Grocery stores in the UK are about to get a whole lot more interesting. The Telegraph is reporting that the Sainsbury supermarket will start offering shopping carts to customers with built-in iPad docks.
That’s right, you’ll be able to check email while on your iPad while you shop. Just try to not hit anyone else in the aisle with your cart.
According to The Telegraph, these iPad docks won’t be cheap, either:
“The trolleys come complete with a tilting iPad holder and speakers. Their front bumpers are fitted with a sensor which lets off a warning beep if an engrossed shopper gets too close to another customer, while an onboard battery with a self-charging solar panel ensures that the iPads never run out of power.”
While the Apple geek in all of us loves this idea, we can’t help but wonder how this addition will prove to be more of an annoyance than connivence. After all, who wants to be shopping with a store full of people glued to their iPads?
(via MacTrast)
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
20 responses to “Soon You Could Be Pushing a Shopping Cart With an iPad Dock”
This makes no sense – “supermarkets in Sainsbury”, the name of the supermarket is “Sainsbury”
It makes sense if users are using a grocery shopping list app, such as grocery iq or grocery gadget. Or one of several cooking apps where the user is purchasing ingredients for a recipe. Maybe… MAYBE having the At Bat or ESPN scorecenter up to keep tabs on a game while doing the shopping. In those examples, convenience. Aside from that…. ANNOYANCE!!
So, for a thief who want to get their hands on an iPad…head down to Sainsbury! And what about the supermarkets in malls….where the trolleys are unlikely to see the sun. How do they recharge? Actually, scrap that. They are in the UK….how will they ever recharge even if they do go outside once in a while?
Another stupid supermarket idea. Have any supermarket hi-tech shopping cart ideas ever worked? Now, they thinks it’s a good idea to give thieves a quick and easy way to grab expensive devices from hundreds of busy shoppers. Lovely!
I think NOT!
I don’t like Sainsbury’s anyway. Seems like another reason not to.
I use epicurious while in the supermarket. Also, I have PDFs of shopping lists that I can cross out items once they go into the trolley. Just need someone to hook up a barcode scanner to the dock connector and I could know exactly how much I was racking up. there are definitely reasons it would work other than just “checking email”. I don’t see the problem in having a few trolleys per hundred that support a – see any – tablet.
Actually, the name of the supermarket is “Sainsbury’s”
Probably they will offer an app that helps you find what you’re looking for….I’m always so lost in a supermarket^^
solar panels work with any source of light, and in supermarkets there’s usually bright artificial light
2 thoughts; they really get dressed up when grocery shopping in the UK, and that chick really likes bananas.
Great idea (for Sainsbury’s). Customers will get some benefits – WiFi, and likely an integrated shooping app where you load up your list and it will alert you as you go by the items. And it will probably give you special offers and discounts. But the real genius is that in order to do this they’ll also be tracking you around the store. Not only will they know what you buy, but they’ll know where you walked, where you stopped, how long you stopped, and what you were looking at. I worked for Ahold 20 years ago when they first started looking into the “smart shopping trolley,” but they were too far ahead of the technology. It now seems ready to make a go of it.
So the third time you stop in front of the HobNobs (“Nobbly Oaty Goodness!”) without buying they’ll probably send you an e-coupon to get you pick them up. It might be a better discount by the 5th time. Or they might give up. (It’s your biscuits, you decide.) One fortunate thing is the UK has very strict data privacy laws, so they likely won’t be able to sell your personal patterns to anyone. But they can sell your data anonymously by demographic group.So mattering your point of view this is either another data profile marketers will use to wring every last pence out of you, or it’s a way for Sainsbury’s to offer you more, and more highly refined discounts. Or both.