CINNCINNATI, OH – With online grocery delivery, mobile apps, and even robots taking our industry by storm–what can’t technology do? As of 2018, add run a grocery store to that list! While cashier-less tech has been rumored to be in the air for a while now after Amazon teased Amazon Go and Walmart joined the bandwagon testing similar technology in a dozen stores, Kroger beats out both competitors and launches its new “Scan, Bag, Go” technology, set to hit stores this year.
Eliminating the hassle of checkout lanes, registers, and cashiers, this technology lets shoppers skip some steps between shopping for groceries and getting their haul to the car.
Using either a handheld scanner provided by Kroger or the retailer’s “Scan, Bag, Go” smartphone app, customers can scan the barcodes of items they wish to purchase as they shop. Not only can the technology alert customers when they walk past an item on their shopping list, it also can keep a running tab of a customer’s total order and offer applicable coupons.
After shoppers are finished scanning all of the items on their list, they can pay for their order at self-checkout registers. However, according to Business Insider, Kroger hopes that soon customers can pay for their groceries via the app instead of waiting in checkout lines of any kind.
Kroger will be the first to offer technology of this kind to a mass market as the chain rolls out its new “Scan, Bag, Go” in 400 of its 2,700 stores.
Will grocery stores soon be operated solely by apps and tech; is this the type of convenience shoppers want? AndNowUKnow will continue to report as the story unfolds.
