Major Changes Potentially Coming to Michigan’s Cheapest Grocery Store

It wasn't too long ago we were reporting that Michigan's cheapest grocery store was combating inflation by going even cheaper on prices. But Aldi isn't done making changes.

After acquiring Winn-Dixie and Harvey's locations, Aldi is set to open and renovate 800 locations nationwide. Aldi has been skyrocketing in popularity over the years, which means the grocery chain is bound to find new ways to improve shopping experiences.

However, their next major change may be a bit concerning to frequent shoppers. This next change will put the AI in Aldi.

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Recently we told you about Sam's Club integrating AI into their stores as shoppers leave the stores. Aldi's AI advancement may be even more prominent too, as it will handle the way you pay for your groceries.

A Chicago Aldi location has already implemented the change. It's called AldiGo and it gives shoppers a new way to pay for their groceries.

Effectively, AldiGo uses AI technology to monitor the items you place in your cart - thus nullifying the need for cashiers, scanners and check-out lanes. The building is equipped with high-tech cameras and scanners to keep track of what is in your cart for easy checkout.

Customers can either use their debit or credit card or use the Grabango app.

One concern that isn't made clear in my research is if it's a pay-by-item system or one checkout once you're finished shopping as we are used to. I would be a bit annoyed if I had to pay for the cookies that my kids snuck into the cart.

As Payments Dive states in their report of Aldi's advancement, "frictionless checkout technology has struggled so far to expand in grocery and convenience retail in the U.S."

So, it sounds like this is largely uncharted territory for Aldi to wade into, which could be a bit dangerous. But with the quick prevalence of AI in everything, somebody has to be first.

And it should be noted, Aldi isn't making sweeping changes immediately. According to a USA Today report, Aldi brass won't commit to how and when this will be implemented in other stores.

However, because this technology is similar to Amazon's Just Walk Out technology, it sounds like it's really only a matter of time before Aldi and other retailers are using this type of technology in Michigan and across America.