Aldi Süd has now also discontinued its pilot project with a scanless store in London. The discounter’s test store on Greenwich High Road in south London will in future be operated as an Aldi Local store – without Aifi’s scanless technology. Aldi Süd had already ended its scanless experiment in the US back in 2024. The service provider there, Grabango, has since gone into administration. Aldi Süd thus joins the growing number of retail companies ending their experiments with scanless stores.
The London store, which opened in January 2022 as Aldi Shop&Go, relied on Aifi’s purely camera-based technology to automatically track purchases and charge customers as they left the store – entirely without checkouts or scanning. The Retail Optimiser reported. The end comes as no surprise: Amazon, the pioneer of scanless technology – which has always been controversial because it does not operate fully automatically but requires human intervention at computer workstations whenever the AI is uncertain – had also announced in January this year that it would no longer operate its own publicly accessible stores using this technology. The Retail Optimiser reported.
Aldi Süd had tested the use of scanless technology not only in London but also in the US for just under a year – in a store in Aurora near Chicago. The Retail Optimiser reported. However, the trial, which began in November 2023, was discontinued already in 2024. Grabango, the provider of the technology used there, went into administration in October 2024. According to US media, the company was unable to raise the funds required for continued operation.
Aldi Nord continues in Eindhoven
Unlike the store operated by Aldi Nord in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, using Trigo technology, Aldi Süd in London recorded its customers’ purchases exclusively via cameras using vision recognition technology from Californian Aifi. There were no sensors with weighing cells on the shelves there. Aldi Nord had also switched off the scanless technology in its first test store in Utrecht, the Netherlands, in September 2024, but is, according to technology provider Trigo, continously operating its second scanless store in Eindhoven as before.
All of Aldi Süd and Aldi Nord’s test stores were initially designed in a way that customers could only shop there after registering via an app. However, very few customers were willing to do so. Aldi Nord then initially converted its scanless store using Trigo technology in July 2023 to allow shopping without an app. Anyone could enter the store unhindered. Shoppers wishing to pay by card could do so at additional Shopreme terminals set up outside the exit. The Retail Optimiser reported.
Not many were willing to register on an app
Aldi Süd also allowed customers at its Shop&Go store in London to shop without an app from January 2024 onwards. To enter the store, which was equipped with AiFi technology, shoppers could then also scan their payment card at the entrance. Shopping via the app was still possible, however.
As with the AiFi solution, Grabango also operated without weighing technology on the shelves. In the Aldi Süd store in the US using this technology, however, the use of an app was mandatory. Unlike the Aldi Süd store in London equipped with AiFi technology, the entrance to the Aurora branch was completely open and did not require gates. However, at the end of their trip through the store, every customer had to go either to a manned checkout or a self-checkout to complete their purchase.
The latest study by Prof. Dr. Stephan Rüschen of the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University provides an overview of the current state of contactless store concepts in the food retail sector. The study reveals that numerous pilot projects using technology from providers such as Trigo, Aifi, and Cloudpick have been implemented in Europe and the United States in recent years.
Among other things, the study shows the following:
- Many retailers are focusing on test formats and pilot stores.
- Different technological approaches.
- Primarily used in convenience store formats.
- Termination of individual projects.
Technology provider Grabango has gone bankrupt.
The latest developments at Aldi Süd and the bankruptcy of technology provider Grabango show that the discounter’s expectations of scanless stores have not been met. Whilst the technology was regarded as a potential future standard in recent years, questions regarding cost-effectiveness, scalability and customer acceptance are now coming increasingly into focus. For many retail companies, the question arises as to what role scanless solutions will play in their portfolio in future and in which formats their use actually makes sense.
