Supermarket giant Aldi Nord’s store in the Dutch city of Utrecht is going cashierless

Aldi Nord is rolling out the AI-powered store with checkout tech company Trigo.

Trigo has recently partnered with Tesco PLC in the UK, REWE Group and Netto Marken-Discount (also known as Netto) in Germany, as well as Wakefern Food Corp., the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the U.S.

These are the first frictionless checkout grocery stores in Europe and the first time someone other than Amazon has built autonomous supermarkets.

It comes as Amazon rolls out its grocery strategy globally, which includes Just Walk Out formats in Europe. While Amazon pioneered Just Walk Out technology, the US tech giant is being challenged by European retailers who can retrofit their large number of existing stores relatively quickly and inexpensively, giving them an advantage they plan to exploit.

Algorithms

On Wednesday, 20 July, ALDI Netherlands will open the doors of ALDI Shop & Go where shoppers can walk in, select their items, and simply walk out without having to queue at the checkout lane or scan any items. Trigo applies its algorithms to shelf sensors and ceiling-mounted cameras which analyse anonymised shoppers' movements and product choices. Payments and receipts are settled digitally.

The 370㎡ (4305 square feet) supermarket marks a milestone in the digitisation of the ALDI Nord Group of Companies and is the first such store to open to the public in The Netherlands. It is also Trigo’s largest store format to date, with the company working to increase the size of its store formats.

Sinanudin Omerhodzic CTO at ALDI Einkauf SE. & Co. oHG, said: "The true magic of discount retailing is simplicity. We therefore always use technology where it specifically makes us better and faster. With ALDI Shop & Go, we have developed a concept that brings together the discount idea and computer vision technology - always with the aim of making shopping as easy as possible.”