Carrefour opens Middle East's first cashier-less store in Dubai's Mall of the Emirates

Retail giant Carrefour opened the Middle East's first cashier-less store in Dubai on Monday, 6 September. The Carrefour City+ in the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai is a convenience store, filled with all daily need items, but the only difference is, it does not have a cashier who will do the billing of the purchased items for customers. 

The store has instead been equipped with a system that is tracking the movement of people who are shopping in the store. In order to buy the products, the shoppers need not wait in long queues. The people who have installed the store's smartphone application are allowed inside the store. The people can simply pick the items they need and they can walk out of the store with the shopped items. After the people complete their shopping and leave the store, their phones get the message of receipt for whatever they have purchased.

A look at Dubai's supermarket without cashier

The ceiling of the Carrefour City+ store has been equipped with about 100 small surveillance cameras that capture the movement of shoppers and the shelves of the store have been fitted with sensors, according to AP. This is the first cashier-less store in the Middle East. 

To reduce labour costs and eliminate the long queues of people who need to wait for the billing of their items, this new way of shopping that involves cashier-free stores has been started by major retailers across the globe. Amazon's cashier-less 'Amazon Go' stores are already functional in the United States.

Hani Weiss, CEO of retail at Majid Al Futtaim, the franchise that operates Carrefour in the Middle East, told AP, "This is how the future will look," adding, "We do believe in physical stores in the future. However, we believe the experience will change". Weiss has also informed that customers have to allow Carrefour to collect their information which the company will not share.

(With inputs from AP, Image: AP)