Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

autonomous store

AiFi and Trigo CEOs Weigh in on When Cashierless Checkout Will Go Mainstream

The cashierless checkout space has been on fire this year. Whether its new companies coming out of stealth, raising money or announcing partnerships, there has been no shortage of news coming out of the space.

Despite all of this activity in cashierless checkout, we are still very much in the early stages of the technology. If you want to experience the joy of simply walking into a store, grabbing what you want, and walking out while a system automatically charges your account, you need to live in a pretty major metropolis. Even then you have to seek such a store out, as autonomous stores are still very few and far between.

So for most of 2021, we’ve been in the ramping-up phase of cashierless checkout: debuts, funding, initial retail agreements. When will we get to the practical part, where cashierless checkout becomes mainstream? It’s a question I asked during two separate video chats with the CEOs of AiFi and Trigo.

AiFi is one of the startups that’s been making waves this year. It announced deals with European retail brands Wundermart and Żabka, and set up one of its pop-up, cashierless NanoStores at the Indianapolis 500 with Verizon that ran entirely on 5G. When asked for a timeline, AiFi CEO Steve Gu said, “We are on the cusp of this huge revolution.” He continued, “I think a decade is a very good number. Ten to fifteen years ago smart phones weren’t really a thing. [Cashierless checkout is] similar to smart phones, give it another ten years.”

Trigo was among the first players outside of Amazon to start building a cashierless checkout system. The company recently announced a partnership and strategic investment from German supermarket chain REWE. Trigo is also working with UK store Tesco, and Israeli supermarket chain Shufersal. I posed the same question to Michael Gabay, Trigo’s Co-Founder and CEO. He responded, “Now retailers are starting to plan their rollout. In two years there will be hundreds of stores. Next year you will find autonomous stores in any major city around the world.”

So we have two different timelines, but I think both are saying basically the same thing. We’ll continue to see more autonomous store openings around the world over the next couple of years, but we won’t reach a more mainstream point for a while. This is understandable, given the complexity of the technology, the new paradigm it creates for consumers and the rate at which large food retail chains often move. Besides, good things like cashierless checkout, come to those who wait.

Accel Robotics to Launch Autonomous Valet Market in High-Rise Community

Cashierless checkout startup Accel Robotics announced today its autonomous Valet Market will soon open inside the Vantage Pointe high-rise residential building, located in the company’s hometown of San Diego, California.

The 1,500 square foot store is “designed as a shared pantry for the neighborhood,” and will stock locally-sourced items, such as produce, baked goods and dairy, along with typical convenience store fare. Like many cashierless checkout stores, customers need to download a mobile app to check into and shop there. Once inside, shoppers grab what they want and leave, getting charged automatically upon exit.

Accel monitors what shoppers take through a combination of cameras, computer vision and shelf sensors, which is the same approach taken by other autonomous checkout players like Zippin and Amazon Go. The inclusion of shelf sensors in addition to computer vision can help bolster accuracy when keeping track of what shoppers pick up.

The store will be open to the public during the day, but only available to residents after business hours. Additionally, Valet Market will offer “last step” delivery to Vantage Pointe residents, so they won’t even need to leave their apartments.

The launch of Valet Market continues cashierless checkout’s strong momentum on display so far this year. In the first half of 2021 AiFi has partnered with Wundermart to open one thousand autonomous stores, Standard Cognition raised $150 million for its cashierless tech, and startups around the world like Supersmart, Imagr and Nomitri come out of stealth.

But Accel’s launch of the Valet Market could be another indication that cashierless checkout stores will soon be a standard perk for high-end residential communities. We saw this start last year when AWM Smartshelf partnered with Aramark to create the QuickEats Close Convenience located inside the Nineteen01 apartment complex in Santa Ana, California. Having a dedicated cashierless convenience store inside large residential complexes actually makes a lot of sense. It’s super convenient for residents to run to the lobby for last-minute milk than heading out to the supermarket. The cashierless store can be open around the clock, and the building owner doesn’t have to pay for people to work in the store.

In addition to operating its own Valet Market, Accel said it will be announcing partnerships with other U.S. brands including universities, sports venues, military bases and fuel stations. In August of last year, credit card company Mastercard partnered with Accel Robotics to create a cashierless checkout solution for stores and announced it had lined up customers including Circle K, Delaware North and Dunkin’.

We are on the precipice of cashierless checkout becoming mainstream. If you want to see where the whole autonomous store space is headed, then you should definitely attend ArticulATE, our food robotics and automation virtual conference on May 18. We’ll have speakers from both Zippin and Nomitri talking about the technology and opportunities in the sector. Get your ticket today!