Food expert concerned about privacy with Sobeys’ smart grocery cart

One of Halifax's top food experts is concerned about privacy issues as Sobeys introduces its new smart grocery carts in the city.

Last week, the Sobeys in Clayton Park was the first Atlantic Canada location to get the intelligent grocery shopping cart.

But Sylvain Charlebois, a food distribution and food policy professor at Dalhousie University, is concerned about how much data customers are giving away to the grocer.

“The biggest concern that I have is from a privacy perspective,” Charlebois, who's known as The Food Professor, told CityNews Halifax. “As you walk into a grocery store [and use one of these carts], you're basically giving a whole ton of data to your grocer to learn about you from you in real-time — that's really the trick here.

“So, you walk in, you enhance my experience and in return, I give more data about me.”

Using its technology, the Smart Carts are able to track consumers' buying behaviour, which areas of the store are being frequented the most and which areas are being avoided.

They can also track which items customers are placing into their carts and which items are being put back on shelves.

It's data that's crucial to grocers since it'll be able to help them change aspects of their stores such as shelving and layouts.

Sobeys' Smart Cart uses multiple high-resolution cameras that capture 120 images per second. When a product is placed inside the cart, the cameras are able to identify the item.

The grocer first introduced Smart Carts in a 2019 pilot project at its Glen Abbey store in Oakville, Ont.

“It's a tool given to you to enhance your own grocery experience, essentially,” Charlebois said. “Sobeys is responding to the Amazon Go threat.”

In the United States, there are 26 Amazon Go stores that use a check-out-free system. In cities such as New York, Chicago and Seattle, customers can walk into one of these stores, scan their phone, grab their items and leave — all without having to wait to check out.

“It's kind of legal shoplifting if you will,” Charlebois said. “When they (Amazon) came up with that model of Amazon Go, Sobeys and other retailers, obviously, were thinking, 'OK, how can we actually better the exit part of the grocery experience,' which, arguably, has been the worst part of anyone's experience.”

Since the Amazon Go stores use hundreds of cameras and sensors to operate, it's quite costly. Amazon hasn't released official figures, but Forbes has reported that the hardware alone costs roughly $1 million USD.

“The second best thing is to actually just give a mobile tool to consumers as they walk into the store,” he said. “That's how they came up with the Smart Cart.”

The carts offer functions such as a computer that can offer recipes and where to find the ingredients in store.

Moreover, customers can easily keep track of how much they're spending since the cart will continuously update the total as they're shopping.

Since Canada continues to see a labour shortage across various industries, Charlebois said he isn't too worried about new technology that cuts the need for an employee.

When Sobeys launched the Smart Carts in Ontario in 2019, the grocery chain insisted that the carts aren't meant to replace employees.

At the Sobeys Clayton Park location, there are Smart Cart ambassador employees who are available to help customers if requested.