Weis Markets installs Instacart Caper Carts in Pennsylvania

Weis Markets is deploying Instacart’s AI-powered Caper Carts in select stores across Pennsylvania. The carts are fitted with basket-facing and outward-facing cameras, certified scales, location systems and touchscreens that show running totals, deliver location-based digital coupons, let shoppers track spending and sign up for loyalty rewards on the cart.

Item recognition and checkout processing run partly on the cart through edge computing and partly in the cloud using machine learning trained on more than 1.6 billion grocery orders, according to Instacart. The hardware and software combination is designed to identify items and enable checkout without a traditional register.

Weis and Instacart have an existing partnership for online grocery services. In 2023 the two companies expanded same-day delivery from 133 Weis locations in Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware. Instacart has placed Caper Carts in more than 100 cities across 15 states with multiple retail banners. In prior deployments, some stores reported that smart carts handled more than 10% of sales on busy days where several Caper Carts were in use alongside standard carts.

Weis is also using other AI tools in stores. Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions said Weis completed a chainwide installation of its ELERA Security Suite on self-checkout lanes. The software, which uses edge AI for on-device processing, includes produce recognition and loss-prevention features and was active across all 199 Weis locations. Weis reported over 94% of customers selected the produce recognition option during self-checkout.

Grocery chains are applying computer vision and machine learning to quality control and supply-chain checks. Albertsons Companies developed an in-house computer vision tool built on Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise platform to help inspectors detect moldy or damaged fruit before it reaches store shelves. The system initially covers strawberries and red and green grapes and is intended to standardize quality ratings at distribution centers and stores.

Greg Zeh, senior vice president and chief information officer at Weis Markets, called the carts part of the company’s effort to improve the shopping process and highlighted real-time spend tracking and on-cart coupons. David McIntosh, Instacart’s chief connected stores officer, described Caper Carts as a way to combine in-store and online data to enhance the customer experience.