Vending

Alimentation Couche-Tard to deploy Mashgin touchless checkout at 7,000 stores

Image courtesy of Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.

June 6, 2022

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., a convenience retailer, will deploy more than 10,000 Mashgin touchless checkout systems branded as "smart checkout" to over 7,000 of its Circle K and Couche-Tard stores during the next three years, according to a press release.

The agreement represents one of the largest scale expansions of computer vision-powered checkout technology to date, building on the deployment of Mashgin across nearly 500 Circle K locations in the U.S. and Sweden since 2020, as well as at Couche-Tard's retail innovation lab store on the campus of McGill University in Montreal.

The system uses computer vision to recognize items presented from virtually any angle and instantly ring them up in a single transaction. Customers place their items on the system, which uses cameras to ring up everything in under a second. There is no need to download an app or find and scan barcodes; shoppers simply put items down, pay as they normally would, and are on their way in as little as 10 seconds — eight times faster than traditional self-checkout.

Surveys of first-time Mashgin users at deployed Circle K locations show that 80% of those customers prefer Mashgin to traditional forms of checkout and self-checkout.

Recent updates to the system to allow cash use, fuel purchase and loyalty programs like Sip & Save have driven customer adoption.

"We've been hearing great feedback from our customers in the stores where Smart Checkout has been introduced, and it's easy to see why. Mashgin's platform is incredibly simple to use and highly intuitive for customers," Alex Miller, executive vice president operations, North America, and global commercial optimization for Couche-Tard, said in the press release.