Shopping will be fun in the future

Aldi qualifies for competition with Amazon: Discounter opens its first cashless branch – giving a look into the future.

LONDON – Aldi Sud * Great is experimenting with a new concept in the UK: Discounter has now opened its first cashless Aldi Shop & Go branch in the Greenwich District of London.

Aldi: Cashless shopping is like this

Those who want to shop there should first download the Aldi Shop & Go app. Then you can go into the store and pick up what you need. Upon leaving the store, purchases will be automatically processed using the selected payment method and a receipt will appear on the app. Aldi uses a system of specially installed cameras to identify which products customers have taken.

Purchases of alcohol or other age-restricted products using face recognition technology must be approved in advance. Customers can then confirm their age through the app. Those who refuse the procedures will be examined by a branch employee. Despite the new technologies, the branch could not be fully staffed.

Aldi opens the hunt for the Amazon

Giles Hurley, CEO of Aldi UK and Ireland, said at the opening: “Today marks the end of the team’s months of work in Greenwich and I want to see how customers respond to our trial.”

Aldi is definitely under pressure to succeed at the cashless branch: rival Amazon is also planning cashless supermarkets in Great Britain. By 2025, 260 Amazon Fresh stores will open nationwide. Like Aldee in Great Britain, rival Lidel, who is currently on the road to success *, is also testing the idea.

Checkout-free supermarkets in Germany

In Germany, Rive and Taget are currently experimenting with cashless shopping in Cologne and Fulda. Meanwhile, Edeka is experimenting with a new type of store without staff in Renning, Baden-Wട്ടംrttemberg, in which customer orders are taken to a collection counter behind the sales room by gripper robots, where the customer can receive them.

Amazon thinks out loud HandlesblattReport on the opening of cashless Amazon Fresh branches * in Germany – but not yet permanent. So it is only a matter of time before more and more supermarkets bring new ideas to Germany. The success of the London branch will be Aldi’s trend setting.

With material from DPA