Trigo Tries Frictionless Stores for Supermarket Co-Op Wakefern Food Corp.

Israel-based frictionless checkout company Trigo and retailer-owned cooperative Wakefern Food Corp. on Thursday (Jan. 13) announced a partnership for an autonomous supermarket pilot that uses Trigo’s artificial intelligence technology, according to a press release.

Wakefern, which is the logistics, distribution and merchandising arm for ShopRite stores, includes almost 50 member companies that independently own and operate almost 360 retail supermarkets across the ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace, The Fresh Grocer, Dearborn Market, Gourmet Garage and Fairway Market brands.

“Trigo is proud to work with some of the largest grocery retailers around the world, so partnering with Wakefern Food Corp. was a natural step for the company,” said Michael Gabay, Trigo’s co-founder and CEO, in the joint announcement.

“By helping Wakefern convert some store formats or develop new ones that are exclusive to their brands, we can help them accelerate their growth within the market and pave the way for frictionless shopping in the future,” he said.

Trigo turns supermarkets and grocery stores into autonomous, digital stores. Shoppers use an app to scan a QR code as they enter the store, then can pick up items and leave without having to check out through an exit gate.

Wakefern is Trigo’s first partnership in the U.S.

“With Trigo’s frictionless technology, Wakefern Food Corp. is opening up access to cutting edge innovation for our members,” said Charlie McWeeney, VP of technology, innovation and strategy at Wakefern Food Corp. “We are excited to pilot Trigo’s solution and offer our consumers the ultimate in checkout convenience.”

Related: Frictionless Checkout Brings eCommerce Convenience into Stores to Drive Conversion

In November, Yair Holtzer, vice president of business development at Trigo, told PYMNTS that cashierless checkout can boost the metrics most important to grocers’ success in today’s competitive marketplace.

PYMNTS study, Today’s Self-Service Shopping Journey: The New Retail Expectation, created in collaboration with Toshiba, surveyed over 2,000 U.S. consumers about their shopping behaviors and found that more than two-thirds of grocery shoppers who use self-service checkout say it’s faster than traditional checkout.

Additionally, more than half of grocery’s self-checkout users are motivated by the option to skip the traditional checkout line.