Aldi’s recently announced a partnership with GrabanGo, a check-out free technology competing in the same space as Amazon Go’s grocery stores.
We were curious to try it out at the store in Aurora, IL for two reasons. One we wanted to see how a no-frills retailer like Aldi embraced a technology that has mostly been associated with the paradigm destroying concept of Amazon Fresh. Secondly, we were excited something with Bango in the name. Sadly, it is just a compression of grab and go.
The chain calls the service “Aldi Go.” and promises ‘Shopping Is More Fun With Easy-to-Use Technology.’ Aldi eschews complexity as a rule and a cutting edge technology might seem out of place. But a quick look at their demographics shows that half their audience is between 18 and 49. These age cohorts that are generally more than comfortable using technology
Plus the chain pursues low labor costs and this regard the initiative has a lot of potential.
GrabanGo’s sign-up process was easy, facilitated by a helpful and proactive duo placed in-store to answer questions, help with app set-up, and generally ensure a great user experience before we even started using the app. Kudos, as Statista shows 26% of Aldi visitors olds like us and aren’t
always thrilled with changes (or technology).
After registering and activating the app, we went though Aldi’s store, selecting items and putting them into our cart – and then taking them out! This part was more fun for me than my husband, but I just HAD to know if this technology is accurate. There are specially equipped cameras in the ceiling that carefully track which items are in your cart and the system keeps up with the changes in real-time. GrabanGo’s fantastic team assured us that, should there be any discrepancies in the bill, we didn’t have to drive back to the store for corrections. They would simply credit our account in the app! This truly is a win-win for the consumer.
I’m happy to report that after a lot of dropping things into the cart and taking them out, our bill was
accurate!
We shared our joy with this dude on the way out, who provided cheers and positive energy that stayed with us the rest of that afternoon.
We’ll be back, Aldi’s, for both the seamless user experience and another chance to engage it!
Julia Gallo-Torres is an experienced food journalist, consumer market researcher, and analyst;
juliamgtb@gmail.com
[…] – the automated checkout company we were impressed by – didn’t make it and is shutting […]