Rewe Group’s Lekkerland has opened its first Rewe Ready store at the EnBW fast-charging park near the Kamen motorway junction, using technology from AiFi. The camera-based solution, which enables shopping without scanning, is also being used on a large scale by Żabka, the Polish convenience store market leader. Rewe Group’s Lekkerland tested the technology last year in a container store on its premises in Frechen. An overview of projects with AiFi from various retail companies can be found here in The Retail Optimiser.
With the new opening in Kamen, Lekkerland now operates unmanned stores at three EnBW fast-charging parks. All under the name Rewe Ready. All three function without the need for people to scan products. However, only the store that has now opened in Kamen relies on Grab&Go technology from AiFi, in which cameras detect which items customers remove and the amount due is automatically debited from a cashless payment method that was registered when the customer entered the store.
The other two Rewe Ready locations are the EnBW fast-charging parks in Bispingen (Lower Saxony) and Lichtenau near Chemnitz (Saxony). In Bispingen, Lekkerland relies on technology from Paderborn-based company Latebird. Here, customers do not select the goods at the shelves, but on a touchscreen. The Latebird vending machine then delivers the selected products to a dispensing chute. The Retail Optimiser reported. At Rewe Ready in Chemnitz, Lekkerland has been relying on smart fridges from the Portuguese specialist Reckon.ai since February of this year, as The Retail Optimiser also reported.
Open around the clock
In Kamen, charging park users, travellers and residents now have access to a wide range of items for immediate consumption around the clock, seven days a week. The assortment comprises around 250 products, including various coffee specialities, snacks such as sandwiches, wraps and salads, as well as chilled drinks, ice cream, sweet and savoury snacks. Selected other food items round off the range.
“The opening of this shop is a milestone for Lekkerland. With the ‘Smart Box’ concept used here, we are using the most sophisticated smart store technology with AI to offer the most convenient shopping experience possible,” says Mehmet Tözge, Vice President Smart Stores at Lekkerland.
Four different technological approaches
Lekkerland now operates a total of four different smart store concepts in public locations: In addition to the technology based on AiFi in Kamen, which Lekkerland calls ‘Smart BOX’, the concept with Reckon.ai and the type called ‘Smart Automat’ with Latebird, Lekkerland also operates numerous mini-stores under the name ‘Smart Kiosk’ that cannot do without scanning. They rely on self-checkout solutions. However, Lekkerland has also installed AI-based camera technology in these ‘smart kiosks’: the Captana solution from Vusion Group is used to automatically monitor the availability of goods on the shelves.
