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?

Indeed
Also what happens if you move a load of salad or bread to find the longest dated?

It'll be because of the huge amount shops lose daily to shop lifting. I have no problem with it.

Have you ever been in a super market with half a dozen folks in masks emptying the shelves of the most expensive stuff - wake up

I thought they were trialling robot "carers" for the elderly in Japan. Technology can certainly be useful in detecting if someone has fallen or hasn't got up in the morning. It can also be used to help them manage medication. I was going to say but it can't do tasks like wiping someone's arse but some people might find those high tech Japanese toilets helpful.

Nor me. I had an embarrassing encounter with trying to buy a magazine/book thing using the automatic tills in M&S this afternoon.

I couldn’t get the machine to ‘finish and pay’ and it called for help. A member of staff that I know had to come and tell me to put the object down on the plate before I could pay. Simple stuff I know but its been a while and I forgot about the weigh plate because I wasn’t filling a bag. Anything more complicated would be a definite NO from me and I’m not paying to just enter a budget supermarket.

My first thought was ‘are Aldi having that much trouble with shoplifting?’

I would love this, I use scan and shop all the time much quicker than emptying everything and putting it back in your trolley.
This sounds great.

Dd went into an Amazon like this. She said it was eerie. She felt she didn’t want to pick anything up.
I do agree with being charged for not putting things such as frozen food back where it belongs. I often see frozen items or things which should be refrigerated just dumped anywhere by customers.
Sadly I think this is the future. Technology will mean less need for people to do these jobs. However, less shoplifting which is a good thing.

So what happens if you don't actually buy anything,or spend less than £10?

This kind of store came up during a conference yesterday with some guest speakers from one of the big chains. They said their version of the store was exciting as proof of concept but it's a long long long way off. The number of cameras was just the first barrier (the cost, retrofitting them to existing stores, programming them etc.)then you add in the volume of products (and continuous additions as needed lines are added) and it becomes too much to be worth doing. I'm paraphrasing the cons but that was the gist.

If the point/plan is to reduce shoplifting, why not have a sort of vending shop, where there are either empty boxes of an item on the shelf (so you can see if it's the right size or check ingredients or such) or a screen similar to a till, and you tap on the screen and the item is automatically packed/dispensed at a pay point /till and you can collect the items when you pay for them. No goods on the shop floor to be pinched but you can still browse and pay by whichever method you like. Sort of online shopping without being online.
I expect there are a lot of things wrong with this but it's a thought!

M&S' Scan & Shop via their app is way better! You scan what you buy with your phone before putting it in your shopping bag, pay via the app and then walk out. It does say to keep the confirmation page open in case you get stopped at the door but so far that's not happened to me. I do feel a bit apprehensive turning away from a shelf and walking out though, and half expect to see a photo of me on Facebook.

@IReallyStillCantBeBothered
I got that from the OP, but I am not putting down £10 to pass through the doors of any shop, that is for sure, neither having a stupid camera following me around, thanks.

Whether we like it or not, this is the future. Amazon started it, Tesco and Sainsbury's followed suit, and now ALDI. However, no deposit is required for the Amazon, Tesco, or Sainsbury's stores I have used. The only requirement is that one has to have their app in order to shop there.

In some rare cases, you could get charged for something you didn't buy, but they are VERY prompt with refunds as happened to me in a Tesco store. In my case, they assumed I had bought a bag, which I hadn't, and the refund was made within a day.

@Summerose Amazon started it - but seem to now be stopping it because it was a flop.
I didn't know Tesco and Sainsbury's did this.

That would have me shopping elsewhere.

I think this is a very good point. The tiny screen of a smart phone for example is tricky for many who are comfortable with a larger screen, it doesn't matter how clever or tech savvy you are when your eyesight fades. Learning new tech will be difficult for everyone, so the (often smug) tech people now will still struggle in the future, maybe not as much as the rest of us.

Well judging by the number of people on here saying they’d hate this, I’d be down there like a shot… love doing my shopping in an empty supermarket.

It's the persistent need for apps that gets me. An app to (potentially) get in. An app to read the QR code. An online banking app. That's 3 apps just to do shopping in one shop.

Another store would require a different app.

I am forced to buy a new smartphone within the next month or so. Not because there is anything wrong with my current phone, but because the apps increasingly take on so much storage space with every update that the phone has run out of space. Trying to insert an SD card to free up extra space has been a flop because most apps will not allow storage on an external card. Deleting all unnecessary apps and pictures etc. has only bought me an extra 2 months before the newest app update (this time whatsapp) is now working above any storage space left, but also threatens to stop working if I don't update.

The point being, this reliance on technology will absolutely exclude people, and not just the elderly, but anyone whose smartphone is forced into obsolescence and who cannot afford a new phone. Or anyone without the means to pay for a smartphone to start with.

I already do!
The berries at least - 'free' blackberry jam every year

I don’t have an Aldi near me, only a Lidl. I don’t go there anymore because I’d only ever want a couple of things and they often don’t have them anyway (the veg sections are often cleared out). I then get trapped in the shop because you can’t exit without going through a till and I have to ask someone to let me out. I also pick stuff up a lot because I won’t buy anything containing palm oil or palm derivatives. This wouldn’t work for me at all.

I recently had to buy a new phone. Not because my old one had anything wrong, but because it no longer supported updates and my banking app told me that I'd need to have the latest version of the app loaded or it would stop working. Also I had no more room for any new apps or updates anyway.

Bloody built-in obsolescence.

Same for me, mine is almost at the end of storage and one of my DCs phones no longer supports newer apps. Phone manufacturers aren’t stupid. We are all now trapped on this never ending hamster wheel of having to spend money on technology with no real choice, and it’s just going to get worse as time goes on.

I find it both dystopian and ageist.

Um, no. Where do you live?!

Or you could have all the items behind a counter, one person serving and they just hand you what you need. Like in the 1950s.