The British supermarket industry is often lauded as the most advanced in the world, forged by decades of intense rivalry between Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons and more recently the German discounters Lidl and Aldi.
When it comes to shopfloor technology, though, the Brits have fallen behind.
In the United States, Amazon is opening thousands of checkout-free inner-city grocery stores, while Walmart lets thousands of robots loose in its supermarkets. Such innovations promise to cut overheads and deliver great operational efficiencies, so British grocers are scrambling to catch up.
