{"id":376898,"date":"2025-12-30T08:20:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T08:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/376898\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T08:20:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T08:20:16","slug":"heres-what-its-like-to-use-an-ai-shopping-cart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/376898\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s What It\u2019s Like to Use an AI Shopping Cart"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first supermarket, the Piggly Wiggly in Memphis<\/a>, opened its doors in 1916. It was the first time people could wander around a store and pick their items from a shelf instead of handing a list to a clerk who would gather everything for them\u2014typically without any choice of brand or style. Grocery shopping<\/a> remains a daily or weekly ritual for most people, and it can be a real chore\u2014especially if you\u2019re shopping<\/a> for a large family. My own grocery lists aren\u2019t all that long, but I still find myself juggling my phone and a scrap of paper as I walk around the store, checking for digital coupons and trying to do quick math. So when I read that one of the local grocery stores (a ShopRite) was rolling out Smart Shopping Carts powered by artificial intelligence (AI), I was intrigued. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m naturally dubious about a lot of AI tools, but grocery shopping seemed like a place where a little digital help might come in handy. So I headed out to see whether these fancy new carts would offer real benefits or just a lot of targeted advertisements.<\/p>\n

What are caper carts?<\/p>\n

The carts in question are Caper Carts<\/a>, which is owned by Instacart<\/a>. They\u2019re pretty large and tank-like, and kind of heavy to push.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n The Caper Carts are pretty big and heavy.
\n Credit: Jeff Somers\n <\/p>\n

You need to have an account with ShopRite in order to use these carts, as they use your phone number to track your purchases; you can choose to store a credit card or other form of payment in there for convenience, but it\u2019s not required. When you walk in the store, the Caper Carts are right there in the entrance area. When you pull one out, the screen lets you enter your phone number, then offers you a (mercifully brief) tutorial.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n The welcome screen on the AI shopping cart.
\n Credit: Jeff Somers\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n The log-in screen
\n Credit: Jeff Somers\n <\/p>\n

The carts have barcode scanners mounted on both sides of the back of the cart, and the cart itself is a scale, which is both how it ensures you\u2019ve scanned everything in the cart and how it calculates the cost of loose produce. If you\u2019ve ever used a self-checkout in a grocery store, it\u2019s kind of similar: You hold items up to the scanners and then drop them into your cart. For produce, you look up what you\u2019re buying and then drop it into the cart, where it\u2019s weighed and added to the total. Along the way, the cart will look for potential coupons or deals you might be interested in. The carts can import your shopping lists from the store\u2019s app, if you want, and will keep track of your loyalty points and rewards as well.<\/p>\n

How to use a Caper Cart<\/p>\n

The first Caper Cart I selected didn\u2019t work; nothing would scan no matter how I held things up to the scanners. This wasn\u2019t a big deal\u2014I let the store folks know, logged out of the cart, and grabbed another. The second cart worked perfectly.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n The Caper Cart screen while shopping
\n Credit: Jeff Somers\n <\/p>\n

These carts are pretty heavy, and the second cart I used had a loose wheel which made it rumble loudly as I walked the aisles\u2014you aren\u2019t going to be racing these carts and jumping on for a quick glide. When I dropped an item in the cart without scanning it, the cart politely showed me a video of me placing the item (creepy) and asked if I wanted to fess up to adding something to the cart. It did, however, give me the option to declare a \u201cpersonal item,\u201d which is a solid feature.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n A video pops up if you try putting an un-scanned item in the cart
\n Credit: Jeff Somers\n <\/p>\n

I forgot to put my shopping bags in the cart, because I am frequently dumb. You\u2019re supposed to bag as you go, which saves you time; I had to bag after checkout, which did not save me time. On the other hand, I don\u2019t always shop in bagging order, so bagging as I go might result in some of my items getting crushed under heavier groceries, or me having to re-arrange everything in the middle of the shopping experience. I kind of like bagging at the end, when I can make decisions about how to arrange everything optimally.<\/p>\n

If you change your mind about an item, you just remove it from the cart. The Caper system will notice and remove the item from your bill.<\/p>\n

What do you think so far?<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re done, you just tap \u201cCheckout\u201d and head to the Checkout Area.<\/p>\n

\"Checking<\/p>\n

\n Checking out with a Caper Cart
\n Credit: Jeff Somers\n <\/p>\n

This will be different depending on the specific store you\u2019re in\u2014some stores don\u2019t have checkout lanes for the Caper Carts, but this ShopRite did. There was only one lane for Caper Carts, and I had to wait behind someone as they checked themselves out. Then I scanned a barcode on my screen with a gun and tapped my card to pay while a security guard loomed nearby, presumably to discourage folks from making a run for it.<\/p>\n

\"Barcode<\/p>\n

\n Barcode for checking out with a Caper Cart
\n Credit: Jeff Somers\n <\/p>\n

\"Scanning<\/p>\n

\n Scanning the checkout barcode on a Caper Cart
\n Credit: Jeff Somers\n <\/p>\n

Overall, the AI shopping cart experience was a slight upgrade from typical grocery shopping. Bagging as you go is convenient, and checkout is a little easier because you scan a single barcode instead of two dozen. I didn\u2019t receive many personalized coupons or recipe suggestions because this was my first time using the system, but I can see how that could become very useful if the cart is able to dig up coupons or offers that I missed.<\/p>\n

A few specific notes:<\/p>\n

The cart can accidentally scan a barcode if you get close to a shelf, which can cause confusion, though the cart will quickly delete it if the weight doesn\u2019t change.<\/p>\n

As noted above, the carts are pretty heavy. If you\u2019re going to be buying a lot of groceries all at once, this could become a real workout.<\/p>\n

Adding produce can be a little complicated: You have to locate the \u201cprice look up\u201d (PLU) code for the specific produce you\u2019re adding, then scan or type it into the screen before dropping it into the cart. That means sometimes hunting for those little stickers and tapping a bunch of numbers into your cart over and over again.<\/p>\n

Seeing your total spend add up in real time is useful, especially if you\u2019re tracking costs. If an item costs more than expected, you see it immediately, and if the overall cost is more than anticipated you have time to adjust your selections before you hit the checkout.<\/p>\n

Because you have to go through a checkout lane as usual (and there was only one dedicated lane for Caper Carts), during busy times you might wind up waiting a long time to get out of the store, which kind of cancels out the convenience factor. Of course, as more people use these carts, ShopRite might add more dedicated Caper lanes.<\/p>\n

Depending on how you shop for groceries, these AI shopping carts might be worth a try\u2014but don\u2019t expect a revolutionary experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first supermarket, the Piggly Wiggly in Memphis, opened its doors in 1916. It was the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-376898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}