Kroger is taking a direct shot at Amazon and Walmart and making checkout lanes obsolete
AP
- Kroger's new "Scan, Bag, Go" technology allows customers to scan and pay for goods as they shop.
- The grocery chain is rolling it out to 400 stores in 2018.
- Amazon revealed plans in December to introduce a similar technology to its own brick-and-mortar grocery concept, called Amazon Go, which is still in the planning phases.
- Walmart is also testing its own cashier-less technology in more than a dozen stores in Texas, Florida, South Dakota, Arkansas, Georgia, and Kentucky.
Kroger is beating Amazon and Walmart in the race to give shoppers a cashier-free shopping experience.
In 2018, the grocery chain is rolling out a new service to 400 stores that will enable shoppers to scan and pay for their items without checkout lanes, registers, or cashiers.
Here's how it works: shoppers scan the barcodes of items they wish to purchase using a handheld scanner, provided by Kroger, or the chain's "Scan, Bag, Go" app on any smartphone.
The technology will keep a running tab of shoppers' total order and offer applicable coupons. It will also eventually alert customers when they walk past an item on their shopping list.
When customers are finished shopping, they can visit a self-checkout register to pay for their order. Soon, shoppers will be able to skip that step and provide payment through the app instead, the company said. That means they won't have to stand in line or visit a register at any point during their shopping trip.
Kroger
Amazon revealed plans in December to introduce a similar technology to its own brick-and-mortar grocery concept, called Amazon Go, which is still in the planning phases.
Walmart is also testing its own cashier-less technology in more than a dozen stores in Texas, Florida, South Dakota, Arkansas, Georgia, and Kentucky.
Kroger will be the first to offer the technology to a mass market, however, when it expands the "Scan, Bag, Go" program to 400 of its more than 2,700 stores in 2018.
The Future of Retail 2018 by the BI Intelligence Research Team.
Get the Slide Deck Now »
- I got a $40K raise using this 30-second strategy. It made me realize loud work, not hard work, always wins.
- Qatar Airways' new CEO explains why it's sticking with the Airbus A380 as other airlines retire the costly superjumbo
- Prince Harry and Meghan found out about Kate Middleton's cancer diagnosis on TV like everyone else, report says
- Sustainable Event Planning
- Ambani, Adani collaborate: RIL picks 26% stake in Adani Power project
- As back-to-office avatars turn casual, comfy sneaker sales pick up pace
- Fresh photographs of Milky Way’s black hole Sgr A* reveal strong, twisted magnetic field similar to M87*
- 8 Lesser-known places to explore in Himachal Pradesh