PITTSBURGH-Giant Eagle, Inc., one of the nation’s leading food, fuel and pharmacy retailers, and Grabango, the leading checkout-free technology provider for existing brick-and-mortar stores, announced a first-of-its-kind partnership designed to create a no-wait checkout experience.
By partnering with Grabango, Giant Eagle strengthens its commitment to continually invest in the latest forward-thinking technologies to enhance the shopping experience for customers. Grabango’s enterprise class platform is designed to operate across Giant Eagle’s multi-format footprint with checkout-free technologies providing the flexibility that Giant Eagle greatly values.
According to a recent study conducted by Forrester Research, waiting in the checkout line is the top complaint among U.S. grocery shoppers. Giant Eagle and Grabango hope to provide a remedy for this consistent pain point through their frictionless solution.
With Grabango’s checkout-free technology, customers will enter the store and immediately start shopping as they normally would – without any hurdles, such as turnstiles or costly memberships. The more advanced checkout-free system automatically keeps a running total of the items each shopper selects.
Grabango’s platform has been installed at a pilot Giant Eagle location and multiple executions of the payment technology are being optimized, including an app-based solution and another that allows the customer to pay with any tender they choose. The solution does not use facial recognition technology, but instead utilizes computer vision and machine learning to track shopped items. All data is anonymized to protect customer privacy.
“Giant Eagle is committed to advancing technologies that create an improved, stress-free shopping experience for our customers while still protecting their privacy,” said Giant Eagle’s Director of Corporate Communications, Dan Donovan. “In Grabango, we have found a partner who shares our commitment and who can help us bring this enhanced experience to life.”
“Giant Eagle has been a fantastic partner on this groundbreaking project,” said Will Glaser, Grabango’s CEO. “We are excited to be announcing our first checkout-free partnership with a major U.S. retailer. Together, we are offering a technology that is seamless and equitable for all.”
About Giant Eagle
Giant Eagle, Inc., ranked among the top 40 on Forbes magazine’s largest private corporations list, is one of the nation’s largest food, fuel and pharmacy retailers with approximately $8.9 billion in annual sales. Founded in 1931, Giant Eagle, Inc. has grown to be a leading retailer in the region with more than 460 stores throughout western Pennsylvania, Ohio, northern West Virginia, Maryland, and Indiana.
For more information, visit www.gianteagle.com.
About Grabango
Grabango is the leading checkout-free technology service provider for existing, large scale stores. Grabango delivers a next-generation shopper experience and is the only enterprise-class, checkout-free solution on the market today. The Grabango platform includes a fault tolerant, edge computing network that accurately processes millions of simultaneous transactions. The system places no limits on who can enter the store, what can be sold there, or how the shelving is configured.
Grabango was founded in 2016 by Will Glaser, former CTO and co-founder of Pandora Radio. The company has raised $18M to date from top venture capital firms and is headquartered in Berkeley, CA.
For more information, visit www.grabango.com.
