York Daily Record, Pa., Sean Adkins Column
By Sean Adkins, York Daily Record, Pa.
Mar. 13–CUSTOMERS SCAN GROCERIES AS THEY GO: I am a product of the videogame generation.
Growing up, my surrogate parents were named Atari and Sega.
With more than 20 years of consistent hand-eye coordination skills to my credit, I figured I had mastered whatever the world of joysticks — or hand-held scanners for that matter — had to offer.
That was before I stopped by the Giant Super Food Store in Camp Hill.
Located just inside the main entrance of Giant’s largest-ever supermarket stands a display of what looks like cell phones tucked away in plastic holsters.
The scene appears quite futuristic, but not totally out of place amid the Shopping Solutions kiosks and marathon aisles that is the Giant Super Food Store.
In reality, what appeared to be cell phones were actually hand-held scanners with yellow triggers — equipment needed to operate the supermarket’s new EasyShop system.
Giant’s latest innovation is an alternative form of self-checkout in which customers can scan and bag items as they shop.
On average, about 260 customers a day use EasyShop at the Camp Hill store, said Tracy Pawelski, director for public relations for Giant Food Stores.
The Giant Food Store in York Township will offer EasyShop by this fall, Pawelski said. “(EasyShop) helps customers stick to a budget by having a running tally in front of them,” Pawelski said.
But first, a shopper must be schooled on how to use this technology.
A screen situated at the center of the display kindly requested that I scan my BonusCard so I could grab a scanner and start zapping groceries.
I kindly obliged and held my well-worn BonusCard close to the mouth of the reader.
“Error,” stated the screen. The machine’s polite demeanor had disappeared. It instead instructed me to seek out the aid of a store associate. Fortunately, an associate had noticed my technological foible and pointed me in the direction of the EasyShop service center.
I felt slightly better that Giant had created an entire in-store hub where confused people like myself could learn more about these latest in supermarket advancements.
Turns out that I had to register my BonusCard with the new EasyShop system in order to be cleared to handle a scanner.
By registering, I allowed myself to be randomly audited by the store — that’s in order to ensure what I had scanned was what I had placed in the bag, and that what I had placed in the bag had been scanned. After I had filled out the paperwork, Kathy, a Giant associate, gave me a tutorial on EasyShop.
As an example, Kathy scanned a box of Tuna Helper. The price and the cost of my total order appeared on a screen embedded on the face of the scanner. The only problem was that I don’t like Tuna Helper and had no idea how to rid my scanner of such a product.
Unfortunately, we now live in a world that if the computer says its true, it must be true.
To my relief, Kathy showed me how to delete the Tuna Helper from my order and quickly turned me loose to finish my shopping.
There I was, walking down what looked to be one of the longest supermarket aisles in the world at the helm of a shopping cart retrofitted with a plastic scanner holster and a bag holder.
I felt like Luke Skywalker navigating an X-Wing Fighter down a metal trench looking for that shot that would sink the Death Star.
After 15 minutes of scanning, I had racked up a bill of more than $30.
EasyShop, I found, was addictive.
I headed to the EasyShop checkout and followed the prompts to pay my bill.
No associate audited my receipt before I headed for the door.
The next time I’m in Camp Hill, I’ll head over to the Giant to scan a few groceries. It’s cheaper than an arcade.
TECH IN STORE û AT GIANT FOODS
–EasyShop: An alternative form of self-checkout that allows customers to bag and scan their own items.
–EasyScan: A system that enables customers to quickly scan and bag their own groceries at one of nine self-service checkouts.
–EasyWeigh: Customers weigh their produce, bulk food and other random items using a touch-screen and then print a barcode label that is used at the checkout.
Source: Giant Food Stores
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