Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

cashierless checkout

Circle K Planning To Deploy Seven Thousand AI-Powered Self-Checkout Machines

Mashgin, a maker of computer-vision-based self-checkout machines, announced today it has signed a deal with Circle K parent company Couche-Tard to deploy seven thousand self-checkout machines at the convenience store chain over the next three years.

The move follows the initial deployment of Mashgin systems at nearly 500 Circle K stores across the United States and Sweden since 2020. The move by the second-largest convenience store chain in North America with almost seven thousand stores will represent one of the largest ever deployments of self-checkout systems to date.

For Mashgin, the deal represents its biggest customer win yet and is yet another sign of why the company was able to recently raise a $62.5M Series B round at an impressive $1.5 billion valuation. The move represents a 700% total increase in deployments over its current installed base.

The Mashgin self-checkout system is installed at the checkout counter and enables customer checkouts without scanning barcodes. As seen in the video interview from CES in January, customers can essentially toss their items onto the small checkout pad, and the system will automatically recognize and tabulate the products.

The Spoon checks out Mashgin's AI-Powered Checkout at CES 2022

The decision by one of the world’s largest convenience store chains to equip most of its store footprint with self-checkout is a sign of just how quickly this technology has been embraced ever since Amazon helped kickstart the category off six years ago with its Amazon Go store concept. For its part, 7-Eleven’s push into self-checkout has centered around its Mobile Checkout system, which allows users to scan items with a smartphone and pay on their smartphones.

Grocery stores like Kroger are also experimenting with self-checkout, trialing concepts like smart shopping carts. Online grocery pioneer Instacart diversified into cashierless checkout last year with the acquisition of Caper, and has recently started to call itself a ‘retail enablement platform’ provider.

How Do You Train AI-Powered Checkout To Recognize A Product? In Vegas (& Elsewhere), You Throw It Like Dice

When it comes to training machine vision and AI-powered retail checkout systems, packaged goods and locally created food items are treated very differently.

That’s at least according to Mashgin, a maker of touchless checkout systems. Company spokesperson Toby Awalt said that’s because another store on the network has likely already added that bag of chips or candy bar to their 10 thousand plus item database.

Not so when it comes to locally made food items.

“CPG items, we have to do less and less because there’s enough overlap,” said Awalt, who gave us a walkthrough of the system at CES 2022. “But for dishes, we’ll do every time.”

According to Awalt, adding a new food menu item for a restaurant doesn’t take that since most cafeterias or restaurants only serve between 15 and 50 items.

“You can do that relatively quickly,” he said.

Still, a new packaged good has to be entered into the system now and then. Whenever that happens, the operator has to position the package in several different positions to give the system enough info to recognize the product whenever it shows up under the camera.

Mashgin’s Toby Awalt Rolls the Häagen-Dazs

“I actually do dice rolls with the product,” said Awalt, throwing a Häagen-Dazs ice cream bar onto the tray.

According to Mashgin, the company recommends the system capture 20 to 50 total positions of a product so it can recognize the product from various angles and also distinguish between different variations within the same product line (such as two different flavors of ice cream or potato chips).

You can watch a walkthrough of the Mashgin system below.

The Spoon checks out Mashgin's AI-Powered Checkout at CES 2022

Zippin Checks In at JFK With Autonomous Checkout Technology

In a hurry but still hoping to grab a snack before you jump on your flight? If you’re at JFK in New York City, you might be in luck, at least if you’re passing Gate B 42. Because that’s where the airport just teamed up with Zippin, a maker of AI-powered cashierless checkout technology, and SSP America, an airport foodservice operator, to launch a new grab-and-go convenience concept called Camden Food Express.

According to the release sent to The Spoon, here’s how it works: Customers enter the store through a turnstile tapping their credit card as they enter and begin shopping by picking items off shelves. As they do, Zippin’s AI system automatically identifies the items and builds the customer’s virtual cart with the corresponding monetary value. When the customer leaves the store, the total amount spent is automatically charged to the card the customer used to check-in at the store entrance.

For Zippin, its partnership with JFK and SSP is a nice feather in the cap for a company with a portfolio of deployments, including hotels, stadiums, and grocery stores. Zippin’s move into airports follows other cashierless tech platforms like Amazon’s Just Walk Out, which showed up in Dallas airport earlier this year.

The embrace of cashierless tech is part of a broader exploration by airports of food tech. In recent years we’ve seen airports roll out delivery robots, pizza robots, and coffee robots, to name a few, as well as next-generation vending machines. For JFK, the rollout of Camden Food Express follows the October launch of a multi-brand automated retail center created in partnership with Hudson.

Noka’s Smart Shopping Baskets Lets Customers Walk Out Without Going Through the Check-Out Line

According to Omnico’s US Retail Report, 74 percent of consumers believe technology will make shopping easier and remove sources of annoyance, like long lines at the register. A start-up called Noka recently introduced its cashierless technology for grocery stores and supermarkets.

What sets Tbilisi Georgia-based Noka’s tech apart from simple self-checkout is its smart shopping baskets. When customers enter a store equipped with Noka’s technology, they grab a basket and touch a sensor button (not a fingerprint sensor). They are then let in the barrier separating the entrance and main store area.

Once in the store area, customers grab items and fill up their baskets. Noka’s baskets identify the shopper and track the items placed into the basket. All products are located behind fridge-like doors which cannot be opened unless a customer has their hand on the basket. Shelves within the store are equipped with weight sensors that recognize how many products are picked up from the shelf.

Introducing NOKA Technology: Shopping experience in the first cashierless store

If a customer decides to put an item back, it is automatically subtracted from the order. At checkout, they simply press the sensor button again and pay with a credit card or Apple pay. After payment is complete, the customer can exit out the two-way barrier.

According to David Topchishvili, the CEO of Noka, “Unlike Amazon Go, Trigo, AiFi and other competitors, NOKA technology doesn’t use recognition cameras, we don’t need large servers for computing, and it can be easily scalable.”

Although Noka does stand apart with its smart shopping baskets, there are still a lot of companies in this space. A company that has a similar concept to Noka, is Israel-based Shopic, which has created smart shopping carts. Amazon was one of the first to debut its cashierless tech in 2018, with its first Amazon Go. Other companies in the cashierless space include AiFi, Mashgin, Grabango, and Trigo.

Noka unveiled a prototype of its system in August 2020 and trialed it at an experimental store with 100 SKUs in November 2020. In September 2021, the company’s deployed its baskets for the first time in an actual store environment in its home country of Georgia. In this first real-world deployment, the company’s baskets can identify up to 1,000 product SKUs.

Whole Foods Adds Amazon’s Cashierless Tech

Well, we knew it was only a matter of time before this happened: Today, Whole Foods announced they are adding Amazon’s cashierless technology to two stores in 2022. In the announcement, the retailer says Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology will be an “option” for customers in their Washington, D.C.’s Glover Park and Sherman Oaks, California locations.

Ever since Amazon acquired the iconic retailer who helped pioneer the organic and less-processed focus grocery retail movement, Whole Foods has been cautious about adding touches of Amazon to the in-store experience. Sure, we’ve seen some Whole Food Locations install pick-up lockers, but the online retailer knows as well as anyone their presence can ruffle feathers.

This is probably why Whole Foods is starting slowly with cashierless. The grocer, which only just installed self-checkout in a limited number of locations starting in 2019, will offer the technology at only two locations and, I am sure, will emphasize to long-time customers accustomed to Whole Foods customer service that this latest iteration of the grocery store express aisle only just an option.

The cashierless checkout space has changed quite a bit ever since Amazon debuted its technology at the first Amazon Go in downtown Seattle in January of 2018. Since that time, a whole new cohort of cashierless tech startups has popped up as funding has flooded into the space. Now, with Whole Foods and others helping this technology go mainstream, I don’t see this space slowing down anytime soon.

Javits Center Opens Up Cashierless Cafe Powered by Amazon Tech

There’s a new cashierless checkout cafe opening at the Javits Center convention center in New York this weekend, and it’s going to be powered by Amazon’s Just Walk out technology.

According to press materials sent to The Spoon, the new Fresh and Fast cafe lets users swipe their credit card to gain entry, upon which they can grab the pre-packaged items they want and leave. There’s no need to checkout and the bill is automatically charged to their card.

More important than the actual opening of the cashierless store is the fact that Amazon is powering it. Amazon kicked off the whole cashierless store movement with the launch of its Amazon Go stores back in 2018. Since then, a number of startups such as Grabango, Trigo, Zippin and AiFi have sprung up to offer their own cashierless checkout services. This year in particular has seen a lot of activity in the cashierless checkout space with funding pouring in from investors and new cashierless stores opening.

But as all these companies duke it out with each other to win contracts to retrofit retailers’ stores, the looming threat in the background is Amazon licensing out its own cashierless solution. The opening of Fresh and Fast at Javits follows Hudson News opening up an Amazon-powered cashierless store at the Dallas Love Field Airport in March of this year. Much like IBM was to the business PC back in the 80s, could Amazon do the same with its cashierless checkout tech today? Will “you don’t get fired for buying IBM,” become “you don’t get fired for licensing Amazon’s cashierless checkout?”

The analogy is a little different because with its massive online business, Amazon takes revenue away from brick-and-mortar retailers. So real world store brands may not want to give Amazon more money by licensing its technology. But at the same time, Amazon’s technology has proven itself in public longer than its competitors. The sheer size and staying power of Amazon could actually be an incentive for retailers to pick Amazon’s cashierless checkout technology over younger startups. Retailers know Amazon’s technology works and that the company isn’t going to disappear overnight.

For those in NYC that want to check out Fresh and Fast, it’s located on the north concourse of the Javits Center.

Mashgin’s Cashierless Checkout Tech now in Use at Nearly 500 Locations

Mashgin, which makes a cashierless checkout kiosk, announced today that its technology is now in use in nearly 500 locations worldwide and that it has processed roughly $100 million in sales transactions.

Unlike other players in the cashierless checkout space that are relying on in-store camera installations or smart shopping carts, Mashgin’s solution uses a countertop device that can sit anywhere in a store. Shoppers place items on the device where cameras and computer vision identify all of the products and tally up the bill. Up until now, Mashgin accepted credit cards for payment, but the company also announced today an integration with Glory to enable contactless acceptance of cash payments as well.

I spoke with Jack Hogan, Vice President of Partnerships at Mashgin by video chat this week. He said the sweet spot for Mashgin’s technology is in places like sports stadiums and convenience stores — locations where people are grabbing 1 – 10 items and want to get in and out of the store quickly.

In addition to identifying consumer packaged goods, Mashgin’s technology also identifies plated foods in settings like cafeterias. Users place there tray of food on the Mashgin device and the cameras can identify everything on the plate and charge accordingly.

How does Mashgin touchless self-checkout change the checkout experience at Delek?

Cashierless checkout has been one of the big news stories of 2021, as the pandemic accelerated retailer’s plans for more contactless shopping experiences. Throughout the year we’ve seen a number of cashierless checkout store launches with startups around the world including Zippin, AiFi, Imagr, and Trigo.

Hogan said that even though the pandemic has pushed retailers into more human-free checkout solutions, that’s not the biggest concern from partners. “The number one thing people have said is speed,” Hogan said, “Get in and out as soon as possible.” With cashierless checkout, retailers are able to kill two birds with one stone, providing line-free speed with a contactless experience. Mashgin said that deployments of its checkout kiosks grew more than 100 percent in 2021 and can now be found in convenience stores, airports and sporting arenas such as Mile High Stadium and Madison Square Garden.

Though the cashierless checkout space is crowded, Mashgin’s most direct competitor at this point is Caper. In addition to making smart shopping carts, Caper debuted its own computer vision-powered countertop kiosk last year. The small footprint of devices like Caper’s and Mashgin’s could prove attractive to c-stores and other locations where consumers aren’t buying a lot of stuff and want to get in and out of the store quickly. A countertop device doesn’t require retrofitting a store with cameras or buying new shopping carts, and can be set up with easily at a checkout stand.

It’s not hard to imagine that as part of the growth of cashierless checkout over the coming years, we’ll be seeing more players offer a similar type of kiosk as well.

AiFi Retrofitting Two More Loop Neighborhood Stores with Cashierless Checkout Tech

AiFi announced today that it is adding its cashierless checkout technology to two Loop Neighborhood store locations in California, starting in the San Francisco Bay Area. The deal expands on an existing partnership that saw the two companies opening a fully autonomous gas station NanoStore in Campbell, California in 2019.

AiFi retrofits stores with cameras to create a computer vision-based cashierless checkout system, allowing customers to walk in, grab what they want, and leave, getting charged automatically on their way out. For these new Loop Neighborhood stores, customers will use the AiFi app to scan a QR code upon entering or leaving the store so they can skip the checkout line.

AiFi x Loop Neighborhood: Autonomous stores in Silicon Valley

Cashierless checkout has been gaining momentum throughout 2021, with a number of startups getting funded and system installations going public. It’s been a particularly busy year for AiFi, which entered into a partnership with Dutch convenience store chain Wundermart that will eventually see 1,000 autonomous locations opened up. AiFi also partnered with Verizon to open a 5G-powered popup NanoStore at this year’s Indianapolis 500. Most recently, the company opened an autonomous NanoStore with the Polish convenience chain Żabka.

But AiFi isn’t alone in advancing autonomous retail this year. Zippin has opened up a store in the Barclay’s Center in New York. Trigo is opening cashierless checkout with the Rewe grocery chain in Germany. And Amazon opened up its first full-sized cashierless checkout grocery store in Washington state.

There are a few reasons for all of this accelerated interest in cashierless checkout. First the pandemic (which hasn’t gone away) is pushing retailers to reduce the amount of human-to-human interaction in their stores. Cashierless checkout not only removes a human cashier from the shopping equation, but also means customers don’t have to stand in line next to each other. Additionally, cashierless checkout can benefit the retailer with more real-time insight into shelf inventories. Cameras and sensors keep tabs on what people are picking up and putting back, so managers can identify shortages more quickly.

AiFi’s CEO recently told me that while there is a lot of news and excitement around cashierless checkout, mainstream adoption is still about a decade away. Which means we’ll be writing about similar store openings for a long time to come.

AiFi didn’t disclose exactly where the new cashierless Loop stores will open, but if you’re in the Bay Area and stumble across one, be sure to tell us about your experience with it!

Shopic Raises $10M for its Clip-On Smart Cart Cashierless Checkout Solution

Smart shopping cart startup Shopic announced today that it has raised $10 million in equity funding. The round was led by Claridge Israel, with participation from existing investors Entrée Capital, IBI Tech Fund, and Tal Capital. This brings the total amount raised by Shopic to $21 million.

The Tel Aviv, Israel-based Shopic creates cashierless checkout retail experiences through its a device that clips on to the handles of existing shopping carts. The Shopic device has cameras and a touchscreen, and uses computer vision to recognize products placed inside the cart. The Shopic system keeps tally of everything in the cart and ties in with a store’s POS so customers can skip the checkout line and get charged automatically upon leaving.

Shopic also promotes its smart carts as advertising vehicles and real-time inventory management systems. In addition to presenting an ongoing receipt as people shop, the touchscreen can also display customized digital promotions and ads based on data such as a customer’s shopping history. Because Shopic’s system is keeping track of what items are placed in the cart (and taken out) and when, it also provides real-time inventory insight as well as information about how customers shop.

The cashierless checkout space has seen a ton of funding and installation activity around the world so far this year. There are a number of solutions coming to market including retrofitting stores with cameras (Trigo, Grabango) and smart shopping carts (Caper, Veeve). Even Shopic’s very specific sub-section of turning existing shopping carts into smart carts is getting crowded, with other players such as SAI, WalkOut and Nomitri vying for grocery retailer dollars as well.

All of this action illustrates how adoption of cashierless checkout is certainly accelerating, thanks in part to its contactless nature and fears stirred by the pandemic. But despite all the funding and the momentum, it will still be awhile before it crosses over into the mainstream. I recently spoke with the CEOs of cashierless checkout startups Trigo and AiFi. The Trigo CEO believes we’ll see cahierless checkout options in every major city of the world as early as next year. That could mean there’s just one store offering it, however. AiFi’s CEO said we’re about a decade away from cashierless checkout becoming mainstream.

In its press announcement today, Shopic said that it is already deploying solutions with major grocery chains around the world, and will use its new funding to accelerate commercial activities and expand its team.

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.

We Need to Talk About Cashierless Checkout (Again!)

Since we just held a Spoon event this week focused on reducing waste, I thought it appropriate to recycle my headline from earlier this year: We Need to Talk About Cashierless Checkout. I’m not just being lazy, I think we legitimately need to talk about cashierless checkout (again) because so much has happened since the first time I said it — and a lot happened just this week!

Let’s start by reviewing the relevant Spoon headlines since the first time I ran that headline in February:

In the last four months, we’ve written nine cashierless checkout stories, which means that roughly every two weeks, we’re seeing sizeable news in the space. But it’s not just the number of stories. Scratch beneath the surface and some trends emerge.

Funding
There are four funding stories for four companies at different stages, operating in different locations around the world. Based in Portugal, Sensei’s round was a Seed round. Israel’s Trigo got a strategic investment from German grocer REWE. Here in the U.S., Grabango’s haul was a later-stage sizeable Series B. And Zippin, which is based in the U.S. but is powering stores in the U.S., Brazil, Japan and Russia, has turned to equity crowdfunding after previously raising institutional money. I wouldn’t call the cashierless checkout funding environment “frothy” yet, but the sustained level of activity shows that investors are interested in emerging an established solutions.

Different Approaches
Beyond the funding, look at the variety of cashierless checkout startups coming to market. SuperSmart, Imagr and WalkOut all do some type of smart shopping cart. Trigo, Grabango and now Amazon retrofit full-sized grocery stores with cameras and computer vision to achieve frictionless checkout. Zippin and AiFi focus on smaller convenience and pop-up stores. In other words, there is a lid for every pot. Retailers will have a number of cashierless checkout options to choose from that suits them.

Europe
While cashierless checkout spots are opening up across the globe, Europe is becoming a particular hotspot of activity. Imagr opened an office in Amsterdam. Sensei is in Portugal. In addition to its funding, Trigo is launching a store with REWE, and is also a partner/investor in UK-based Tesco. AiFi has partnered with Polish convenience chain, Żabka. AiFi is launching a thousand stores with Dutch retailer Wundermart. And not to be left out, Amazon opened up a location in London.

Sports
This is admittedly a small part of the overall picture, but both Zippin and AiFi launched small convenience stores at sporting venues. Zippin opened its third stadium location, this one at Barclays Center in New York, while AiFi partnered with Verizon to open a small pop-up store at the Indianapolis 500.

As I discussed back in February, there are a couple of main drivers of all this cashierless checkout news. First is the pandemic, which pushed retailers into looking for more contactless retail environments. In addition to removing a human cashier/vector of transmission from the equation, cashierless stores keep customers from congregating in line and reduce the amount of time they spend inside.

Another factor, however, is Amazon, which kicked off the whole cashierless checkout trend with its Go stores three years ago. Since then Amazon has only ratcheted things up with its smart Dash shopping carts and just this week, showed it can scale its cashierless checkout to a full-sized grocery store. Amazon’s constant drive to innovate is forcing other retailers to do the same and accelerate their own cashierless plans.

In other words, we’ll need to talk about cashierless checkout a few more times before the year is over.

More Headlines

InnerPlant Raises $5.65M to Turn Plants Into “Living Sensors” and Mitigate Crop Loss – Agtech company InnerPlant, which is changing plant DNA to create “living sensors” that mitigate crop loss, has raised $5.65 million in pre-seed and seed funding,

Upcycled Food Association Launches Open Enrollment as Upcycling Momentum Grows – This week, the Upcycled Food Association announced that it had opened the doors for anyone who wants to apply for certification.

There’s More to Food Waste Innovation Than Tech, According to ReFED’s Dana Gunders – Dana Gunders, the Managing Director and a founder of ReFED, kicked off The Spoon’s recent event by asking two important questions related to food waste: What is innovation, and what is the problem we’re trying to solve with it?

Cashierless Checkout Startup Trigo Gets $10M Strategic Investment from REWE

Israel-based cashierless checkout startup Trigo has received a $10 million strategic investment from German supermarket chain Rewe. TechCrunch was first to report the news and also confirmed that Trigo has raised $104 million to date.

Trigo is one of the many startups looking to bring cashierless checkout to grocery retail. The company’s technology relies on cameras, computer vision and artificial intelligence installed in stores to keep track of what shoppers pick up and keep, charging them automatically upon exit.

That REWE is now an investor in Trigo is not a surprise, as last month the two companies announced a partnership to create a cashierless checkout store in Cologne, Germany. This is actually the second large European grocery chain to partner and invest in Trigo. In October of 2019, UK-based grocer Tesco made an undisclosed strategic investment in Trigo as part of their partnership. Trigo also has a partnership with Israeli grocery chain Shufersal, though there is no investment as part of that relationship.

It’s only Wednesday, and it’s already been a monster news week in the cashierless checkout space. Amazon announced it was adding its Just Walk Out technology to its new full-sized grocery store opening in Bellevue, Washington this week. This 25,000 sq. ft. space will be the largest implementation yet of Amazon’s cashierless checkout system. Elsewhere, Zippin partnered with American Express to open up a small convenience store inside the Barclays Center in New York, and AiFi partnered with Polish c-store chain Żabka to launch an autonomous NanoStore.

The cashierless checkout sector was already enjoying a strong start to the year with numerous funding announcements and retail partnerships. As grocers and convenience stores continue to explore more contactless forms of retail, we’ll see even more news as adoption of cashierless retail accelerates.