From EatThisNotThat Jun2021 – Editors Note: You could see this coming given the test being run in Illinois which has some of the strictest privacy laws. In Brief: McDonalds testing AI-powered drive-thru ordering at 10 restaurants in Illinois Voice Analysis and Recognition being used Data retention — McDonalds is not informing customers how long their data will be… Read More »
From CrunchBase Jun2021 In Brief: Expediting food orders with robots is major selling point for Wings People order a million ways, but food is made one way Constraints of job market and attractiveness of jobs Fear of interacting with unvaccinated people is major problem Headless checkout — see a bowl of soup you want to buy? You can… Read More »
Aldi Rolling Out Self-Checkout at Grocery Pictures and Images on Google Discount grocer Aldi is rolling out a limited trial of self-serve checkouts in its stores in a bid to increase convenience for shoppers. Famous for the speed of its operator-manned checkouts, the self-serve checkout trial will be rolled out in ten NSW stores with each store to… Read More »
Article on ZDNet about how McDonalds AI is driving customers crazy Highlights: The aim to eliminate labor is still at the forefront CNBC reports that the burger chain has installed these AI robots in 10 Chicago McDonald’s so that it doesn’t have to employ so many humans. One problem is humans interfering with the orders Going from 10 restaurants to… Read More »
Historical Retail News Compendium We were doing some housecleaning from 2014 and for historical purposes here is Retail Systems news from 2014. Includes: Bitcoin writeup from 2013 — imagine buying then… Here they are InComm’s Corporate B2B Store Enables Retailers to Streamline Management of Corporate Gift Card Sales – Retail Automate PORTLAND, Ore. (Mar. 27, 2014) – InComm,… Read More »
How To Pay With A QR Code (and pay later) Nice writeup on PaymentDive on Paypal Dive Brief: PayPal, an online payment provider, expects the popularity of QR codes and buy now-pay later options to rise because the pandemic has changed consumers’ payment preferences. Since PayPal’s launch of QR code payments for businesses last May, many merchants have adopted… Read More »
Ghost Kitchen Mobile Ordering App – Virtual Restaurant Editors Note: first occurrence of a dedicated “purpose-built” mobile ordering app that we have seen which connects to a Ghost Kitchen. Now we have virtual restaurants and Food-As-A-Service nomenclature to include in our shoptalk. Just Kitchen Holdings Corp., an operator of ghost kitchens specializing in the development of delivery-only food… Read More »
Grab and Go Smart Vending Airports HMS Introduces Smart Vending press release — HMSHost Smart Vending for Touchless Food and Beverage Experience. Dynamic Vision Recognition Captures Purchased Snack Items While Automated Blue Light Cleans Vending Machine Between Users. Editors Note: HMS Hosting announcing deployment of AI Self-Checkout Smart Vending in Charlotte. The language is odd such as “Just… Read More »
Outdoor Locker Solution Featuring superior durability, improved weather and UV-resistance and integrated temperature controls, Parcel Pending’s outdoor lockers keep packages protected from extreme weather IRVINE, Calif., April 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Parcel Pending by Quadient, the leading provider of smart locker solutions for residential, commercial, retail, and university properties in the United States and Canada, today unveiled enhanced… Read More »
Walmart Pickup Towers From the NYPost Apr2021 — The retailer is removing 300 of these towers and “hibernating” another 1,300 because customers grew accustomed to curbside pick-up during the pandemic — and prefer it, according to the Wall Street Journal. See photos from corporate Walmart of towers From the WSJ At Walmart Inc., the robots are losing their… Read More »
