Equipped with a new version of Trigo’s technology, the Rewe Pick&Go store in Düsseldorf allows customers to shop scanless without registering. However, the store’s second major innovation, the automatic weighing of fruit and vegetables as they are picked, was out of action this week.
Rewe Group is allowing all customers to use the Pick&Go technology at its store Am Wehrhahn 43 in Düsseldorf much earlier than planned. This was preceded by a test run for the company’s own employees and their families, which was originally planned until Easter. The store was also open to other shoppers during this period of time, but only with the conventional checkout processes.
Previously, also Aldi Nord had converted its only store with Trigo technology in Utrecht in the Netherlands to make the use of the app optional. Edeka’s Netto also has a similar store with Trigo in Regensburg that does not require registration.
Rewe’s Berlin Pick&Go store has also already been upgraded in the background with the new process, which allows scanning-free shopping even without registration. Its Pick&Go store in Cologne city centre, Rewe Group is currently closing completely. It was the Group’s first store with Trigo technology.
Entrance without barriers
The new 750-square-metre Rewe Pick&Go store in Düsseldorf, which stocks around 18,000 items, has a completely open design in the entrance area. Like at other supermarkets of the group, there are no entrance gates. In contrast to comparable scan- and registration-free sales outlets of other retail companies and also of the Baltic Rewe Group banner operation Iki, the Düsseldorf Rewe Pick&Go store does not require customers to present a payment card in order to start shopping.
Vision recognition technology is used to analyse the behaviour of every visitor to the store. A virtual shopping basket is created for each one. The retail group emphasises that this does not involve any recognition of the individual. Rewe Group apparently assumes that the extended general terms and conditions displayed in the entrance area are legally sufficient for shopping in this store – even without customers explicitly opting into the process.
Anyone wishing optional to use the Rewe Pick&Go app simply needs to open the app. Users of the smartphone application neither need to check in at the entrance anymore.
Cash not accepted for scanless purchases
However, customers cannot shop completely anonymously in these new sales outlets with Trigo, as checkout without scanning the goods is not possible with cash payment. In its test store that has now opened in Düsseldorf, Rewe allows cash payments only at the one manned checkout, where the goods are still scanned.
All customers must scan a QR code to open the exit gates when leaving the store. This is displayed on the screen of their smartphone for app users. Customers who have paid at the self-checkouts receive the code on their receipt.
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All Photos: Rewe Group
Digital shopping basket appears automatically on self-checkouts
At six out of seven self-checkouts in the store, which, as is generally the case at Rewe Group, have hardware from 4POS and work with POS software developed by Rewe Digital, the digital shopping basket to be paid for appears automatically without any scanning. A seventh self-checkout is operated in conventional mode with scanning.
The second major innovation in Rewe’s Düsseldorf test store was not in operation when The Retail Optimiser editorial team visited yesterday. Calibrated Mettler Toledo scales under each individual fruit and vegetable crate – integrated into the Trigo technology – are intended to also automate the weighing of loose sold produce. Shoppers will be shown the weight and price of the goods they removed on special displays provided by the scale manufacturer.
Weighing innovation out of order
However, these remained black this week. Until now, customers in the Düsseldorf test store have had to weigh their fruit and vegetables on additionally installed self-service scales. Employees of a Rewe promotion team draw the attention of every single customer to this.
Our editorial team is not yet aware of the degree of automation in these stores with the new Trigo technology without the need to register, in which the digital shopping basket is already created when the customer approaches the self-checkout. Although this worked well during the editorial team’s tests in the Düsseldorf store, the app still does not show those who use it as an option how the digital shopping basket in real time. This has always irritated app users in such stores, as they are used to having their shopping basket displayed in real time while shopping online.
Strict photography ban
Although the new Rewe test store with Trigo technology in Düsseldorf has hundreds of cameras pointed at its customers, the retailer has imposed an unusually strict ban on shoppers taking photos in the store. It is still unclear why Rewe Group is taking such a restrictive approach here, as it wants to encourage the use of smartphones when shopping in order to promote the use of its own app and provide customers with additional product information or offers while shopping, for example.
