Buffalo, NY (WBEN) All in the name of convenience and simplifying the shopping experience, Wegmans is testing out a new smart cart at select stores.
It's a consumer trend, for sure, as grocers are testing out alternative means of shopping, and one analyst tells WBEN it's all about speed and efficiency.
Wegmans is replacing its SCAN app with the new computer bar on top of the cart, which tracks what's put in and out of the cart and keeps a running total. Burt Flickinger of Strategic Resources says it's about making the shopping trip more efficient. "At the same time, it's a way for Wegmans to catch up with the industry leading initiatives that amazon.com, which are being migrated to both Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh, artificial artificial intelligence enabled stores that are in California and Chicago and moving quickly to Buffalo," explains Flickinger.
Flickinger says younger shoppers are looking for alternative means of getting groceries because of the time it takes. "Typically a customer can get in and out of a Trader Joe's in less than 10 minutes. Because of the size and depth and range of Wegmans excellent offerings, it takes over an hour to get get through a Wegmans store," explains Flickinger. He says his group interviewed students at Cornell about how they get their groceries. "50% of the students said neither he nor she does any grocery shopping. They order it all online, because of the time consuming nature of supermarket sector shopping," which is why Flickinger says is why Wegmans is trying these smart carts.
But Flickinger says the smart shopper is going the traditional route. "If you go to CVS and other retailers that are focused, more on apps and self scan, we find that consumers are largely cheated out of the coupons and the price and promotional allowances," notes Flickinger.
WBEN did not hear from Wegmans or Market in the Square, but did receive an email from a Tops spokesperson on shopping preferences. "While we always like to give our shoppers a variety of options from shop and scan, to self-checkout, Instacart home delivery and curbside, to traditional cashier assisted check out, there isn't one that outweighs the other. Each day and location tends to vary. What we can tell you is that we certainly see an uptick in use for Instacart services when inclement weather strikes and of course during the pandemic more shoppers elected to use self -checkout for the contactless benefits," says Tops.
