Supermarket checkout designed to scan entire shopping basket trialled in London

It could signal the end of the infuriating “unexpected item in the bagging area” alert…

A checkout designed to scan an entire basket or trolley’s worth of shopping in one go is being trialled in London.

The centrepiece of IBM’s “shop of the future” is said to be 15 times faster than standard self-service checkouts.

The system could also render traditional barcodes obsolete as each shopping item has a tiny “radio frequency identification” chip embedded in it containing much more information.

This technology, which allows large numbers of items to be scanned at once, is being trialled at the Shell petrol station in Holloway Road.

The customer first places their items on a scanning platform, which displays the full list on a screen. They open a smartphone app and tap the device on a reader to deduct payment from an account linked to a card app, such as Apple Pay or Android Pay, and are then emailed a receipt.

IBM said their checkout would also help prevent shoplifting as the machine automatically “knows” the number and type of items being bought.

The six-week pilot with 130 customers will be followed by the opening, at an undisclosed location, of a “connected” concept store full of the smart checkouts and other gadgets.

It comes after Amazon yesterday opened its first Go store in Seattle, which uses cameras installed around the store to “see” what products customers have taken to draw up bills.

But IBM inventor Lindsay Herbert claims their system will be the “fastest, easiest and most secure way” to pay for goods.

Ms Herbert, of IBM’s iX innovation arm, added: “There’s no scanning, no barcodes, no fiddling around.

“This is for the person who just wants to go into the shop, get out and not have to queue.”