[Electronics-Talk] FW: [GTTsupport] Sobeys unveils Canada's 1st smart grocery cart, promising a 'frictionless' shopping experience

[Eric Calhoun]

Original Message: 
From: "Albert Ruel" <albertruel at gmail.com>
To: GTTsupport at groups.io
Subject: [GTTsupport] Sobeys unveils Canada's 1st smart grocery cart,
promising a 'frictionless' shopping experience
Date: 
Wed, 23 Oct 2019 21:01:48 -0700

Well, I wonder if the ACA will ensure that this new system will be
accessible? 

Sobeys unveils Canada's 1st smart grocery cart, promising a
'frictionless'
shopping experience 



The high-tech devices allow customers to shop, weigh and pay for their
food



Nick Boisvert 

CBC News, Oct. 23, 2019 5:42 PM ET | Last Updated: 3 hours ago



The humble shopping cart, long known for squeaky wheels and uneven
steering,
is undergoing a high-tech makeover at a suburban grocery store west of
Toronto.

Grocery giant Sobeys Inc. unveiled what it calls Canada's first ever
"smart"
shopping cart at its store in Oakville, Ont., on Wednesday.



The carts feature multiple cameras, a scanner, scale and payment system.
A
touchscreen just above the push bar displays on-board items and in-store
promotions.

Sobeys executive Mathieu Lacoursiere said the new devices are more than a
gimmick, and that they'll make the traditional checkout experience
"frictionless and seamless for our customers.

"Think about the shopping cart; it hasn't changed for dozens if not
hundreds
of years," he added.

The store in Oakville's Glen Abbey neighbourhood will roll out 10 of the
new
smart carts as part of a pilot project. They'll be available to customers
in
mid-November following a staff training period.

Sobeys owns or franchises more than 1,500 grocery stores across Canada,
including those under the Safeway, IGA, FreshCo, Foodland and Thrifty
Foods
banners. The company has not yet revealed plans to expand the smart cart
program.

How it works

The carts - easily distinguished by Sobeys branding and white plastic
fairings - are slightly smaller than their analog predecessors, but
significantly more capable.

For items with a barcode, a customer simply scans the code and drops the
item inside the cart.

Produce and bulk items priced according to weight can similarly be tossed
inside the cart, where a scale that runs under the length of the basket
calculates a price. It resets after each item is added.

Customer Stuart Eddy said he was impressed after adding a bag of bulk
almonds to a smart cart that was already full of groceries. He said the
interface was intuitive and fast.

"It's better than the self-checkout," he said with some surprise. "It's
fantastic."

Software updates expected within the next year will allow the cart to
recognize items via basket-facing cameras, meaning customers won't have to
scan them.

Caper, the New York-based company that manufactures the carts, says the
devices will also use artificial intelligence and machine learning to
recommend ingredients for specific recipes and complementary items.

For example, Caper co-founder Ahmed Beshry said a customer could add a
pack
of spaghetti to the cart, at which point the screen might suggest a pasta
sauce to go with it.

The goal, he said, is to create "the perfect shopper experience."

'A step further' than the competition

The Sobeys smart carts are rolling out as major retailers across North
American are competing to improve the traditional checkout experience.

Last year, Amazon opened its first checkout-free grocery store in
Seattle,
which uses an array of cameras to track what shoppers remove from shelves
as
they move through the store. Shoppers are billed after leaving the store
with credit cards already on file.

Beshry said the Sobeys smart carts go "a step further" than the Amazon
system, since the carts will be able to recommend food and locate items
within the store.

"We can actually interact with the customer as they're shopping," he told
CBC Toronto.

In Canada, self-checkout kiosks have also become the norm in many grocery
and drug stores, though some customers have expressed frustration at
increasing retail automation and the threat of job losses.

Sobeys says 'it's not about cutting' jobs

Sobeys insists the smart carts are not intended to permanently displace
human workers. Instead, the company says the technology will allow
employees
to spend more time interacting with customers.

"We're actually able to free up some employees . to be on the floor
answering customers, talking about the food, helping them choose a recipe
or
a product," Lacoursiere said.

"It's not about cutting."

But some Sobeys customers have doubts, and envision a future shopping
experience with fewer human workers around.

"It probably would take away jobs, and it's really sad," said Maria
Balay,
who avoids the store's existing self-checkout kiosks.

Her husband said he, too, enjoys talking to staff at the store, but he
was
nonetheless impressed by the cart.

"I'll have to try it a few times," he said. "And if I like it, I'll
definitely use it."



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/sobeys-smart-grocery-cart-1.5332658?c

mp=newsletter-news-digests-toronto

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