Whether self-service checkouts or branches without any employees, where you can simply walk in and take products without queuing at a checkout: Aldi, Rewe and Co. want to reinvent shopping. Aldi is now adding something that all customers have always wanted.
Aldi opened a branch in October 2021 that does not require any cash registers . With this branch, the discounter wanted to test whether this concept had a future. As a customer, you have to scan a QR code when entering and leaving the store. Artificial intelligence takes care of the rest. Whether this will prevail in the long term remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: there are no queues at the checkout. And now Aldi Nord is introducing something that also prevents long queues and that all of the discounter’s customers have probably wished for before.
ALDI MAKES A LOT EASIER WITH ONE CHANGE
Everyone who returns deposits at Aldi knows it: there is a queue of people with large bags full of empty plastic bottles in front of you. One after the other goes into the machine. Sometimes the machine doesn’t accept one because it’s crushed, sometimes there’s still something in a bottle and the machine refuses to accept it. Anyone who sees a queue in front of the deposit machines from afar often leaves their few bottles in the car and goes shopping. Because here you can easily spend a minute or two. Aldi is aware of the problem and now they have a solution for it.
Aldi Nord is currently testing reverse vending machines called “Tomra R1” in three stores. The advantage over the normal deposit machines in the branches of the food discounter: You don’t stuff one bottle after the other. A whole sack of empty returnable bottles can easily be tipped into it. The new reverse vending machine can hold up to 100 bottles and cans at the same time. The advantage for customers of the food discounter: Returning the deposit is quicker and easier. In addition, your hands stay clean because you don’t have to touch every can and bottle individually.
NETTO, EDEKA AND REWE ARE ALSO THERE
Aldi Nord shows what the new deposit machine looks like on Twitter . Incidentally, Aldi Nord, with its three branches in Hattingen, Bunde and Wilhelmshaven, is not the only discounter to offer customers the new deposit machine. The manufacturer uses a map to show where customers can tip their empties into the Tomra R1. The new deposit machine can be found at a total of 23 locations throughout Germany. Also at Aldi Süd, Edeka, Rewe and Co.
