Countdown says contactless shopping has proven popular with shoppers, but a supermarket worker in one busy Auckland store using it the technology says it is encouraging shoplifting.
Supermarket chain Countdown launched its contactless shopping feature “Scan & Go” two years ago and has slowly rolled it out to 20 stores.
This year, five more stores have started allowing the contactless shopping method, which Countdown says was particularly favoured with shoppers during peak shopping hours as a “queue-busting” tool.
Scan & Go works by allowing a shopper to scan the barcode of each item through the Countdown app and pack the goods into a shopping bag as they went around the shop.
At the end, a QR code is generated, which can then be scanned at a dedicated unmanned checkout, prompting an electronic payment to be made.
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Countdown says contactless shopping has picked up in popularity with shoppers this year after they got used to using the alternative shopping method during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.
Mark Wolfenden, director of the supermaket’s technology arm CountdownX, said usage of contactless shopping was forecast to grow further in coming years as shoppers increasingly wanted more…
