New Technologies Augur Change at the Checkout

From Supermarket News, January 24, 2011

Another drawback to Kroger's system and all conventional checkout systems is the need to remove products from the cart, scan and bag them, and return them to the cart. But this labor is circumvented by scan-and-bag systems like Stop & Shop's Scan It! handheld scanner, which I habitually use at my store in Danbury, Conn. I scan and bag everything as I shop so that when I arrive at the checkout, I only have to pay (in a conventional manner).

The Scan It! device, I believe, is the precursor to a mobile scan-and-pay process that will really put shoppers in the driver's seat. Smartphones are not yet equipped with the scanning capability of Scan It!, but they are not very far away. And mobile payment, already in place abroad, is catching on in the U.S.

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