Case Studies – Tesco goes with the Flow

After a successful trial of record’s FlowControl in a number of stores, the UK’s largest grocery retailer, Tesco is now rolling out the people counting and traffic light system to 1,100 of their stores across the country.

Fully automated and with highly accurate counting, the FlowControl is being supplied and installed on customer entrance and exit doors at all store formats of Tesco stores including Express, Metro, Extra and Superstores. This will help Tesco comply with Covid-19 social distancing guidelines and ensure customers and staff feel safe during the pandemic.

The highly adaptable and configurable system enables Tesco to safely redeploy staff currently manning entrance doors freeing them up to work elsewhere and gives managers the flexibility to control customer numbers in-store.

The FlowControl Traffic lights inform customers when it is safe to enter or when they need to wait because the store has reached its pre-set maximum safe capacity. When the store has reached capacity, the doors automatically deactivate and only re-open once someone leaves the store.

To further help customers, especially those with sight impairments, the FlowControl systems at the larger Extra and Superstores will play pre-recorded messages to advise whether it is safe to enter the store or not.

All stores will also have a staff alert system fitted at the Customer Service desk to notify staff when a store is nearing or has reached capacity. Staff will also be able to monitor the actual number of people in the store at any time on the FlowControl display. This display also allows Staff to make adjustments and changes to settings and counts, for example, to adjust for staff that have entered or left the building.

The FlowControl system will be installed by record over an eight week period, mostly out of hours to minimise the impact on customers and disruption to the stores.