Since Thursday morning, at 11 avenue Parmentier, in the XIe district, Parisians can make their purchases at Flash 10/10, a new brand in the Carrefour network. This modern grocery store operates without cashiers or cashiers and the promise is to buy and pay in 10 seconds thanks to an advanced system comprising 60 cameras and 200 sensors.
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A supermarket without any cashier, and without any automatic cash register. This is what offers Amazon Go in recent years, and Carrefour has decided to test this concept with a brand called ” Flash 10/10 ” in Paris. It is in the XIe arrondissement, at 11 avenue Parmentier, and since Thursday morning, customers have been strolling through a mini-market without the slightest trace of a cashier.
But how does it work? First of all, this store only has 900 references, so you shouldn’t expect to shop there for the week. It is roughly speaking a small modern grocery store to help out, so it’s smaller than a Carrefour City. Then, this shop is equipped with 60 cameras and 2,000 sensors integrated into the shelves with a signed system AiFI. On the control screen, you can see the silhouettes of the customers who select their products. In fact, customers are tracked anonymously in the form of a virtual avatar assigned to them as soon as they enter the store.
The promise: 10 seconds to buy and 10 seconds to pay
The products they choose from the stalls are automatically detected and then added to their virtual basket. In real time, each customer knows what he is going to spend. THE’Artificial intelligence, or rather an algorithm, then takes care of the sum of the products selected by each customer. Once their purchases are completed, customers simply have their basket validated in a terminal and then pay contactlessly if the amount is less than 50 euros. This is most often the case for convenience and convenience purchases. They can then immediately receive an electronic receipt by simply scanning a QR code.
Is this shop 100% autonomous? In fact, there are four employees attached to this shop. They are there to fill the shelves because at noon or in the evening, the 900 references can very quickly be bought, and the shelves emptied. They are also there for “Click and Collect”, a kind of “drive” where you can come and collect your orders on foot. On site at all times, they can also advise customers on operation, collect payments by cash, and finally, they are there to verify the age of customers when they buy alcohol.
Demonstration of the use of a Flash store. © Carrefour
An experience without a future?
Does this concept of Flash 10/10 (” 10 seconds to buy and 10 seconds to pay ») Will develop in France? A priori no … In test for a year at the headquarters of Carrefour in Massy, Flash is first and foremost a demonstration of know-how, and a direct response to Amazon, but also to Intermarché, which is carrying out a similar test in the XXe arrondissement of Paris with an intelligent shopping cart system, similar to the Amazon Dash Cart. We also remember that two years ago, near Lille, Auchan had set up Auchan Minute, on the same principle with 400 references accessible 24 hours a day. For the moment, these experiences have not been small across France.
What could develop, however, are Flash Scan & Go type brands. This is what Carrefour launched in Brazil last March, and by the end of the year, the country will have 15 stores. Of this genre. The principle ? We do our shopping with our smartphone in hand, and we validate each product on the screen. This system has won over in France Casino and Monoprix with a system called Black Box where the customer is autonomous for his purchases thanks to his smartphone to create his virtual basket and pay.
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