How technology is revolutionising the supermarket experience
Let’s face it, long gone are the days where cash registers and inventories are the slowest part of the supermarket workflow, technology has taken over in the food retail world, to the point where we are not even required to enter a supermarket to get our weekly shop now, if we don’t want to. We’ve seen some amazing advances in food shopping online, how we shop in stores, and even how we communicate with supermarkets.
In-store
We now have Click and Collect at most supermarkets, which means we don’t have to pay for delivery, but this also takes away the need to walk around the store trying to find what we want. This helps us avoid frustration when everything has been moved around AGAIN and saves us valuable time we can spend in much more useful places.
However, you are now able to scan as you shop if you want the ability to browse as well. All of this is thanks to new technology. Handheld scanners are the reason we can now buy at speed one way or another, and when you get to the end of the shop the automated checkouts, with up to date weighing machines and recognition, mean you can save time all the way through the process.
Improving work
Although there’s a direct correlation between advances in technology and job losses, the speed in which deliveries, stocking shelves, and inventories are taken now, is much faster than ever before. There are plenty of benefits to all in the innovations that we’re seeing now too, supermarkets realise that the happier the staff, the more business they will receive, and it’s been proven that most people will reconsider where they shop if they receive three or more bad experiences at one place. So the better the experience for staff and customers alike, the better the profits. Food recruitment is also seeing a technological change, and the right people are in the right roles in a much broader capacity.
Online
We can place a shop online the one night and the next day collect it on our way home from work. Or if you really would rather skip the store altogether, you can get the shop delivered to your door. Even delivery drivers are carrying around the latest technology to help with their tasks. Shopping delivery is also life-changing for many people, as it is an incredible way of providing extra independence for those vulnerable adults who aren’t as mobile as they would like to be.
As well as saving time, this method can save you a lot of money too, it’s easy to see how much everything costs as well as work out exactly what you need on your shopping list and stick to it. The technology used to create this process is developing all the time, to the point where you can even see what substitutes have been made to your shopping, before your delivery arrives, all via email!
Amazon and Sainsbury’s have both continued to lead the way in technology surrounding shopping recently, by opening the first stores with zero checkouts, customers can shop using an app and just walk out of the store without a second thought, with the payment being taken automatically. With advances like this who knows where technology in food shopping will take us? But all we know is that it’s going to be intriguing!