could be their only conversation of the day?<\/p>\n

Research backs up the retailers\u2019 hunch about our frustrations with shopping. A recent survey by packaging company DS Smith found that more than a third of 2,000 people polled would walk out of the store rather than wait five minutes in a checkout queue, and 46% said they were so irritated by queuing that they would consider not coming back to the shop again.<\/p>\n

Laura Saunter, a senior retail analyst at the consumer trends analytic firm WGSN, says supermarkets have spent years trying to bust queues because they are the customers\u2019 \u201cnumber one pain point\u201d.<\/p>\n

Many of us are now so impatient that waiting a few minutes for a checkout assistant to become free can feel like an unacceptable hassle in a world where technology dominates and instant gratification is expected.<\/p>\n