Self-Service

Metz Culinary Management teams with Mashgin on contactless checkout

Contactless checkout technology has reduced checkout lines at ECMC Hospital in Buffalo, New York. Photo provided by Mashgin.

November 29, 2023

Metz Culinary Management Inc., a Dallas, Pennsylvania-based culinary services provider, has teamed with Mashgin to deliver contactless checkout technology to airports, healthcare facilities and other high-volume locations, according to a press release.

The device streamlines the checkout process, reduces the time purchasers spend in the cashier line and improves the overall payment process. Guests simply place their items on a scanner for instant checkout.

The technology utilizes 3D cameras combined with artificial intelligence to speed up the checkout process. Once trained on all items offered for purchase by the retail site, the scanner recognizes and charges for each item placed on its scanner via cameras and computer vision algorithms. The guest simply pays and then leaves.

Before launching this AI-powered system, culinary guests at ECMC Hospital in Buffalo, New York, experienced long lines at checkout, especially during lunch hours due to staffing shortages. Leveraging the system has reduced the average transaction time at ECMC to 18 seconds.

Metz also plans to roll out the system to higher education culinary partners.

In addition, Metz is planning a pilot program for a biometrics solution that associates a purchaser's payment method with their palm scan. The biometrics technology will save purchasers' time and improve hygiene, which is essential to hospitals.

The company also plans to launch its Just Walk Out C-store concept in partnership with Marymount Manhattan College and Amazon in early 2024. Just Walk Out allows shoppers to enter a store using their credit card or palm recognition linked to a credit card, take the products they are looking for off the shelf and then just walk out of the store. Items in the shopper's virtual shopping cart automatically charge to their card when they leave the store.