In the Upper Franconian village of Pettstadt, Rewe Markt GmbH is piloting Josefs Nahkauf Box, a retail format with around 700 items for daily needs. On an area of 39 square metres, customers can independently scan goods at a self-checkout from 4POS and pay by debit or credit card seven days a week, around the clock. Unlike unmanned stores in other retail channels, which use scanless store technologies, Rewe bases this concept on scanning by the customers at a self-checkout.
Shoppers gain access to the pilot store via their debit or credit card. Rewe is trying to protect this project against shrinkage through CCTV of the store which is easily recognisable by the customers.
Nahkauf Box relies on self-scanning
Nahkauf Box customers scan each item independently at a self-checkout terminal from 4POS. They pay without cash using their debit or credit card. An app-based solution like Scan & Go, which Rewe’s discount chain Penny recently started to roll out with Shopreme (Retail Optimiser reported), is currently not in use. Unlike the pilot stores of Rewe’s supermarket division and Aldi Nord, Aldi Süd, and Edeka’s Netto, which use technology from Trigo or AiFi in Amazon’s ‘Just Walk Out’ style, the Nahkauf Box retailer operates without vision recognition, shelf sensors or facial recognition technology.
The assortment of the minimarket consists of fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy, frozen and dry products, non-alcoholic beverages as well as goods for daily needs. For the assortment of the pilot store, Rewe has focused particularly on own brands, organic products and regional suppliers.
Cigarettes can be purchased via a vending machine. This verifies the age of the shopper via EC or identity card. Alcoholic beverages and spirits, which are subject to strict legal regulations, are missing within the assortment.
In the Nahkauf Box, electronic shelf labels (ESLs) from SoluM display product information. The graphic display of the ESLs has a viewing angle of almost 180 degrees and presents information on products in the pilot store in the colours black, white and red. SoluM’s electronic labels operate in a temperature range of 0-40 degrees and are also used in the Nahkauf Pilotstore in refrigerated areas.
Nahkauf regional store owners manage staff deployment and stock
The box is supplied with goods, maintained and cared for jointly by the teams of Nahkauf retailers Josef Sier and Thomas Scheuring. The shopkeepers run a Nahkauf store together in Walsdorf.
Rewe’s concept for the pilot store in Pettstadt will also apply to future Nahkauf boxes: Goods supply, maintenance and care are to be ensured via Nahkauf retailers and their own main stores. “In Germany alone, there are around 8,000 under-supplied residential areas where people have to drive very long distances for their daily grocery shopping,” says Rewe divisional board member Peter Maly, describing expansion potential.
