Futuristic ALDI, what the hell?

[BlackFriYay]

I've just nipped into an Aldi in Greenwich to grab a couple of bits and feel like I've just stepped into the future.

When you enter you're met with electric barriers which you have to tap your card on in order to enter. When you tap, aldi takes a £10 holding charge which goes towards your shopping.

As soon as you pass through the barriers you are picked up by some high tech smart camera which follows you around the shop.

Whatever you pick up from the shelves is added to your shopping bill, unless you put it back exactly where you picked it up from.

To leave, you have to tap your card on the barriers again at which point a code is sent to your online banking. You then scan a QR code and enter the 5 digit number on the banking transaction, at which point you get your receipt on screen.

Apparently the receipt process is slightly simpler if you have the Aldi app, which I don't.

There wasn't one member of staff on the floor, just the security guard at the front whom was baffled as to why the whole thing confused me.

Who else has come across this? It was completely bizarre. Have I been living under a rock?

Yes it is. You can literally just tap the card reader. You don't need the app or the qr code.

When my kids have allergies I was constantly picking things up to check the ingredients.

I’ve shopped there quite often when I’ve been in London. It’s easier than self scan. It’s really quick - just put everything in your shopping bag then leave. It takes a little while for the receipt to arrive but any errors just need to be highlighted and they will refund if duplicated etc. The lack of staff takes a bit of getting used to - and I haven’t been charged a £10 deposit. I’m guessing that’s if you do not have the app. My biggest issue is the lack of human contact for the people who may need it and the reduction of jobs for young people if they choose to begin careers in retail as many do. I think most supermarkets will eventually be organised like this so we will need to get used to it …

This sounds a hell I want no part of.

It's the way of the future, embrace it or starve. If you don't have a tenner on your card, go to the corner shop.

Cameras are everywhere except the toilet cubicles AFAIS, and we mostly don't even know they are there.

Let Aldi worry about all the what ifs. Make sure you have a tenner or do not frequent the shop.

No queues at the tills, no faff from someone trying to find a few pence, and/or their card, or having a chat with the cashier holding everyone up. Bliss. I want it in my local Aldi please, right now.

Where did I say in my post that I agree with Aldi is trialling?!

All I said is that these businesses care about the money and don’t care if they upset a small minority in order to test something that might bring them long term gain (in the their opinion).

I'd be fucked at the online banking part. Not everyone has it. A lot of people don't have smart phones and like to use cash.

So it's basically a store that doesn't include everyone but handy if you just want to get in and out quickly.. well as quick as your mobile internet allows.

Have you not heard of amazon stores? They did it several years ago

What nonsense. There are shops like that in the City/in Shoreditch. And why would tourists want to go to Aldi anyway?

@DodoTired tourists go there to buy lunch foods and drinks. The M+S next to Cutty Sark is always heaving with groups of tourists trying to understand the meal deals to go and eat in the park.

Yes. To M&S. but not to Aldi.

I had this at the Amazon store at Canary Wharf. So annoying

Yes because if you're short of money, corner shop prices are the way to go.
And lucky you if you've always got a tenner. Some people do not.

WTF!? What if you want to buy something that costs less than £10!?

To get a drink of water? To get sandwiches? To get suncream? To get tampons?

You do if you want to check what you've been charged, which I did as the concept of an AI camera calculating my shopping didn't fill me with confidence.

I think most people encountering a system like that would be a bit suspicious and want to make sure that they haven't actually been diddled out of £10 for just entering the shop.

No I haven't, I really must have been living under a rock!

You hope other people become carers. Why don’t you work 15 hours a day and are only paid for 8. Because of travelling time between jobs! Then we you do have an hour gap. Not enough time to get home!

@DodoTired I don't know how well you know Greenwich (the tourist area where this Aldi is). There's the little M+S, a little Sainsbury's Local, a little Tesco Metro and this new Aldi. It apparently has taken the small unit where previously was the Amazon version of this type of store - so it will a small "convenience" store like the M+S/Sainsbury's/Tesco rather than a "supermarket".
Believe me - tourists in Greenwich shop in these convenience stores 😂

You can download a receipt after the fact using the bank transaction as well. You don't need the app at all.

I’m really confused why people say this?
Does anyone think that people paying in cash now is going to stop us all going cashless in the not too distant future?

Well the corner shop would be better than getting nothing at all in Aldi I think.

I don't always have a tenner either, but I'd get what I needed elsewhere hopefully for what I do have.

Avoid if it annoys or worries you, but in time most supermarkets will go this way I think. You'll have to avoid it anyway if you don't have a tenner I suppose.

They have a shop like this in Legoland, freaky.

I have used the Amazon one a couple of times, they have barriers to get into by tapping your card. Just bought a couple of things and then you just walk out, very quick. They have these stores in Japan. I believe if shoplifting wasn’t decriminalised they wouldn’t need these.

Like it - you will see prices dropping if there is less thieving