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Sainsbury's swaps pricing labels for e-ink displays in one London store

Considering their main role is supplying the everyday essentials, Britain's supermarkets are strangely into their tech. When they're not running streaming services (or offloading them), making tablets, dabbling in prototype wearable apps and trying to improve the customer experience, they're looking at ways to work more efficiently. Sainsbury's latest tech trial falls into that latter category, and sees pricing labels at the Shoreditch Old Street Local store in the trendy part of London swapped out for miniature, colour e-ink displays. This saves on paper, of course, but more importantly, some poor new starter no longer needs to spend Sunday afternoon trudging the aisles updating the two-for-one deals. Instead, prices are changed automatically and wirelessly.

E-ink pricing labels are far from a new concept, and have been around since as early as 2007. Tesco even began a similar trial in late 2013, but as you will have noticed when picking up your bread and milk, the idea hasn't exactly caught on. Whether Sainsbury's will commit to a wider rollout depends on how the trial goes, but while it's still ongoing, can we get one of the tech-savvy Shoreditchites to try and patch into the secure wireless connection and make the booze aisle free, please?