If you always have trouble finding that specific pasta sauce like I do, there’s a smart shopping cart that can map it for you. Instacart’s Caper Cart, which has a touch screen and checkout terminal at the front where you’d normally sit your toddler or play Jenga with your products, now has a new store map system that can help you navigate to products what you are looking for, online. sell items and even send you on quests that can generate savings. And they also have ads.
Caper Carts have been in limited operation in select grocery stores for several years; When you place products, the cart britcommerceally counts them on the screen (except for specific types of products) thanks to several cameras, sensors and a scale built into the cart. The big advantage of Caper Cart is that you can import your shopping list from the Instacart app by scanning a QR code on the cart and pay from the cart without having to wait in line.
In a demo with Caper Cart co-founder Ahmed Beshry, he showed us a new “gamified” feature: When you add an item to your cart, it can show you the location of a second item that you can grab to unlock more discounts. The map on the cart showed me a trail of dotted lines of where to go next and, as the cart moved, the map kept me updated with its position in real time, a bit like when I walk to a gym in Pokémon Go.
The new live map in Caper Cart seems more useful than just the aisle letters and numbers the cart provided before. But how does the car know where it is? I asked if it used special beacons or mmWave positioning, but Beshry said the company couldn’t share how the tracking works. He said they create a 3D map of the store’s interior, sort of like the process of a robot vacuum mapping your apartment.
The cart can also launch you on a “scavenger hunt” to find flash deals on items on the map. And to keep you engaged in the entire in-person digital cart experience in a world where Instacart primarily delivery groceries, the cart will reward you with credits for repeat visits by running a “shopping streak.”
Sometimes you need a dip with your chips, and the cart will happily tell you they go together, but other times, you don’t need or want to be told to go get a specific company’s dip. And while I’d like some help finding the pasta sauce that’s on sale, it can be overwhelming to get caught up in recommendations and ads generated in my shopping cart.
Still, a cart that can figure out what I put in it, where to find things on my list, give me instant coupons, and let me pay without having to wait in the self-checkout line is a future I’m willing to try.
In fact, finding one of these cars can be a treasure hunt in itself. While the company says it has “tripled our Caper Cart footprint” in the last six months and will soon have “thousands” of them, it doesn’t say exactly where you can find them. Markets to check out include Bristol Farms, Fairway Market, The Fresh Grocer, Geissler’s Supermarket, Kroger, McKeever’s Market & Eatery, Price Chopper, Schnucks and ShopRite in the US, as well as Aldi in Austria.