Caterer Aramark Sports & Entertainment announced a blitz of new stadium concession technology deployments at NFL stadiums aimed at improving concession services, a mix that includes checkout-free stands, facial authentication technologies, self-ordering kiosks and self-scan terminals that use both optical recognition as well as bar-code scanning.
Of the numerous announcements, the one with perhaps the most widespread impact is Aramark’s decision to go all-in on its “Walk Thru Bru” concept, a simple deployment that typically involves a sliding-door cooler combined with a self-service checkout device. Previously deployed at several stadiums around the country, Aramark said the Walk Thru Bru program will be expanded to 70 new locations, at stadiums now including Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, at the Cleveland Browns Stadium, and at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
The Walk Thru Bru stands, Aramark said, allow fans who just want a cold beer to have a fast way to get it. At many of the stands, the checkout device is the optical-scanning self-serve terminal from Mashgin, a device that is rapidly gaining acceptance at many U.S. sports stadiums. Aramark said its surveys show the stands can serve fans much more quickly than traditional mobile belly-up stands, and can reduce overall concourse congestion by processing transactions more rapidly.
STR Podcast: Listen to Aramark’s Alicia Woznicki talk about the evolution of concessions technology, including the development of the Walk Thru Bru concept.
The modular and small-footprint structure of the stands gives teams and venues more flexibility for stand placement. Aramark also said that having coolers gives venues the ability to provide more choices for fans.
Facial authentication trial with checkout-free store
Aramark also announced that it will be staging a trial deployment of using facial authentication technology to allow faster access into checkout-free stands. At Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, facial authentication technology from the Boulder, Colo.-based IDmission will be used to allow fans to verify their age, identification and payment at a Zippin store by simply smiling at a screen. According to Aramark, at Sunday’s Broncos home opener the technology will be available at three of the nine Zippin stores in the stadium.
Aramark also announced that the “walk-up” version of the Zippin store that was previously announced in Kansas City will also be open at NRG Stadium in Houston. Zippin separately announced that other stadiums opening the same kind of store are Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., and Nissan Stadium in Memphis.
Other concessions technology deployments announced by Aramark included:
— New mobile self-scanning stands and more self-checkout kiosks at Empower Field at Mile High;
— Two new self-scanning stands using Mashgin terminals at Acrisure Stadium;
— Eight self-checkout locations and 11 self-order locations powered by Tapin2 technology at Paycor Field in Cincinnati;
— The deployment of cocktail-making machines from Bartesian in suites, club spaces and mobile carts at Cleveland Browns Stadium and at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis;
— and, a self-checkout kiosk stand at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore “where fans can fill their own buckets of popcorn with the swipe of a credit card and push of a button.”
