Supermarkets of the future
Sunday, June 29th, 2008My cousin sent me the link to a BBC website that was talking about a new store in Germany called “The Future Store.” He included the note “I thought you might get a kick out of this.” So I clicked on the link and watched a video made for a tv news show where the reporter was going around the store and explaining how new technology was being used at this store.
It really was very interesting; the customers use their cell phones to scan the bar code of the product they are buying when they take it off of the shelf before they put it in their cart. The meat counter has microchips in the meat packages to advise the store that the meat package has been removed, so the store can keep track of when they need to re-stock. When the customer is finished shopping, they press a button on their phone, which produces a “master bar code” which they use to scan at a self-service checkout counter. Really all quite interesting. The biggest question I have about the process is regarding how the store expects to keep the customers “honest” and reduce the risk of shop-lifting? I’d be curious to learn about that part of the equation!