The next generation of supermarket technology may not be another checkout machine or electronic shelf label. It could be the camera already hanging from the ceiling.
Spanish technology company Grabit is expanding its use of computer vision and deep-learning technology in supermarkets, with fresh food, checkout accuracy and loss prevention among its main targets. The company expects to reach around 1,500 operational licences in the near term.
What makes this interesting is where the technology is being applied.
Fresh food has always been difficult for retailers to manage. Products can look similar, weights vary, prices change and staff have to deal with hundreds of individual items every day. Grabit’s technology can recognise fresh products at weighing points and traditional checkouts, helping retailers reduce errors and speed up the process.
The company is also developing technology for self-checkouts and existing CCTV systems. Rather than asking supermarkets to replace all their equipment, Grabit is looking at ways of adding intelligence to hardware retailers already have.
That could be important.
Supermarkets have invested heavily in cameras, self-service checkouts and weighing equipment. The next step may not be buying completely new systems, but making existing systems much smarter.
There is also a bigger question. If cameras can identify products, recognise unusual behaviour and help retailers understand what is happening in the store, the supermarket gradually becomes a place where technology is observing the operation almost continuously.
For retailers, the attraction is obvious: fewer mistakes, better control and potentially less loss.
But the real change may be that the supermarket is beginning to see itself in real time.
And that could prove more valuable than another piece of hardware.