Discount Retail Chain Lidl (owned by the German Schwarz Group) is speeding up supermarket check-outs by testing a new service where you "scan as you shop". The discounter is launching the pilot in one store in south west London for now but it could roll out to other stores too if it's successful. Shoppers will be able to scan their groceries with their phone before paying
It's not officially come into place yet, but once the scheme is up and running you'll be able to use your phone to scan products while you shop instead of scanning everything in one go at the tills.
So when it comes to checking out, you just have to scan a barcode generated at the end of your shop, which will allow you to pay for everything you've picked up. You'll need to download the free Lidl Go app to use the service which was made available to download from the Google Play app store yesterday as reported by The Grocer. Shoppers will be able to set up an account on the app or sync their existing Lidl Plus account which is the supermarket's other loyalty based app. Once it's all set up you'll be ready to scan items whilst shopping in the store which will help reduce long queues at the checkout. The new app will be used to scan any products available in the discount store that you would usually add to your trolley, including fruit and veg sold by weight, as you'll be able to scan the barcode printed at a weighing station. Staff will be checking at regular intervals to make sure shoppers are scanning things correctly as a precaution against theft too. Fulwell Lidl in south west London is the only store where the app will be able to be used so far but branching out to other stores in the future hasn't been ruled out. Other supermarkets have similar schemes set up as well like Tesco's "Scan as you Shop" and M&S' "Mobile Pay Go". The Grocer reports that Aldi might be working on a similar mobile scheme itself, having recently registered the trademark "Shop & Go". It also reported that a Lidl spokesperson said it was too early to provide any further details on the new "scan as you go" scheme. We've reached out to Lidl for more details about when the service will be in full operation, and will update this story once we know more. See here for more: https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/15775302/lidl-testing-new-scan-as-you-shop-service/
