The brand new technology you're about to see in Woolworths
Woolworths has introduced a new surveillance technology to monitor its store.
The supermarket giant is trialling a new robot in Sydney’s Gregory Hills branch to roam around the aisles and alert staff members on any potential safety hazards.
“We’ve been working hard to reduce trips and slips in our stores, but we still see too many,” a Woolworths spokesperson told Over 60.
“We’re trialling new technology in Gregory Hills to see if it can help make the store safer for our customers and team. It will roam the store looking for potential safety hazards, and allow one of our store team members to quickly attend to it.”
He said Woolworths have no plans to expand the robot trial to other stores at this time.
The retailer has also installed iPad screens with in-built cameras at the self-serve checkouts to deter theft.
“We know the vast majority of our customers do the right thing at self-serve checkouts,” the spokesperson said. “This is a security measure we are trialling for those that don’t.”
The spokesperson said the supermarket has ensured that the PIN pad will be out of view from the cameras, and that the technology is “fully compliant with payment card security standards”.
He said, “The store has eight manned checkout lanes, and we’ve hired 40 customer service team members, for customers who prefer to interact with our team as they checkout.”
The move came after Coles debuted tablet-sized cameras at the self-serve checkout area in 12 of their Melbourne stores last week.