Supermarket Shopping for the Jetson's
A while ago I had heard that Stop &
Shop, a New England supermarket chain, was testing out a smart shopping
cart that would speed shoppers out of the store and eliminate the need
to stop at the check out counter. I figured they were being tested somewhere
in Connecticut because they certainly weren't visible in my Stop &
Shop in downtown Boston. Then the other day I happened to tune in to the
Today show while I was eating breakfast and saw a piece on the "supermarket
smart cart".
Unlike some people, I really don't mind
going to the supermarket, although I think the experience could be enhanced.
When my Super Stop & Shop first opened a few years ago it included
several kiosks around the store that were designed to aid shoppers in finding
the items on their list. Unfortunately these didn't stay for very long.
I can only assume it was because they broke down frequently, or were too
hard to keep up to date.
The next innovation to be tried there
and in other stores was self-checkout. I really like self-checkout. I never
get home to find groceries I paid for, missing from my bags. and I never
come home and find the tomatoes and other delicate items at the bottom
of my bags. One draw back is that self-checkout stations don't dispense
stamps and some the self-checkout computers are very temperamental. The
ones in Stop & Shop are the best of the lot I have tried though.
In a continuing effort to improve shopper
experience, Stop & Shop is testing something called the Shopping
Buddy in its Braintree MA store not to far from its headquarters. The
Shopping Buddy is a wireless touch-screen device that's attached
to the shopping cart that among other things, scans the items placed in
the shopping cart. It also has access to your buying history through the
use of your frequent shopper card. A really neat feature for shopper who
plan ahead, is the ability to email your shopping list from home to the
device. As you shop, the device keeps a running total of your purchases,
perform price checks on unmarked items, prompt you with promotions, take
your deli order and notify you when its ready to be picked up, and check
you out when your finished.
In addition, they've also incorporated
the IBM
Everywhere Display into their
vision of supermarket shopping in the 21st
century. In the Today Show piece the reporter walked to a spot on the floor
which gave the shopper three choices for that section of the market. They
were Low Carbs, Low Fat, and one other choice that escapes
me now. By step on one of the choices the floor lights up with foot prints
directing you to those types of items.
This all sounds really cool and I can't
wait to try it out. Stop & Shop is supposed to roll this system out
to 20 more stores in 2005 followed by another 150 installations in both
Stop & Shop and its Washington DC supermarket chain Giant. I don't
think I want to wait until then and Braintree isn't that far from me, so
I think I'll have to go down there and give it a try. it may be so much
fun that I may end up going there on a regular basis.
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