REWE Group has opened its first autonomous PENNY store in Romania.

The 349 square metre location can be found in Bucharest.

In a LinkedIn post, Christoph Eltze, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at REWE Group, said: “After more than 80,000 hours of work and 4,000 hours of testing with a team of more than 50 colleagues, the time has finally come: the first autonomous PENNY store has been launched in Bucharest – not only in Romania, but worldwide.”

Eltze added that in Germany, REWE Group are pioneers with hybrid test stores in Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg and Düsseldorf as well as a store with fully autonomous check-out via REWE Pick&Go in Munich.

In Lithuania, it was the first to launch autonomous stores with IKI Go a year and a half ago – and to this day is the only one in the country with five locations.

On the latest opening, he said: “As with our REWE test stores in Germany, the technical partner of the 349 square metre store is Trigo. So the technology works in a very similar way. However, there is one difference:”

“There is no identification/registration at the entrance to the PENNY store – for example, by app or card – necessary. All items are automatically recorded, our customers only have to pay at a self-checkout checkout.

“The PENNY store will be in operation around the clock - in other words, our customers will be able to shop with maximum flexibility.”

“Although the technology used offers a 100% digital shopping experience, the team in the stores is ready to answer questions from our customers or – if necessary – support them in the automated process.”

He concluded: “We are proud to contribute to the digitisation of Romanian retail with our test – especially thanks to the great team behind it.”