Users' Choice
WiGWIRED: Grocery stores check out Apple’s iBeacon
Pretty soon, your phone might remind you to pick up laundry detergent as you peruse the microbrews in the supermarket, just a couple of aisles away.
Mobile shopping startup InMarket started using Apple’s in-store location technology, iBeacon, this week to send shoppers deals, rewards and grocery list reminders inside U.S. grocery stores.
IBeacon, which works with Apple devices running iOS 7, is already being used inside Apple stores. Shoppers will only receive notifications if they download the apps — such as inMarket’s Checkpoints — with the iBeacon feature and opt in to receive them.
Initially, the sensors — which are much more precise than GPS but work in a similar fashion — are available in dozens of Safeway and Giant Eagle stores in Seattle, San Francisco and Cleveland.
