AI taking over the shops – and the slippery slope to your views and profile deciding if you can enter: Aldi to charge shoppers £10 in new self-checkout move with AI-powered cameras

Supermarket chain Aldi is shaking up their checkout section as they introduce a divisive new £10 pre-payment at their Shop & Go stores.

Customers will have to download Aldi’s Shop & Go app, or tap their contactless card, to enter the store, where they’ll be charged £10 that will be deducted from their final bill, as they can then walk out the store for a checkout-free experience.

However, those who spend less than £10 or leave the shop empty-handed could wait days before the money is restored to their account.

Aldi warned: “Depending on your bank, it may take a few days until you see the reservation being cancelled in your bank account.”

The new checkout-free experience works using “state of the art” AI powered cameras that track shoppers’ in-store movements and interactions with products in “real time”, to accurately detect and charge them for their shop.

Aldi said: “This value is not charged directly but reserved. Once your basket total is known, we will use this amount against your total shop. Depending on the total, we will return the difference to you directly or charge the added amount.”

For example, if the price of a shopper’s goods is £15, and they pre-authorised £10, they will charge £15 to their card.

The price of total products will be charged to the shopper’s payment card within 24 hours of leaving the store, although they might pre-authorise the payment sooner.

Aldi are reportedly trialling the innovation in their only Shop & Go store in Greenwich, London, which opened in 2022, according to the MailOnline.

The checkout-free approach has also been used by the likes of Amazon Fresh and Tesco, who have just four hybrid checkout-free GetGo stores in England