Aldi offers contactless payment at checkout-free store

The change means that Aldi customers will no longer have to register via the Shop&Go app on their phones and can “simply tap their contactless payment card, or mobile phone, to enter the store”.

Ben Shotter, Aldi UK regional managing director, said: “It has been great to see how positively customers have responded to our Shop&Go trial and this latest change will help to make it even quicker and easier for people to use the store.

“We’re always looking for ways to improve our customers’ shopping experience, which is what our Shop&Go store is all about.”

Aldi’s Shop&Go contactless concept store opened in Greenwich, London, in January 2022.

The discounter is not the only grocer trialling checkout-free stores to simplify the process for customers.

Tesco launched its first GetGo concept in October 2021 and has since opened three other GetGo stores, albeit ones that also offer contactless payment options for customers.

Sainsbury’s trialled Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology at a store directly opposite its head office in Holborn but has since quietly scrapped the project.

Even Amazon, which was at the forefront of the technological push, has begun adding contactless payment options to some of its Fresh stores in the UK.

In November 2023, the tech giant opened its 20th c-store in the UK in Notting Hill, London.

The store was unique in that it offered customers the chance to use its patented Just Walk Out technology as well as self-checkout tills.