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Instacart’s Smart Cart Guides You to Sale-Priced Sauces

For those who often struggle to locate specific grocery items, such as a particular pasta sauce, Instacart’s Caper Cart offers a high-tech solution. The cart is equipped with a touchscreen and payment terminal, typically positioned where a child might sit or groceries are stacked. This innovative cart features a store map system that guides shoppers to desired products, highlights sale items, and even provides opportunities for additional savings through tasks. However, it also includes advertisements.

The Caper Carts have been available in select grocery stores for a few years. They automatically tally placed items, excluding some types of produce, through integrated cameras, sensors, and a scale. A significant advantage of the Caper Cart is the ability to upload a shopping list from the Instacart app by scanning a QR code on the cart, and complete the checkout process from the cart itself, eliminating the need for waiting in line.

During a demonstration of the Caper Cart, Ahmed Beshry, its co-founder, showcased a new “gamified” feature. When an item is added to the cart, it indicates the location of a second item that can be purchased to unlock more discounts. The cart’s screen provides a dotted trail to guide users, updating the shopper’s real-time position as they move through the store, reminiscent of navigation features in mobile apps.

The updated map functionality of the Caper Cart offers improvements over the traditional aisle indicators previously available. Questions regarding the cart’s tracking mechanism, whether through special beacons or positioning technology, remained unanswered, as Beshry mentioned that the company could not disclose these details. However, he did mention the creation of a 3D map of the store’s interior, similar to how a robot vacuum might map an apartment.

Additionally, the Caper Cart engages shoppers in a “treasure hunt” to discover flash deals on the map. To encourage continued use of the digital in-person experience, especially in a landscape where Instacart predominantly delivers groceries, the cart rewards users with credits for consistent usage patterns, referred to as a “shopping streak.”

While the cart can suggest item pairings, such as highlighting the complementary nature of chips and dip, there can be instances where shoppers may feel inundated by promotions for specific brands. Despite this, the benefits of a smart cart capable of identifying selected items, locating listed products, providing instant discounts, and facilitating quick payments are appealing aspects of a futuristic shopping experience.

Although the availability of Caper Carts might pose its own challenge, Instacart has expanded its footprint significantly, promising thousands of these carts soon without specifying exact locations. Potential grocery stores to find the Caper Cart include Bristol Farms, Fairway Market, The Fresh Grocer, Geissler’s Supermarket, Kroger, McKeever’s Market & Eatery, Price Chopper, Schnucks, and ShopRite in the United States, as well as Aldi in Austria.

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