Woolworths is testing a project to further cut back on customers using checkouts.
It’s called a ‘smart’ trolley, and they are being trialled in one Woolworths store in Sydney, with the company tight-lipped about any further adoption of the technology.
So how does it work? At a basic level, the trolley has integrated scanning that checks your choices as you add them.
Under Woolworths’ existing Scan&Go technology, customers had to use their own devices using an app to check and pay for their shop. It was available across 74 Woolworths stores.
Cards are the key
Now customers can unlock a device similar to an iPad, connect it to their trolleys and start shopping. Customers simply have to sign in with their Everyday Rewards membership card and away you go.
In the first stage, customers will still have to pay at a checkout, but eventually the technology will allow them to pay on the screen.
“Our customers are looking for us to deliver both value and convenience. Scan&Go Trolley is market-leading innovation that will help them both save time and balance the budget on their supermarket shop,” says Woolworths integral diagnostics managing director Faye IIhan.
“Pending feedback from our customers, we hope to introduce Scan&Go Trolley in more of our supermarkets nationwide, along with some additional features in the coming months, including the ability to pay for their groceries on the device.”
Woolworths assured RetailWorld that adopting the technology would have no impact on staff rosters. But it doesn’t take a genius to work out that it will mean less staff in the long run.
Security spot checks
Staff will also be expected to conduct spot checks on trolleys to deter theft.
I can see this appealing to time-strapped staff and customers as long as this remains an option, and not an expectation.
In some aspects, it just seems like another opportunity for Woolworths to get us to do their job.
Add in intrusive security measures, such as snooping through our trolleys, and just like self-checkouts, Woolworths seems intent on annoying a large part of its customer base.
One thing that may delay this technology being rolled out across Australia are the dollars. It’s hard to pin down how much it costs, but one site estimates the retail price of a smart trolley at US$5000 to $10,000 each.
However, this Australian version has been developed ‘in house’ by Woolworths, which should cut costs considerably.
Still, with hundreds of stores across Australia and a hundred or so trolleys at every store, the cost to roll them out across the Woolworths group could be prohibitive, for now. Like any technology, as it becomes more common, the price will go down.
Whatever the outcome, let’s hope they have good security as well. It only takes a short stroll around any Australian suburb or town to see half a dozen abandoned trolleys. And it’s not a Clean Up Australia Day without some news footage of a trolley being hauled out of a body of water. At $5000-plus, that could be an expensive exercise.
Would use a smart trolley? Do you think it’s just another profit maker for Woolies? Why not share your thoughts in the comments section below?
Also read: Supermarket pricing tactics lead to unhealthy choices, data shows
I suppose that eventually getting rid of checkouts altogether and taking thousands of jobs from people who need them will ultimately get the CEO a nice big bonus for increasing profits. The dark side of capitalism.
Yeah, sure, they can’t fill positions now.
Will the trolleys automatically return to the store unlike the thousands that get dumped by selfish shoppers ?
Aldi started to stop the abandonment of trolleys, by charging a small $2.00 fee using a smaall slot on the troley to insert your two dollars and unlock it from the rack.. When finished to get the money back you had to take it back to the stack and insert a metal ‘key’, to get your money back. If Woollies aare going to use a system of taking your money using a system on the trolley, perhaps they could extract $5.00 by adding it to your bill, and then when trolley is empty take it back to the rack and a scanner could refund your $5.00. Something like an airport trolley system
There are many stores that use that system, not just Aldi. Woolworths and Coles have them too for years now in some locations, I assume the locations where it’s a problem of them being left in the streets
it will be interesting to see how items withought barcodes, like fruit and veg, are weighed to be priced, portable scale on the trolley, as well ? or will everything get pre weighed and barcoded ?
No way, not for me. I don’t mind technology but not at the expense of staff loosing their job, whether that be full time or part time.
And how soul-less would it be walking into a store, shopping, not engaging with the checkout staff and then going home.
The end game means you will pay via the device, potentially eliminating those who use cash or those who wish to withdraw cash at the checkout.
I have shares in WW, but I expect them to be look after their staff and customers with compassion.
Agree with you 100 percent I have walked out and left items when there is no one to serve me. A lot of my friends have done the same
Error. Losing their job, not loosing their job.
If they could just invent one that steered straight, that might be a good start.
Get rid of all self service machines and employ people with the personal touch
Teeto27, what it needs is for the trolley makers to put fixed wheels on the back, that’s all. My son wrote to Coles and Woolies about that, many years ago, and was ignored. Of course.