Giant Food Shoppers Can Scan as They Go
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Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Supermarket chain Giant Food has added handheld scanners at about 60 of its 182 stores in the Washington area that allow customers to tally the cost of their groceries as they shop.
The scanners were introduced in the fall and have been phased in over the past several months, said Bob Bennett, director of front-end operations and customer service for Giant Food, based in Landover. They are being used in about 1 million shopping trips each month at Giant and its sister chain, Stop & Shop, the company said.
"We had customers ask for it," Bennett said. "Customers have wanted another self-checkout type solution."
The scanners, which were developed by Modiv Media and Motorola, also offer shoppers coupons tailored to their purchase histories. Each store is equipped with an average of 48 scanners, which sit on a rack near the entrance. Shoppers can pay for their purchases in any checkout lane.
Bennett said the scanners are an evolution of the self-checkout lanes, where customers sometimes scan more than 20 products. Bennett said the handheld scanners should make such large purchases less cumbersome.
A total of 250 Giant and Stop & Shop locations carry the scanners, the company said. Giant said it conducts regular audits to help prevent shoplifting and fraud.
Motorola said it also provides scanners for Food Lion and Bloom stores.
