Giant shoppers can self-scan items

Customers say scan gun makes grocery shopping more convenient

by Bradford Pearson | Staff Writer
From Gazette.net: Maryland Community Newspapers Online, November, 12 2008

On her usual trip to the Giant supermarket in Potomac on Monday, Mary Lou Geoghegan picked up her romaine lettuce and asparagus, placed it in a bag and weighed it.

She then used an electronic scan gun, printed out an individual label for the vegetables from the scale and placed the items in her cart.

This isn't your mother's grocery store: The 21st century has arrived.

Giant supermarkets across the region have installed scan guns at the front of the store, hoping to lure customers with the shiny tool while making marketing trips a little quicker.

The concept is simple: pick up a scan gun and for each item you place in your cart, scan the product's UPC code. The device automatically tallies the items, making check out as simple as scan and pay. If you make a mistake or don't want the item, simply hit the delete button and rescan the item.

And in a world of increasing competition in supermarkets, not to mention increased technology, customers say their new weapon of choice actually helps.

"It takes a while at first, but once you get the hang of it, it makes everything much quicker," said Geoghegan, of Bethesda. "It's one-stop shopping."

Officials at Giant hope the new product will increase customer efficiency while fending off competitors.

"To the extent that it differentiates us from other stores, that's great," said Giant spokesman Jamie Miller. "But first and foremost it's about customer convenience."

Miller said the company started testing the scanners at a sister company, New England-based Stop and Shop, last year, and decided to introduce them to Maryland stores this year. He said it made sense to add the guns in an area like Montgomery County, where customers are so time-starved and often in a hurry.

The scan guns are currently located in the Potomac, Bethesda, and Montrose Crossing locations, and Miller said each new or refurbished Giant in the area will feature them. The Montrose Crossing ones were installed in the spring and the Potomac and Bethesda ones were installed in September, he said. Miller would not say how much the guns cost the chain.

Personal scanners have also made their way to Bloom grocery stores across the country, including the location on Rockville Pike in Rockville.

"Bloom's all about options and providing our guests with as many consumer conveniences as we can," said Bloom spokeswoman Karen Peterson. "It certainly gives our guests another option, and it helps a lot of people who are on a budget keep track of their total."

David Grove, manager of the Potomac Giant, said the scan guns are especially a hit with children, who use them to help their parents with food shopping.

"There are a lot of little kids at our store, and people see it and say it's actually a lot of fun," he said.

While shopping at the Bethesda Giant on Old Georgetown Road with her 3-year-old son Troy, Tenisha Jones McKenzie struggled to rein in the scan gun from the precocious tot.

"He loves playing with it because he feels like he's helping," the Washington, D.C. resident said. "Maybe it doesn't make things quicker, but it's fun to do something with him."

With many Giant markets within walking distance of a competing grocery store, customer service and convenience are two ways Giant can stand out in the market, Grove said.

Customers agree.

"You're already checked and bagged by the time you get to the front," said David Entwistle, at the Giant on Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda. "They're going to have to add more check out stations because this idea is really going to take off."

In addition to totaling items, the guns can be used to order deli products, and occasionally instant coupons pop up on the gun's screen, offering a customer $1 off Pepsi, or 50 cents off a bottle of Heinz ketchup.

For Geoghegan, though, she said the most helpful aspect of the new scanners is the freedom it gives her in many customers' worst spot in the store: checkout.

"I pack my groceries along the way," she said, while standing over a cart full of empty, upright bags waiting to be filled. "That way I can pack the groceries the way I like it."

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