Delhaize Makes a Barcode Storefront in the Brussels Central Station

Delhaize (aka FoodLion) does the Tesco/HomePlus subway store thing in the Brussels Central station. Love that they’re using 2dcodes for a practical purpose, we need more campaigns like that. The most striking difference with the HomePlus subway store is the way the posters are displayed in a square setup, the analogy with real life store shelves that reminds people of the actual store is lost. A missed opportunity that shouldn’t be hard to correct.

I’m not too fond of the app though, their app comes across as horribly buggy:
- not optimized for the “subway store” experience but for home ordering
- French error messages for Dutch locale
- Un-clear path to registration (looks like registering isn’t possible on the device)

What is done very smart here:
- positioning in a place that has WiFi (for Telenet clients it’s free)
- QR Codes for downloading the apps, very good choice
- Illustrate path to app download clearly
- ensured good light conditions for scanner
- barcodes for product selection

I particularly appreciate the regular barcodes for product selection, you can scan any can of coke or pack of Kellogs, it doesn’t matter if it’s on the poster store front or not, the product just has to be available in the online store.

All things considered, they kind of missed the important details and lost their points in the execution of the app for this campaign.