Pretty much the title. Like, get those handheld scanners and attach them to the carts. I scan items as I put them in, roll up to a “register” where the cart is weighed and verified by a cashier. I just hand over the cash then leave. Or even better, install load sensors in the cart.
Usually I like to pack my groceries into my boxes as I get them into the cart. Keeps things orderly and neat and I also don’t buy more than I can carry home. But this means I have to unpack them to place on the belt then pack them all over again after paying. It would be kinda nice to just pay by the cart load.
I’ve been doing this for years! My local grocery has a little scanner you can take around with you, I carry 2 wicker baskets, scan items as I fill them, and then the self checkout lane reads a code from the scanner, I tap to pay, and walk home. It’s honestly seamless.
Some giants have had handheld scanners for a decade… You just grab one as you walk in, scan and pack everything and hand it to the cashier on way out.
And you need a membership card because of course you do
Also why involve a cashier when self-checkout is available?
I’m going to assume you’re in a country where they have the self checkout things which have a ‘bagging area’ of some sort wit a scale under it?
In the Netherlands we have selfcheckout without this weighing. You walk into the store, grab a handscanner, and as you walk through the store you can pick something up, scan it, put it in your own bag and continue. When you get yo the register, you scan some barcode on the screen of the register woth your scanner, touch your nfc bank card to the terminal, and walk out. No need to take anything out of your bag.
Sometimes they do random checks, then some employee comes over and scans a few items from your bag. But you can just let it be their problem. They’ll usually put the stuff they’ve taken out back in again aswell.
We have something similar in the UK.
Typically, you need to already be a member of the stores loyalty/rewards scheme, so that they know who you are before you start scanning items. And if anything goes wrong, like you try to rip them off, or a technical issue with the scanner, you get locked out from using the scanners until you call their support line and sort it out.
Some places in the US have this! My local Stop and Shop does.
We had those briefly where I was in the states right before and during COVID. It was so nice being able to pack things in bags neatly and just ring it all up at the end easily.
At least in Germany, at a lot of Rewes (supermarket chain), this is absolutely a thing and very common. You can place the handheld barcode scanners in a specialised holder on the cart handle and then scan as you go, and neatly package all your stuff before going to the checkout and paying at a terminal. If even Germany has got this by now, then every other country on the planet surely does too lol.
Our Edeka has a system like that too.
So does Kaufland and Albert in the Czech Republic
Do they make it easy to put something back if you change your mind?
Yup, you can just edit the amount of items you scanned. Also makes it easier to “scan” an item in bulk.
They dont check the cart weight, instead they just randomly pick out people where they go through their scanned items and check that nothing else is in the cart. I’m being checked about once every 20 times I go.
That all sounds awesome. We definitely don’t have that in NW US yet. Hope we get it eventually.
Grabbing a scanner at the door makes more sense otherwise they would have to be made waterproof since people take and leave their carts outside.
I worked for a company that did a demo using RFID tags. Every item had one and you just walk through a scanner when you’re done shopping and it rings everything up instantly.
Walmart doesn’t even let you do the scan and pay thing with your phone unless you’re a Plus member. Which is fucking stupid. We basically already have a scanner with the ability to pay in our pocket, and they even have systems that let you do exactly what you’re asking about. But then they make you pay extra for it. Like, you’re already trying not pay employees and you expect me to pay you to do what a cashier does? Fuck that and fuck you, Walmart.
I heard some grocery chain was experimenting with rfid chips on all their products so you can just load up and leave and sensors at the door detect what you’re carrying and charge you the appropriate amount automatically. Personally I’d rather pull up to a register and have it show me a list of what’s in my cart and the total price rather than automatically charging, but otherwise it’s not a bad idea.
I’m with you. Automatically charging sounds like a nightmare. I still always want a human to verify everything a computer says. I don’t trust a corporate entity to not try and rio me off.
Well you’d get a ticket or a screen showing it all before paying? Like when you scan yourself.
My concern is the e-waste of a trillion RFID chips.
Yeah, RFID may be a shit way to go tbh. I was definitely thinking just traditional barcode scanners attached to a small computer on the cart.
That exists and it’s really nifty. At least in France, you have them in most big brand supermarkets. The downside is that it requires a user account.
Very interesting! I haven’t had the chance to do groceries in France yet. I’d love to see it though. It just seems so nice.
The downside is that it requires a user account.
Most large US supermarkets make you have loyalty accounts to get their real prices anyway as it is, in exchange for your buying habits, otherwise everything is marked up.
I really hate this shit and honestly I feel like it should be illegal. Like, offer discounts for the loyalty program members, sure, whatever, but the price on the shelf when you pick up the item should not be able to have contingencies attached.
Discounts for loyalty members is the same thing as higher prices for the general public.
Discounts for volume are the only fair discounts for individuals.
Discounts for loyalty members is the same thing as higher prices for the general public.
I generally agree with you, but I think it’d be very difficult to legislate this. (For example, if you ban “discounts” for loyalty program members, they instead offer “rebates” which functionally is the same effect. If you ban “rebates”, they instead send you a coupon for your next visit after you shop.)
If the advertised price is what a non-loyalty-program shopper pays, I have less of a problem with it, but what gets me is when the item is listed as, for example, “2 for $3” on the shelf, and at the register rings up for $3.69 each unless you swipe a loyalty card. Fuck that shit.
Why is volume a fair discount? Should a single person pay more for their groceries than a family?
Selling in volume is cheaper for the business, like 16 roll packs of toilet paper are cheaper per roll than four packs. Or buy 3 get 1 free.
Honor system wouldn’t work in all places unfortunately
Theft, pretty much. They wanna see you empty that shopping cart before you leave.
You know what would be nice? Check out the Uniqlo checkout booths in Japan Video and imagine that tech connected to a single shopping cart that just charges your card when you walk through the door
Well it’s a good thing they hardly ever employ cashiers and make me go through self-checkout. I’d never steal from self-checkout.
I’m guessing those checkouts you linked use some sort of RFID chip in the tag? Pretty interesting!
The grocery store I often go to had these barcode scanners you could borrow at the entrance and scan your stuff as you go, along with scales on which you could print a barcode sticker for the stuff you pay by weight.
Once you were done, you’d scan a QR card at the self-service checkout to upload all the stuff you scanned, then pay.
It was awesome, you could just pack as you go. Unfortunately they scrapped the project once they found out that the amount of theft was significantly higher with this system. So yeah, we can’t have nice things 😒
If you pack your groceries in boxes in the cart, wouldn’t that throw off the weight at the checkout?
Sam’s Club does it all with a self-checkout app and cart-scanning cameras at the exit. If you only get one or two things and don’t use a cart, then an associate needs to spot-scan on the way out, but otherwise it works great!
Tesco in the uk does this.
Coincidentally enough this post a few down from yours (on my feed) shows a trial for the second part of your post
I think other large supermarkets do too.
Walmart spent millions on rfid trying to do this. Howevera cart full of razor blades would always not read something so they gave up.
as others have said what you ask for evists - but only where most people are honest enough to not cheat. Where stores don’t trust everyone the cost of verification is more than any savings.
Sam’s Club, owned by Walmart, does this basically.
You scan items with your phone, check out, then walk under this arch camera things to leave, I haven’t been stopped to be manually checked in ages.
Sams club attracts different customers from WalMart and so they don’t have the same crime concerns.
Walmart spent millions on rfid trying to do this. Howevera cart full of razor blades would always not read something so they gave up.
My point was Walmart, Sam’s parent company, spent millions and carried it out in their other store. I don’t know if it’s rfid, but I’m sure their research in it overlapped with the way they implemented it in Sam’s.
We have this at my local grocery store (Meijer) down in the states. You use the grocery store’s app and scan as you go then pay at a kiosk. There’s a scale at the kiosk to weigh produce or I think there’s an app for that too. No need to weigh the whole thing. It’s called “Shop & Scan”.
