During the COVID-19 pandemic, queuing times and the interaction with other people are reduced. Also, nobody else touches the items bought, but only the customer.
“The project started in November 2020, and the first registers of this kind were installed in several stores in Bucharest. We continue to extend this service in 2021 in a larger number of Lidl units,” according to company representatives.
Ziarul Financiar data show that retailers Mega Image, Carrefour, Auchan and Kaufland had already introduced self-checkout registers. However, in Romania, there is not talk of eliminating the classic registers, with companies in the field saying human interaction remains highly important.
In Romania, Lidl has some 300 physical stores.
In 2019, the latest year for which public data are available, Lidl had a turnover of nearly RON10 billion, up over 25% on the year.