Interesting Shopping Buddy
Stop and Shop has been trying some new wireless technology in some of their stores and this past weekend I got my first chance to try the Shopping Buddy in action. The Shopping Buddy is [in our local store] is a handheld barcode reader that the shopper can use while placing items in your cart. Once finished shopping, the Buddy connects to a self-checkout line for payment. Here is a BOTB breakdown on the experience:PROS:
The Buddy keeps running tally of purchases as you shop. This is quite handy for those on a budget however I am wondering if they could be creating a situation where they would ultimately make less money since the consumer knows how much they are spending and might hold back from that extra item which they might have purchased in the past.
The Buddy alerts you to sale items as you walk the isles. Very cool feature and could be the end of the "sales circular" as we know it. If they could just get the customers to convert from paper to email alerts they could stop printing them altogether.
Although I didn't get to try it, the Buddy can order your deli meats for pickup before you leave the store. Not having to wait in line for a 1/4 pound of cheese would be a great advantage [plus it has a barcode]. Next time I will have to try this out.
CONS:
To use the Buddy in the produce section is a real pain. Pick your apples and place in plastic bag. Bring them to 1 of the 2 special scales. Find the item in the digital inventory and then print a barcode. Now you scan your item into the Buddy. Won't use the Buddy again like that. I would recommend checking produce out at the register which can be done after all of your virtual purchases are downloaded to the register.
The device it self it pretty small however where do you keep it? Pocket? Child area of the cart? They need to have a holder, like they have for coffee cups, on the cart so you can shop [or bag] while you are shopping. Note: I believe some of their other stores have cart mounted devices.
The representative who gave us this device stated we could bag as we shop which would save time at the checkout. At first glance that seemed to make sense however execution is something completely different. We use Reusable Shopping Bags which have a rigid bottom so it wasn't too bad but I would never be able to bag in a plastic bag with the current cart design. They now will need a cart with built it bags to they hang open. Plus I felt a bit in the way since reading the barcode and trying to bag my groceries in the middle of the narrow isles takes a lot longer then just plucking items from the shelf and moving on.
The download of the data from the handle device to the register did work as expected but it was much slower then I imagined. I thought it would be a simple data dump and the register would just pop over to payment however it appeared the download was 1 item at a time since I watched them scroll down the register's screen.
You must use the same customer card to start and stop the device. This may seem like common sense however we started our order with my wife's card and ended with mine and the system couldn't figure it out. Note to S&S, we are a family, connect our cards!
Using this new technology was frustrating at times, but all new things are and at times had me wondering what's it in for me. I did all the bagging and ringing but I didn't really feel like I gained a shorter shopping trip or an easier experience. While I think they are heading in the right direction, the current system needs a little more work to make it a viable solution [and pleasurable experience] for the shopper.
posted by TheWino @ 10:00 AM
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