Shopping of the future is an informative and convenient and experience

On the Frankfurt Bridges, shopping is transformed from a chore into a convenient experience: In the store, product information appears legibly on large screens via scan code, prices are already scanned when placed in the shopping cart, and for payment, the cart or basket is simply pushed through a scan tunnel. Further trained staff can advise customers on nutritional issues or care products on the bridges. The intelligent shopping cart travels autonomously to the customer's home and there, if necessary, directly to the kitchen via the freight elevator. Never again standing in line at the checkout, never again lugging - that's the goal.

Content: Modern live shopping must offer more than it does today: comprehensive product information and advice in the store as well as an autonomous home delivery service

Health often starts with nutrition, which is why one of the goals on the Frankfurt Bridges is to give consumers more insight into the origin and quality of food than before. This can be done easily with QR code and smartphone.

The rest of the shopping experience is characterized by automation and product-friendly handling, with maximum convenience for shoppers through delivery services.

This makes shopping in stores an enriching experience.

Comprehensive information is provided for all products

A scan code on the packaging contains on the one hand the price of the product. In addition, it also contains all other information:

(1) Extended description of the ingredients (legally required description is wirtten on the packaging)

(2) Information on allergens in the product

(3) Food chemical and nutritional information of interest about the product

(4) Information on correct storage conditions that extend shelf life

(5) If applicable, promotional information, recipes, preparation tips, etc.

(6) Separate from this and completely anonymized, the code can be used to trace how long a package has been in circulation and how many cycles of use it has already undergone.

The content can be accessed by holding the product's scan code up to a scanner. The complete information, which would have no place on the product itself, appears on the cell phone. For vegetables and fruit, the scan codes can be found on collection trays, collection bags or on the food itself.

carlo ratti - associati supermarket of the future

Optimal consumer information, however, goes beyond mere product description

Extended product information, such as allergenic ingredients or valuable minerals, etc., can be read via the code, which is stamped into the stainless steel packaging containers and lasered into the glass containers, and is recoded accordingly in each case during the filling process. In the case of PE packaging, this important product information is conveyed via a printed code.

All additional information can be found on the information screen boards above the products: Not only the origin of a product, but also the fair trade conditions, farming cooperatives, transport and processing chains can be described there.

The aim is to create maximum transparency for consumers, so that consciously sustainable shopping is supported and particularly environmentally friendly and fairly producing companies can justify their higher prices if necessary.

No waiting time at the checkout

Intelligent shopping carts are used on the bridges, as they are already being tested in retail today: The moment a product is placed from the shelf into the cart (or basket), it is scanned. Integrated scales in the shopping carts and alarm systems on the shelves prevent the scanning system from being bypassed. They register when an unscanned item is in the cart or removed from its shelf location unscanned and alert to scan the item.

This eliminates long queues at the checkouts; at the end, customers only need to push the total of their purchases through a verification scanner (similar to a barrier) and pay at the checkout machine: either contactlessly via their bridge EC or credit card or also in cash via a vending machine.

The smart shopping system also relieves supermarket and drugstore staff of work at the checkout. The freed-up capacity can now be used elsewhere: Employees can be trained to advise customers on nutritional issues or care products.

Another goal on the bridges: shopping with comfort and flexibility

There is a delivery service for supermarket purchases on the Frankfurt Bridges. This means that no one has to walk home loaded down with heavy shopping bags. Especially in an aging society, this is an important aspect for maintaining people's autonomy for a long time.

The delivery service also increases flexibility in everyday life: if you spontaneously decide you need something while you're out and about, you don't have to carry the products you've bought around with you; instead, you can have them delivered to your home, with precise delivery times.

A similar concept already exists at some subway stations in South Korea: There, you can scan everything you want to buy with your cell phone. While you then continue your journey on the subway, the delivery is put together in a warehouse and brought to your place at the desired time.

The very special "delivery service": on the Frankfurt Bridges, you can send the shopping cart you personally put together in the supermarket directly to your home - while you go your own way

Shopping online or scanning products behind windows eliminates the selection process, which is especially relevant for fruits and vegetables, but also for packaged meat, for example, when choosing preferred cuts.

On the bridges, you can personally pick out your purchases in the cart, and as soon as the payment process has taken place at the check barrier, in larger supermarkets you can have the goods lifted by a lifting system into a lockable delivery box on rollers, which drives the shopping home - in smaller supermarkets, on the other hand, you can put basket inserts in the cart at the beginning, which can then also be lifted out relatively easily when filled and placed in the delivery box.

The delivery box then drives home autonomously.

For bulk purchases of the future, shopping carts must be designed to handle reusable glass packaging gently

If one can go shopping extremely flexibly in between without having to worry about transporting the shopping home, then large weekly purchases are also no longer necessary so often. That's why the shopping carts in the Frankfurt Bridges‘ supermarkets are planned to be somewhat flatter than in today's supermarkets, which is gentler on the products packaged in (sturdy yet breakable) glass.

In larger supermarkets of the future, the customer should be able to choose between two sizes: a flat trolley as described above, or a large trolley with the conventional depth, to be equipped with a special mechanism: The shopping surface of the trolley is supported there on springs. The more goods you put in the cart, the deeper the shopping cart surface sinks, freeing up space for more shopping. The reason for this design: it prevents customers from dropping the reusable glass containers into the shopping cart from too great a height. Because even if shatterproof glass is used, every effort should be made to extend the service life of these reusable glass containers.

The autonomously driving delivery box on the bridges waits for its owners at home

Once the delivery box is filled, closed and locked, you can enter the information in the „bridge shopping app“ about when you want it delivered and where. By scanning with the bridge shopping app, the delivery box is secured against theft: Only those who have the scan code for the purchase can take or open the delivery box when it arrives at their home.

The delivery boxes either drive home directly on the small pallets, or drive into a refrigerated area in the supermarket before they set off - sometimes hours later. This function is particularly helpful in extreme weather temperatures: the groceries do not have to roll home through the midday heat when you yourself only get home hours later.

On the Frankfurt Bridges, an early arrival at home would not be problematic even in hot or freezing temperatures, as there are parcel boxes with cooling function in front of the houses, into which the pallets drive. However, if the system is to be applied in existing city streets, where houses are built flush with the street without a front yard, no parcel boxes can be built where the pallets could wait for their owner.

Delivery robots drive autonomously to their destinations

The delivery service costs 1€, pensioners, pupils and students pay 50 cents. On the Frankfurt bridges, however, you can only have your shopping delivered to your home if it weighs more than five kilograms.

The upper part from the shopping cart is first lifted onto a small, mobile pallet - or rather onto an autonomously driving delivery robot - as described.

Customers only need to have their bridge card scanned by the delivery robot and specify the desired delivery time - and the robot knows when and where to deliver the purchase.

The delivery robots travel at walking pace on the sidewalks. At around 45 centimeters, they are relatively narrow and leave enough space for pedestrians. Sensors detect whether there are pedestrians or obstacles in the way and they take evasive action.

Delivery robots on the streets are nothing new, as there are numerous experimental projects about them.

The cold chain is maintained uninterrupted

The possibility of delivery service allows you to shop on the go and the goods are delivered to your home while you go somewhere else yourself.

It is then already waiting there until you are back home yourself - or only arrives then: In order to minimize cooling capacity in the waiting boxes, one can give after purchase its home drive pallets also a time, at which one will be in any case already again at home. The pallets then wait in the supermarket's cold storage rooms until they can be optimally integrated logistically into the single file of shopping pallets on the paths of the Frankfurt Bridges.

If the supermarket's storage area is full, so that the delivery robots have to be sent on their way earlier than booked, they drive home to wait in parcel boxes. These only open for the robot on the basis of a signal and also switch on a cooling system when it arrives, depending on the outside temperature.

Freight elevators for the purchases: the comfort of the future

To make the most of the new packaging world, multi-story buildings on the Frankfurt Bridges all have small freight elevators with a maximum footprint of 80cmx80cm, which either lead to the stairwell landing of the floors or open directly into the kitchen.

However, the packaging world of the Frankfurt Bridges should also benefit residents near the bridges - and most of the houses along the bridges currently have no elevator, certainly not for smaller loads.

However, the retrofitting of such an elevator is possible in many cases: The only questions are the architectural integration into the building facade, the distance regulations to neighboring buildings, and the insulation of cold bridges at the entry points from the elevator into the house.

Are so many small self-propelled pallets and shopping carts with electronics, etc. sustainable?

While "self-controlled" houses may seem creepy to some people, people will probably get used to self-controlled and automated delivery systems -especially in the age of online shopping- more quickly, at least in urban infrastructure.

It is not only a great relief for the individual - the mother with three small children or the pensioner with limited mobility, etc. - but it is also sustainable for society, since many grocery purchases by car are eliminated.

The advantage over buying supermarket and drugstore items online is that the shopping experience is not lost here: you can pick out goods yourself, which can play a role with fruit and vegetables, for example, or you can be inspired by the shampoo selection as you stroll past shelves.

Because live in the store, you can see everything clearly in an overview next to each other on the shelf - in online retail, on the other hand, this is usually not the case - you can click through offers to a certain extent, but you already have to know relatively precisely what you're looking for, because you can't call up every product to be shown at the same time – at least not to the extend as products are displayed in the shop when walking along them.

Conclusion: shopping on the Frankfurt Bridges preserves the valuable aspects of live shopping and at the same time is very convenient

Shopping is a cultural part of our everyday life and, especially for older people, often the only regular occasion to go out and do something.

The shopping world of the future brings the valuable aspects to the fore, such as engagement with food selection, conscious engagement with the products or even conversations with the sellers - all experiences that online shopping does not offer in this form.

At the same time, the tedious aspects of standing in line at the checkout or having to lug everything home are eliminated. The individual elements of "shopping in the future" described here are by no means utopian, but are all already being tried out by retailers today.

Putting an end to plastic takeaways

Supermarket and drugstore

Packaging - suitable for the product

Diversity desired

Circulation System & Refund

The Master Academy

Special quarters

The green metropolis of the future