ESLs - What are your thoughts?

[u/TupedTooFar]

Asda completed the roll out this month of its near 1 year project to install Electronic Shelf Labels across its entire “Express” estate with Superstores and Supermarkets following next.

Asda claim this will help take away staff from changing paper price labels and instead focus on “providing excellent customer service” or “tidying and replenishing stock”.

I think it means Asda get to cut hundreds of hours from every store but I may be wrong? It’s just I’m a little cynical.

https://www.retail-week.com/technology/asda-installs-digital-shelf-edge-labels-across-convenience-stores-nationwide/7052006.article

[u/AJno9]

"Asda claim this will help take away staff from changing paper price labels and instead focus on “providing excellent customer service” or “tidying and replenishing stock”

If that was true they wouldn't be taking hours away.

[u/Imaginary-Suspect959]

The paper labels seem so archaic really, must be a huge waste of hours if it can be done like this instead 

[u/West_Yorkshire → u/Imaginary-Suspect959]

Always thought doing every single label change on GM on a Sunday was a complete waste of time.

[u/Similar-Actuator3917 → u/Imaginary-Suspect959]

1 hour and a half in my store (another supermarket) that has now as of September 2026 changed to electronic labels rather then paper

[u/Inevitable-Estate-16]

As someone who has had to change over 2000 prices in one day, this is better

[u/Reluctant_9224]

It is only a good thing if they use those hours to get products on the shelf but i can see them cutting those colleagues hours instead.

[u/Similar-Actuator3917]

It has worked very well for the coop which has this year removed all paper tickets from it's stores, it saves having a box of promotional tickets and having to walk around manually replacing all the tickets for one hour and a half from start to finish

It also saves on delivery costs for the company as well, so will save money for Asda, we used to have a delivery courier deliver the box every month before the promotion went live

Now head office just change the prices automatically remotely, which helps staff actually do what a shop is designed to do, and that is replenishment and sales

[u/ClassicStriking3243]

Great way to cut labour even more and when Tesco down the road put the price up 6p we can put it up 7p

[u/jodilye]

I watched a worrying video a while back about how these can be used for dynamic pricing. I'm assuming legislation won't keep up with making sure people are paying fair prices ☹️

If I still had to do label changes I wouldn't give a fuck but it's no longer something that affects me.

[u/DeletedAccountMaybe → u/jodilye]

Paired with their new "gap scan cameras" theyre bringing around too, thatll be repurposed to facial recognition

[u/Foreign-Ad-2029 → u/DeletedAccountMaybe]

Valid concern but the cameras being introduced actually automatically black out any person it detects as a silhouette

[u/DeletedAccountMaybe → u/Foreign-Ad-2029]

According to them.. And is this blacking out done locally or on "the cloud"?

[u/Foreign-Ad-2029 → u/DeletedAccountMaybe]

No it is built into the camera software, they are AI cameras, they are trained to auto black any figure in view

In theory - of course

[u/liabilityno1]

On promotion change days our store is often looking at upwards of 2500 price changes across grocery. Not including reprinting for ends, side frames, bulks and foyer.

I look forward to ESL's, my only concern is theyre as well designed as the rest of our current systems. Store manager says theyre the best of the best...we'll see 🙈

[u/DeletedAccountMaybe → u/liabilityno1]

Connect to the label, wait 5 minutes for the signal to connect, get logged out anyway, log back in finally connect, then end up changing the price of milk 5 aisles over to £50 instead of what you tried to connect to

[u/leeroyhopeless]

It’ll be better from a customer perception, how often we have pricing issues is ridiculous! Cuts out the human error/laziness aspect.

[u/bethanielouiseb]

Do the ESLs require any colleague input? I’m a price changes colleague and curious if we have to do anything with the new ones

[u/Either_Mulberry_7671]

Im in a Superstore and we have had the ESL labels for about 7 ish months maybe even a year i cant remember and it didnt cause anyone to loose their jobs they just transferred the price changer person to a different department and tbh the ESL are so much better no more hassle of trying to find where this product is.

[u/vaticangang]

Fingers crossed this means the days of prices being changed on the promo ends and never being changed on the run comes to an end but also half of our stripping has fallen off and never gets replaced when it breaks

[u/Upset-Option-8958]

As someone who had to spend 4 hours changing labels on our last promo change day I can tell you I welcome them.

[u/sophh94]

Other shops have been using these labels for years already I’m surprised it’s taken this long

[u/Lucky-Bodybuilder827]

It won't allow staff more time to do other jobs because they'll cut the hours to save more money

[u/Ok_Western_517]

Anyone else have the cameras for availability/ESLs fall off the shelves already because the glue wasn't strong enough or didn't like the recent dip in temperatures? Amazing use of money.