Schnucks Doubles Down on Caper Carts | Key Moment in Grocery History or Gimmick?
Schnucks is expanding its Caper Cart program, bringing the smart carts to more stores in Missouri and Illinois with new features like a lower tray for bulk items. Omni Talk and A&M experts discuss the promise, pain points, and potential of this next-gen checkout technology in reshaping the grocery shopping experience.
📌 0:02 – Schnucks expands Caper Cart pilot to Illinois with new lower tray feature
📌 0:49 – Customer usage hits high levels: All 10 carts in use throughout the day
📌 1:23 – Jeff Dwyer shares firsthand experience: Great for convenience-focused shoppers
📌 2:30 – Limitations of the carts: Size, capacity, and niche appeal
📌 4:10 – Caper Cart 2.0: Retail media, cameras, and in-store pathing features
📌 5:36 – The key milestone: Moving from initial test to broader rollout
📌 6:46 – Anne and Chris ask: How many carts is expansion really adding per store?
This discussion, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, and ClearDemand, examines what it takes for smart carts to scale, whether they deliver real ROI, and how they stack up against other retail tech like AI-driven shelf tracking and mobile checkout. Don't miss the insider retail tech analysis that makes this episode a must-watch.
For the full episode, head here: https://youtu.be/LpW3lI-L7TI
#SmartCarts #CaperCart #GroceryTech #retailinnovation #OmniTalkRetail #Schnucks #instacart #retailmedia #CheckoutTechnology #RetailPodcast #groceryshopping #RetailAutomation #TechInGrocery #ChrisWalton #AnneMezzenga
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Transcript
Schnooks is expanding its capercart pilot.
Speaker A:According to an Instacart press release, Schnooks is expanding its capercart to even more stores across Missouri and expanding into Illinois, marking the first time the smart carts will be available in the state of Illinois.
Speaker A:In addition, Instacart is also adding a new feature to its carts.
Speaker A:And are you ready for it?
Speaker A:Do you know what it is?
Speaker A:It's a lower tray.
Speaker A:Yes, the Instacart caper cart now has a lower tray.
Speaker B:Can I put my kids on that?
Speaker B:I put my kids on that.
Speaker A:I think you can add cancel Christmas, it's got a lower tray.
Speaker A:The option now makes it easier for customers to add heavier, bulkier items such as cases of water, soda and pet food to the cart, or possibly even eight year old children.
Speaker A:And if you so desire.
Speaker A:Yes, quote.
Speaker A:It's clear to us that customers love shopping with caper cards and that our newly launched stores were seeing many times throughout the day where all 10 carts are in use, end quote, said Chuck McMullen, senior director of digital experience at Schnooks.
Speaker A:Jeff, going back to you schnooks, from our recollection, actually Ann and I were talking about this yesterday.
Speaker A:From our recollection, it may be actually the first retailer to announce that it is expanding its use of caper cards.
Speaker A:Therefore, how significant is this moment in the annals of grocery history?
Speaker C:This is a fun one.
Speaker C:Significance in history, I don't know.
Speaker C:I think in terms of the self checkout equivalent revolution, I think the jury's still out for me.
Speaker C:But I do believe it will slowly become more normal.
Speaker C:And as a patron who actually went outside their St.
Speaker C:Louis location and experienced this, it's pretty cool.
Speaker C:I mean, for me, I'm more of the convenience shopper.
Speaker C:Want to get in, want to get out.
Speaker C:It is definitely for a specific demographic.
Speaker C:And so I think as you see it rolled out, it'll be in the limited capacity, you know, 10 carts in a store that has 150 of them.
Speaker C:It's, it's a small component of the overall experience right now and maybe it, maybe it fits in some of the higher end grocery models.
Speaker C:But I'm selling this as a moment in time akin to a piggly wiggly opening 100 years ago.
Speaker A:Okay, got it.
Speaker A:Good, good reference, man.
Speaker A:Okay, wait, so wait, so you're kind of a one of and he's a.
Speaker A:Jeff's a one of one on this show.
Speaker A:Like he's actually tried the caper card.
Speaker A:I don't think I've actually seen Anyone that doesn't work for a retailer that's tried the caper card.
Speaker A:So, so what's your, what's your review of it?
Speaker A:Like?
Speaker A:What, what do you like?
Speaker A:What'd you not like about it?
Speaker C:It's, it's, it's right up my alley.
Speaker C:Who wants to literally just go and throw things in a cart and then walk out the, the store and click a button to pay and, and you're out the door?
Speaker C:I couldn't tell you the last time I actually stood in a non self checkout other than the fact that you have to buy alcohol and occasionally have to go to the actual person to check you out.
Speaker C:I'm a convenient shopper.
Speaker C:I want to get in, get out.
Speaker C:My wife hates the fact that I do a grocery run because she wants me out of the house and I'm probably back faster than she needs me.
Speaker C:But it's a great experience.
Speaker C:I mean the cart's a little wonky.
Speaker C:It can't really fit as, as much as like a traditional shopping cart.
Speaker C:So it is more of the kind of smaller components, the bottom capacity, I mean it could hold like a 12 pack of water.
Speaker C:Not one of the big Costco size ones.
Speaker C:So it's, but it's a, it's a, it's a good model.
Speaker C:I mean I, I, I definitely put more stuff in my basket than I think I would have normally done otherwise.
Speaker C:So it's, it'll be interesting to see how this gets rolled out to, to.
Speaker A:Illinois and you're two thumbs up on the card itself.
Speaker A:Like for you as a shopper, you, you, you liked it, you liked using it, you'd use it again.
Speaker C:I, I liked the convenience of it.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker C:Again, the card itself is, is a little bit like I said, wonky, but they'll get that fixed figured out.
Speaker C:But it's, it's, it's, it's not going anywhere.
Speaker C:I think we actually probably see a little bit more of this.
Speaker C:But whether it's fully penetrated like a self checkout line item or line, I'm, I'm not, I'm not sold quite yet.
Speaker A:Not sure yet.
Speaker A:Right, right, right.
Speaker A:And what do you think here?
Speaker B:You know, where do you put this.
Speaker A:On the, on the movement in grocery, grocery history.
Speaker A:Is it wiggly?
Speaker A:Is it less?
Speaker A:Like where is it?
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker B:I mean I was just talking to a regional, pretty major regional grocer last week who's also going forward with the Amazon Dash cart in their, in their grocer and it, it surprises me but I think for me Chris.
Speaker B:I mean, plain and simple.
Speaker B:I think it's just a test of how far along this technology has come and what the caper carts are able to do.
Speaker B:And I think what I was hearing from that particular retailer was that they're being sold hard now on the future capabilities, especially as it relates to retail media that they can add into this, even like cameras on the carts and being able to do walk, you know, pathing and understanding out of stocks in a store.
Speaker B:So I think it's getting to the point where the tipping point where it's like, okay, these are finally providing a return on the massive investment that you have to make to bring them into stores.
Speaker B:So is it something that we're testing in more.
Speaker B:More cases like we're seeing with Snooks here?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I don't know.
Speaker A:When I, when I hear you talk like that though, it reminds me of the old SNL commercial, you know, with Dan Aykroyd.
Speaker A:Like, you know, it's a floor wax, but it's also a dessert topping.
Speaker A:I think that's where people start to get a little too excited about the innovation and, and the potential of what they, what IT can do and trying to find the use cases.
Speaker A:But I agree with Jeff.
Speaker A:I don't think this is like Piggly Wiggly, momentous change in the history of grocery shopping, but I do think it's a pretty significant move here because, you know, it passes my litmus test that we've talked about on this show a lot, which is implementations are one thing.
Speaker A:Software providers or hardware providers in this case are always talking about their implementations.
Speaker A:They're always talking about, you know, here's how many places we're located.
Speaker A:But the one thing you never hear much about is that second implementation, the expansion.
Speaker A:And so I'm always skeptical until they reach the second rollout stage because that means you've proved the ROI at the first stage.
Speaker A:Now, granted, it's 10 carts, you know, for in one of these stores, like Jeff said, like the headline said.
Speaker A:So there's still a lot more to find out here, but they're finding out enough to say, yes, we want to continue to move forward with it and see if there's an idea here.
Speaker A:But yes, the jury's still out on whether or not these are ultimately going to work in the long run, especially against all the other options that you have around retail media, via the phone, via Internet installations, on screens in the store, in store radio and.
Speaker A:And all the other things you can do with cameras and robots and everything else, or even just AI in terms of understanding the dynamics of how your store is working on a daily basis.
Speaker A:So I think a lot more to prove.
Speaker A:But this is interesting in the fact that Schnooks, which is one of the smartest grocers around, is saying, hey, we're going to expand this.
Speaker A:I think that's important, right?
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And you just brought up another question, Chris.
Speaker B:Like, how many carts are they expanding to all these locations?
Speaker B:Like, are they still going to go with the 10 cart per store test?
Speaker B:Or is this going to be are we going to start to see more carts in action versus, you know, here's a few options or here's one option because it also requires some infrastructural changes too, to all of these stores, Chris, which we haven't talked about yet either.
Speaker B:And so I think there's a lot more to be gleaned from this rollout and what it ends up looking like and really starting to get into the details of how many make sense and what the real investment is.
