A Till-less Deutsche Bahn service store experience: Not without a few problems

Here it is, Deutsche Bahn's first cashierless 24/7 service store, which opened as a pilot project at Berlin's Ostbahnhof station at 4 p.m. on June 27, 2023. The special feature: It no longer has a cash register. You go in, take the products and leave again. Together with franchise partner SSB and technology service provider Aifi, the first store of this kind was opened in Germany.

To prevent shoplifters from wandering through the service store, there are of course a few hurdles to overcome first. You have to register with the system. A rail ID is generated for this purpose. Note that an existing Deutsche Bahn login cannot be used. And the Bahn ID that is generated cannot be used to log in to Deutsche Bahn's travel services either, as is made unmistakably clear during the registration process. The administration of this ID is possible via id.bahn.de.

Since the Bahn ID is a web-based platform, the Service Store can also only be used with a web app. Should the customer not have access to a browser-based app, a follow-up is possible.

Not using an app does have advantages, as the only hurdle is a browser. Theoretically, even Windows Phones should be able to use it, and the store also becomes accessible for people who only have a tablet at hand.

Before entering the payment method has to be selected. Payone manages this as a payment service provider. The web app says that you either have to enter a credit card or Paypal. The former is not correct. Debit cards also work. We tested this with both a Master Card (Curve) and a Visa (Santander), neither of which has a credit card function.

We were surprised by the lack of other card types. Master Card and Visa are the only supported cards, although Payone also handles other card systems. Interestingly, the input field for the security number (CVC/CVV) is even prepared for four-digit security numbers on the code side and thus American Express. However, since one is forced to select the card type, only three digits can be entered after the selection. By the way, it is not really necessary to specify the card type. The first digits of a payment card already tell the system which card is in use.

Annoyingly, only one "credit card" can be stored. If you want to integrate another one, the old one is deleted. This also applies to Paypal. This service at least allows other card systems to be used indirectly in the rail ID.

Once the preparations have been completed, you're ready to go. With one click, the web app displays a QR code. This may come as a surprise to some, since Deutsche Bahn is one of the biggest users of Aztec codes, for example, for tickets or lounge access.

The QR code can be used to simply enter the store through a scanner after the barrier opens. However, two people must not enter too quickly one after the other with their respective QR codes. The system doesn't like that. In addition, according to Deutsche Bahn, there is a limit of seven people. For the small store with 45 square meters (~484 sq ft) of space, that is probably sufficient, especially since the concept is still new in Germany.

The station itself is one of the larger ones. There are 80,000 passengers per day at Ostbahnhof, according to Deutsche Bahn.

Children, dogs, friends and partners please stay outside

With the QR code, only one person is allowed to enter the store. That is perhaps the biggest weakness of the concept. Those traveling alone certainly won't mind. Families arriving on a late train, on the other hand, are more likely to be bothered as each person will want to make a selection.

As an option, the other people could also register. But even that doesn't always work for children. The minimum age for the web app is 14. When asked, Deutsche Bahn said that this age was arbitrary and referred to other app providers that even only work from the age of 18.

But a prepaid credit card can also be obtained by younger children. At the Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken, they are available from the age of 12 with the help of parents. However, a 12-year-old child with a legal credit card, may not register. Why this is the case is hard to explain.

Due to the disappearance of Maestro as co-badging on girocards, more and more children's accounts of the savings banks should also be equipped with Master Card and Visa debit cards in co-badging. The savings banks do not specify a minimum age and also offer payment cards for young children on request.

Test case: shopping together and exchanging goods

After the opening hoopla was over, we decided to test the market with a programmer friend. The task: everyone grabs a drink (one Fanta, one Coke Zero) and a snack. Since we didn't realize until afterwards that we could also buy cold drinks, everyone put their drink away again and reached for the same product in the fridge.

While the snacks stayed with the respective person, the drinks were exchanged among each other to see how robust the system was. We then left the store and waited anxiously for the invoice.

As a note, it appeared that invoicing could take up to 60 minutes. Fortunately, that was not the case. It only took a few minutes.

Fortunately, the invoice can be downloaded in PDF format from the shopping overview. An advantage compared to snack vending machines if an invoice needs to be submitted. This is not possible with the vending machine.

The result was surprising, however. A Coke Zero was billed on both invoices. The snacks were correct. In other words, the system recognized that Notebookcheck.com got a Coke Zero and gave away the Fanta. But for the counterpart, this recognition failed and he virtually kept his Coke Zero. Despite the very different bottle design, Aifi's AI failed here.

The project is still a pilot project. This does not have any implications for customers. However, it could cause some irritation in terms of warehousing, as the store is missing a Fanta bottle.

High price level, less selection

During the opening, it was stated that a shortage of skilled workers was also one of the reasons for the decision. In other words, sales staff is harder to come by in the long term. However, reduced personnel does not mean lower prices.

The price level is - as usual for service stores - high. Only some soft drinks were listed in the offer and were thus on the level of a supermarket. Otherwise, price markups of 50 percent and more are to be expected. Typical train station prices.

This is especially strange since Berlin's Ostbahnhof has two supermarkets with regular prices that are even open on Sundays. Money-savers prefer to go down one floor, if it's not too late, because the supermarkets close late in the evening.

Deutsche Bahn promises 400 products in this store. That sounds a lot at first. But you should bear in mind that, according to Statista, even discounters carry several thousand products. Full-range stores quickly reach 10,000 products.

The 400 products also include some that not everyone is allowed to buy, such as light alcoholic beverages and tobacco products. You can't get to these unless you've verified your age beforehand, which we didn't test further.

Comparison with Amazon's shopping systems

Amazon is the pioneer of cashierless systems. Last year, the author of these lines had the opportunity to try out three of the systems there, which are sometimes called Amazon Go, sometimes Amazon Go Grocery and sometimes Amazon Fresh. Not every store works with the same technology. It's confusing, but works flawlessly across the board, whether it's Dashcart or the pick & go concept like DB.

The Service Store is still most comparable to the system of Amazon's first cashierless stores. A small selection and only slightly inflated prices make up these small Amazon Go stores. Unlike the Service Store, however, the selection is larger overall. This is also due to the fact that Amazon Go stores are more oriented to typical convenience stores or konbinis (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan).

Such chains do not exist in Germany; gas stations are the most comparable. However, they can be found in neighboring countries such as Żabka in Poland or 7-Eleven in Denmark. They offer a basic range of products for everyday life. They are not pure snack stores, although these are definitely the focus.

This means that the DB Service Store stands alone for the time being, partly because you can only go in alone. In the Amazon Go stores, you can take along companions and don't have to leave a child waiting outside while their parents buy sweets.