‘They make life much easier’: AI-powered shopping trolleys go on trial in Lancashire
A Morrisons supermarket in Ashton-on-Ribble, near Preston, has become the first UK store to trial "smart trolleys" that let shoppers scan, weigh and total their items automatically without visiting a checkout. The AI-powered Caper trolleys, made by Instacart, register products as they're placed in the cart and suggest related items, with payment completed via the trolley's own screen. Morrisons hopes the technology will succeed where Amazon Fresh's checkout-free stores failed to catch on in Britain, and plans to expand the trolleys to other supermarkets nationwide.
The trolleys, already deployed in more than 100 cities worldwide, are similar to the Dash Cart used in Amazon Fresh stores outside the UK. Customers in Lancashire have given largely positive feedback: one shopper, who is autistic, said the trolleys helped him stick to an £80 budget by visualising spending in real time, while another called them "brilliant" and predicted they would become widespread. Not all reactions were entirely glowing, however, with one first-time user finding the trolley cumbersome to manoeuvre and suggesting a smaller version would encourage repeat use.
- Morrisons trials UK's first AI-powered "smart trolleys" in Lancashire
- Instacart's Caper trolleys scan items, tally costs, skip checkout
- Shoppers praise budgeting help, though some find trolleys unwieldy
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Supermarkets have been testing ways to make shopping and paying quicker, including self-service checkouts and stores where customers can leave without stopping at a till. Smart trolleys bring some of that technology into a regular supermarket: they identify items as shoppers add them and keep a running total on a screen.
Morrisons is a British supermarket chain, and Instacart is a US company that makes the Caper trolleys. Similar trolleys are already used in cities around the world, while Amazon has used its Dash Cart in some of its shops.
The trial matters because it will show whether shoppers find the trolleys useful enough for supermarkets to adopt them more widely. Features such as seeing the bill build up could help people keep track of spending, while the design and ease of use may affect whether customers want to use them again.