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The Grocery Store of the Future is Here!
Recently, I wrote in this space about the grocery store of the future, depicted in this TechTV video, that shows the use of RFID tagging, portable bar-code scanners and other high-tech sorting and locating equipment common to modern warehouses being employed in a much more pedestrian way, clearly a leap into a futuristic world you might expect to find in an Isaac Asimov novel.
But for those who were enchanted by the video, or even those who scoffed at its impossibility, this Associated Press article will be of interest. Yes, folks, this is not something we have to wait decades, years, or even months for. It's here now, according to a venture by Microsoft into one East-Coast grocery store in the U.S.
This new technology, available right now at ShopRite stores, eerily mimicks what's in the video: shopping carts with built-in computers, displays, and bar-code scanners. Shoppers who belong to the in-store shopping club can log on at home (just like in the video), make out a list, save it, and then swipe the member card at the cart to call up the list on a display.
Then(again, just like in the video), the shopper can scan items right at the cart, with the system automatically checking them off the list. RFID tagging on the carts themselves helps the store track where customers are, apparently to observe patterns and to call up advertisements on their screens when they approach an item that's on special.
The parallels between this and existing warehouse technology are remarkable. Warehouse managers out there will tell you that this kind of technology already exists and is being successfully employed. RFID tagging on the pallet, and in some cases the case level is already being used to help workers find and track items. Portable scanners have been in use in warehouse environments for years, to do almost exactly what the shopping cart scanners are now doing. Clearly, the price of such technology has dropped to the point now that it's no longer a high-tech tool for the industrial worker, or even the grocery clerk: Now, customers get their own scanners. The future is here!
The Grocery Store of the Future is Here!
January 15, 2008
Recently, I wrote in this space about the grocery store of the future, depicted in this TechTV video, that shows the use of RFID tagging, portable bar-code scanners and other high-tech sorting and locating equipment common to modern warehouses being employed in a much more pedestrian way, clearly a leap into a futuristic world you might expect to find in an Isaac Asimov novel.But for those who were enchanted by the video, or even those who scoffed at its impossibility, this Associated Press article will be of interest. Yes, folks, this is not something we have to wait decades, years, or even months for. It's here now, according to a venture by Microsoft into one East-Coast grocery store in the U.S.
This new technology, available right now at ShopRite stores, eerily mimicks what's in the video: shopping carts with built-in computers, displays, and bar-code scanners. Shoppers who belong to the in-store shopping club can log on at home (just like in the video), make out a list, save it, and then swipe the member card at the cart to call up the list on a display.
Then(again, just like in the video), the shopper can scan items right at the cart, with the system automatically checking them off the list. RFID tagging on the carts themselves helps the store track where customers are, apparently to observe patterns and to call up advertisements on their screens when they approach an item that's on special.
The parallels between this and existing warehouse technology are remarkable. Warehouse managers out there will tell you that this kind of technology already exists and is being successfully employed. RFID tagging on the pallet, and in some cases the case level is already being used to help workers find and track items. Portable scanners have been in use in warehouse environments for years, to do almost exactly what the shopping cart scanners are now doing. Clearly, the price of such technology has dropped to the point now that it's no longer a high-tech tool for the industrial worker, or even the grocery clerk: Now, customers get their own scanners. The future is here!
Posted by Sean Murphy on January 15, 2008 | Comments (0)
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