Weis Markets Instacart AI Powered Shopping Carts Now Available In Select Stores

Weis Markets is adding Instacart's AI-powered shopping carts — known as Caper Carts — to select stores across Pennsylvania, bringing digital coupons, loyalty features, and repeat-purchase recommendations directly into the grocery aisle.

The Pennsylvania-based grocery chain is collaborating with Instacart to deploy these smart carts, which are equipped with cameras, certified scales, location-tracking systems, and an interactive touchscreen.

📡 According to Instacart, Caper Carts use basket-facing camera sensors, outward-facing cameras, certified scales, and location-tracking systems to support item recognition and seamless checkout. The system combines edge computing on the carts with cloud AI trained on more than 1.6 billion online grocery orders.

Shoppers can use the cart's touchscreen to monitor spending in real time during their trip and access location-based digital coupons directly from the cart — no app required at the moment of purchase.

Weis customers can sign up for a Weis Rewards account through the cart and redeem loyalty benefits while shopping. Those who link their accounts can also access the Buy It Again feature, which surfaces items they have previously purchased for faster, more convenient reordering.

Weis and Instacart already have an established partnership in online grocery services. In 2023, Weis teamed up with Instacart to offer same-day delivery from 133 locations across Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware.

🛒 Instacart Expands Caper Cart Rollout Nationwide

The Weis deployment is part of Instacart's broader Caper Cart expansion. The company reports that its smart carts now span more than 100 cities across 15 states, available across more than a dozen retail banners — including Kroger, Schnucks, and Wakefern banners such as ShopRite and Fairway Market.

📊 Key Stat: Data from Schnucks — as reported by Retail Dive — showed that Caper Carts handled more than 10% of sales on busy days at one store. That location operated just 10 Caper Carts alongside approximately 160 traditional carts.

Greg Zeh, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Weis Markets, described the carts as central to the company's effort to improve the in-store shopping experience — highlighting real-time spend tracking and on-cart coupons as standout features.

David McIntosh, Instacart's Chief Connected Stores Officer, said Caper Carts effectively bridge in-store and online data, extending Weis Markets' investment in digital retail tools into the physical store environment.

🤖 Weis Adds AI to Self-Checkout Operations

Beyond smart carts, Weis has also integrated AI into its self-checkout infrastructure. Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions confirmed that Weis completed a chainwide deployment of its ELERA Security Suite across all self-checkout lanes.

• ✅ Produce recognition for accurate item identification
• ✅ Loss prevention tools powered by on-device edge AI
• ✅ Deployed across all 199 Weis store locations (as of December 2025)
• ✅ Over 94% of customers opted to use the produce recognition feature at self-checkout

🍓 Grocers Test AI Beyond Checkout: Albertsons' Produce Quality Control

Albertsons Companies has introduced an AI-based quality control tool for produce inspection, designed to identify moldy or damaged fruit before it reaches store shelves. The tool initially focuses on strawberries, red grapes, and green grapes.

🌿 Albertsons says the system is designed to improve quality rating consistency, support faster decision-making, and better align inspections with company standards — all while expanding the quality data available across its supply chain.

Albertsons operates more than 2,000 stores — including Safeway, Jewel-Osco, and ACME. The system uses computer vision to assist quality inspectors working across its distribution centres, and was developed in-house by the company's technology and supply chain teams.

The tool was built on Google Cloud's Gemini Enterprise platform, incorporating Vision AI and Gemini models. Google Cloud confirmed it provided advisory support on the AI components integrated into the supply chain process.

📷 Photo by Franki Chamaki