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global eyes
market in London.
“Ingka Investments continues to target
acquisitions of commercial real estate in other major cities where Ingka Group operates to find out how and where we can best meet customer needs.
“Securing ownership of properties in prime locations instead of leasing will preserve value on a long-term basis.”
Since 2019 Ingka Group has opened stores and shops in Tokyo, Madrid, Moscow, Paris and New York as well as planning studios in Vienna, Barcelona, Berlin and Prague.
www.ingka.com
Tesco goes full contactless – Staying with inner London, the UK’s biggest retailer Tesco has opened its first checkout-free store where people can shop without having to scan a product or pay for it physically.
In a new format known as GetGo,
the 190m2 Tesco Express High Holborn branch (incidentally already cashless
and with self-service tills) has now been converted to allow customers to shop and pay without using the checkout from 7am to 11pm.
Instead, customers use the Tesco.com app (with over 6.5 million users) to pick up and pay for the groceries they need, with cameras and weight sensors having figured out what they have picked up.
Tesco makes it super clear that its cameras do not use facial recognition technology, but instead track body movements and that visual data from customers will not be stored or saved.
The technology being used by Tesco is from tech start-up Trigo, which has already partnered up with supermarkets in Germany and the Netherlands.
The format had already been trialled among Tesco employees with the new public-facing GetGo store being regarded as a proof of concept that may or may not be rolled out across other cities and sites.
Be that as it may, Tesco doesn’t have the contact-less supermarket to itself. On top of Amazon Fresh stores (of which there are now six in London), German discounter Aldi has also opened a pilot “shop-and-go” style store in Greenwich, while Morrisons has also been working on a similar concept which uses only cameras to detect what customers have picked and does not make use of sensors on shelves.
www.tescoplc.com
UK retailers and the
Offensive Weapons Act
THE BRITISH HOME Enhancement Trade Association (BHETA) amongst other peak industry organisations has been updating its members on the implications of the latest information from the UK Government on the timing and remarkably broad scope of the proposed Offensive Weapons Act.
In response to a range of life- threatening acts in recent times, the proposed legislation affects the sale of all bladed items in the housewares, DIY and garden sectors.
Whilst most legislation is typically introduced in October or April, it is anticipated that guidelines for the Act may be confirmed as early as before Christmas for commencement ahead of April 2022, leaving many retailers simply unprepared for the changes required.
BHETA says that the consultation information originally put out in August 2019 means that suppliers
of the following items will need to adapt their packaging, presentation and, where remote sales are involved,
delivery systems too:
• Kitchen knives of any size or design • All bladed hobby, craft, DIY or
professional trade tools (regardless of whether they are marketed as knives).
In all cases appropriate age
verification systems are required for all retail and online sales.
Clearly forecasting that the
Act will represent a real shock
to many retailers’ base systems, BHETA’s Marketing Manager Steve Richardson says of the Act: “Put bluntly this is not just about suppliers of kitchen knives into bricks and mortar retailers.
“Many suppliers across housewares, DIY and garden have in the last 18 months moved more of their business direct to the consumer via online sales.
“This may well raise legislative issues that are new to them in terms of home-based age verification, and product labelling.”
www.bheta.co.uk
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NOVEMBER 2021 | NZHJ 51