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From August 2008
By Walter F.
Loeb
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Sponsored by
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| German retailing giant Metro Group opened its
first Future Store in Rheinberg five years ago.
It was a huge success since this supermarket
showcased, among other things, some of the first
practical in-store applications of RFID
technology. Since that time RFID has found use
in logistics and inventory control. |
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Building on that experience, a new Future Store
was recently opened in the small Düsseldorf
suburb of Toenisvorst. This Real supercenter
store is much larger (92,000 sq. ft.) than the
original Extra store and includes both food and
general merchandise.
RFID plays a more specific role in the new store
by ensuring the freshness of meat. This store
also introduces many technological ideas that,
should they prove successful, will be adopted as
practical applications in the next few years.
Much of the focus is on mobile shopping
assistant (MSA) technology for cell phones. You
can scan products with the mobile phone; you can
also store a shopping list and select
merchandise for the shopping basket. MSA also
has a store map to help you find departments
more quickly.
Scanning for wine pairings
For food products, additional information like
ingredients and nutritional facts are available
electronically. One can also check out with the
MSA cell phone: Having scanned all articles
while shopping, standing in line at the checkout
counter may soon become a thing of the past.
Another point of interest is in the liquor
department; customers can scan the wine to get
information as to its bouquet and suggestions
for complimentary food pairings. And some
bottles were stored at the correct temperature
in climate-controlled cabinets.
It was the checkout that I found most
interesting. While there were the traditional
checkout counters, there also were express
self-checkouts and cashless checkouts, but the
real innovation was the introduction of
fingerprint scanning for credit checkout.
Robotic guides
Two robots (Roger and Ally) circulating in the
store were willing guides with a good deal of
information about the various departments. New
non-food departments include sporting goods and
active wear, as well as an electronics
department with CD listening stations. There was
a nice coffee bar with some nice features,
including a shopping cart parking area and a
Wi-Fi hotspot.
Retailing is constantly changing through
innovative developments. Just as Tesco showed us
innovative ways to develop new convenience
stores with its Fresh and Easy concept (and I am
looking forward to seeing how Wal-Mart responds
when it introduces Market Place), the Real store
has great potential and I would like to see the
applications in a more cosmopolitan site.
There was little intensity of merchandise – it
was too formal. Still, I learned a lot in this
store, and I believe that it is a good
experimental location for Metro Group to develop
and test technology that will be important for
their organization.
I thought the store was exciting because of the
innovative technology features that once again
point to a new evolution in retailing. Metro’s
management has vision and, just as important, is
willing to share the information that will move
retailing forward. |
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