Osegi
Business·2 min read

Kaufland smart scales spot your fruit and veg, plus hybrid checkouts

Kaufland's new produce scales use a camera and AI to guess what's on them, even inside a plastic bag. One Polish store also has a checkout that switches between self-service and staffed.

A shopper weighing fruit on a supermarket scale with a camera and touchscreen showing large product tiles.
Image: Spider's Web
SUMODialoediviewergiftdetect

Weighing apples at Kaufland in Poland just got a little less fiddly. The chain has put smart scales in the fruit and veg aisle that look at your produce and suggest what it is, so you don't have to scroll through a menu.

The scales are now in 23 stores across Poland. They carry cameras similar to those on self-checkouts, and an AI algorithm picks the likely product from its appearance and shows it as a tile on the screen. It isn't fully automatic: you still confirm the choice. It works even when the produce sits in a plastic bag, and the tiles are big to help people with poorer eyesight.

What is a Kaufland hybrid checkout?

The chain is also testing a hybrid checkout, now available in one Polish store. It has an enlarged table for placing goods and two modes. In the first, customers scan their own shopping. Turn the screen around, and a store employee takes over.

The idea is a middle path in the old argument over self-checkouts. Some shoppers like them for quick, small shops. Others dislike them because they feel they replace staff. With a hybrid till, a cashier could ring up a big trolley more efficiently, and the customer might not have to scan anything. Kaufland is also looking at how well the format works in other countries, not only Poland.

Shopping without unpacking at Kaufland

Labels printed by the smart scales work at the K-Scan checkout, where you pay without unpacking your basket. That service, along with the chain's own payment method, Kaufland Pay, is now available in every Kaufland store in Poland.

For shoppers, the practical effect is fewer taps at the scale and, possibly, shorter waits at the till. The hybrid checkout is still a single-store trial, so don't expect it at your local branch yet.

Apps worth a look

SUMO: the number puzzle

Tap the right tiles, add them up, hit the target. Easy to learn, hard to master. Free, for all ages.

Tags:kauflandsmart scalesself-checkoutretailpolandai

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