TWIN OAKS, Mo. – Schnucks brings a new element to the grocery shopping experience. Some stores around the St. Louis area are now testing out AI-powered smart carts.
The shopping carts are now available for use at Schnucks’ Twin Oaks location off of Big Bend Boulevard near Route 141.
As part of a pilot program, Schnucks will also roll out smart carts at its Lindenwood (1900 First Capitol Dr.) and Cottleville (6083 Mid Rivers Mall Dr.) stores in the upcoming weeks.
Instacart has partnered with the grocery store chain to provide the smart carts. Known as Caper Carts, they use computer vision and artificial intelligence to track anything that goes inside.
How do the carts work?
In the lobby of the Twin Oaks location, the carts have their own individual aisle for customers to access before heading through the main entrance.
Once you select a cart, a monitor will ask if it’s your first time using the cart or if you need instructions. After that, shoppers can enter their Schnucks Rewards account, which they can also link with the Instacart app to set up a payment plan.
After that, you can stroll through the grocery store and place items in the cart as you please.
For items with a barcode, sensors are built to recognize an item as you place it into a cart. After you select the desired barcode item, a sensor will flash green and produce a noise that acknowledges the item.
For items without a barcode, such as produce, you will need to type in a proper four-digit code. After you select the desired non-barcode item, you place it into the cart, and it will measure its weight to give you a cost.
As the cart recognizes items for purchase, the monitor will show the quantity of items and their total costs.
Once finished, you will enter a line designated for Caper Carts only. At least one worker will check to make sure the items in the cart are consistent with what appears on their records.
From there, you can either use payment plans on your Schnucks Rewards account or Instacart app to complete the purchase or use another monitor to swipe or inset your card for payment.
The carts allow customers to bag as they go or bag at a small station nearby after their purchase.
Customers have the option to bring the carts outside to unpack their groceries into the car, but they must return them to the lobby after use.
Impacts
Schnucks introduced the concept last year, but the smart carts are new to the Twin Oaks store as of last week.
The carts are intended for a faster shopping experience and could help customers avoid potentially long checkout lines. The experience is even faster if your Schnucks Rewards and Instacart information are syndicated with the carts.
Schnucks has not disclosed whether there are any limits as to how many items can be added to a cart or purchased through its new service. The smart carts represent a third option for purchasing groceries after clerk checkout lanes and self-checkout stations, which recently changed policies to 10 items or less.
A Schnucks spokesperson tells FOX 2 that it’s in the early stages of the pilot program. The company will evaluate how the carts impact customer shopping experiences before making any additional decisions on carts in other stores locally or nationally.
Schnucks, founded in St. Louis in 1939, first partnered with Instacart in 2017 to introduce same-day delivery. Since then, the chain has deployed a number of Instacart Platform technologies to digitize its stores and serve its customers.
