Loblaw launches ‘pcogo’ pilot at select Toronto No Frills grocery stores. What is it?

An attendant stands at the checkout, at a No Frills Grocery store in Toronto, Thursday, May 30, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Loblaw is launching a fresh new grocery shopping experience at three of its downtown Toronto No Frills stores to save their customers time, but will they bite?

Dubbed “pcogo,” the pilot program will use the PC Optimum app to allow shoppers to scan their groceries as they shop to see an estimated running total of their bill before they checkout.

The grocery giant said the pilot is aimed at “empowering customers with greater visibility and control over their budget and loyalty rewards throughout their shopping trip.”

Checking out will be streamlined as well, with dedicated lanes for “pcogo” users. The app will also automatically track their PC Optimum points as they shop.

Only PC Optimum members with at least 30,000 lifetime points will be able to take part in the program, which is being offered at No Frills locations at Richmond and John streets, King and Shaw streets, and Mount Pleasant Road and Eglinton Avenue.

Eligible members can participate in the pilot by scanning the QR code displayed at participating stores or by enabling their smartphone’s location sharing setting.

“Our customers consistently tell us they value simplicity, efficiency, and a shopping experience that respects their time,” Melanie Singh, president of Loblaw’s hard discount division, said in a news release issued Thursday. “Our pcogo pilot is a direct response to that feedback, focusing on making checkout faster and giving customers more control over their purchases. It’s about delivering on our promise of a great store experience, from clean aisles to quick exits.”

CTV News Toronto spoke with retail analyst Bruce Winder about the pilot, who said the idea is “worth trying” and will likely be scaled up if it catches on.

“If the consumer votes and says, ‘You know what, I save time, I’m in and out, I can control my budget better,’ then I think what they would probably do is they would slowly expand the pilot,” he said.

“What companies do now, which is smart, is they don’t normally do something like this and roll it out across the nation, right? They do a pilot, they look at the data and then they make the decision to expand the pilot. So, it’s sort of like a slow launch.”

What does the future of grocery shopping look like?

Grocery stores have been racing to innovate the shopping experience for the last decade, through artificial intelligence and other logistical means.

Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” technology, for example, uses AI to track a customer’s purchases, allowing them to enter a store with a payment method and then bypass a traditional checkout line. The technology is available at more than a hundred places of businesses, including at Amazon Go stores in the U.S., and more locally, at the Scotiabank Arena and BMO Field in Toronto.

Last month, Walmart partnered with OpenAI to let shoppers make purchases within ChatGPT and in 2019, Sobeys introduced “Smart Carts” which saw customers scan and pay for their groceries right from their cart.

For its part, Loblaw’s click-and-collect delivery service PC Express has been going strong since 2014 and, in September, the grocery chain inked a deal to expand its fleet of self-driving trucks.

Winder says he could see a world in which “Just Walk Out” technology, or a similar concept, becomes more widespread, especially in environments with large crowds where customers need to checkout fast.

“If you look at Scotiabank Arena and those massive crowds that need to check out in a very short period of time, this allows them to do it quickly,’ he said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if in 10 years (from when) you and I are talking, and much more of the industry has been replaced with this technology.”