BUFFALO, N.Y. — Could the days of scanning your items at the end of a checkout line be numbered?
New technology is changing how we shop and pay for groceries. Some companies have tried phone apps or sensors.
Now Wegmans is testing out a smart cart option that uses cameras to speed up your trip.
"Our devices recognize everything that you put in or take out of the cart automatically," said Raz Golan, who is the co-founder and CEO of Shopic, and from his headquarters in Israel, he explained how the devices work.
"Every item that you place in the cart, you bag it, and you shop. You don't have to scan the barcode. It recognizes automatically. And eventually, when you're ready to pay and leave the store, you just do it and return to the device and leave the store without waiting in line."
It's all about convenience for the shopper. Now, right?
Correct, convenience," Golan said. "Get all the information that you can while you shop, the running total, what promotions and coupons are available for you."
Wegmans is piloting Shopic at its stores on Alberta Drive in Amherst and in Pittsford.
"We are lucky to have Wegmans as the partner that they're testing in our solutions in their stores," Golan said.
Wegmans wouldn't let us inside to see the devices at work, though customers have seen them for months. Feedback will determine how the popular grocer moves forward with the technology.
Supermarket guru Phil Lempert says this helps solve a big problem facing grocery stores: labor shortages.
"Retailers, whether it be Wegmans or anybody else, just doesn't have enough staff to properly outfit their stores and give a high level of customer service," Lempert said.
And grocers want to keep customers coming back in the store. During the COVID pandemic, grocery delivery went up to about 14%. Now it's back down to around 7%.
"Yeah, they want to be able to offer delivery, but they have to satisfy the needs of 93% of their shoppers who come in store, and in the case of a Wegmans, where that in-store experience is second to none, it's even more important," Lempert said.
What better way to improve the experience than to speed it up, but can customers keep up?
"Very quickly, we see shoppers, you know, learning and coming back again and again to use it in their next shops."
Shopic smart carts are already used in hundreds of stores in several countries.