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Fast supermarket check out system

Faster system to check out and pay up in supermarkets
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1. Install self-checkout stations in strategic spots in the supermarket display areas, equipped with scanners of barcodes, with this conspicuous notice: Are you sure you want to pay for the items; otherwise leave the scanner alone. 2. Print a barcode in every cart or basket used by shoppers with clear instructions to shoppers to scan this barcode before and after scanning the barcodes of items they want to pay for.

3. As shoppers leave the store they have to pass by the pay-counter where attendants will scan their cart or basket barcode and give them the pay slip indicating how much they have to pay.

4. Provide an area for customers who want to return items within say ten minutes after paying up. Paid items can be returned, but shoppers will have to pay a nominal fine of say not more than 15% of the price and not less than 2%, depending on the value of the price.

yrreg

yrreg, May 03 2006

Self Scanning http://www.designne...leid=CA150611&cfd=1
Coming to a store near you! [xenzag, May 04 2006]

Future Store http://www.future-s.../1007054/index.html
How many times do I have to post this link?-Most part baked. [skinflaps, May 04 2006]

For Slow Po Slow_20Checkout_20Lanes
Your "why does everything have to be FAST?" question reminded me of this old idea. [Fishrat, May 06 2006]

[link]






       why does everything have to be FAST?
po, May 03 2006
  

       not *everything* <nudge>, <nudge>
methinksnot, May 04 2006
  

       So if you're one of those people who gosh darn it just don't fell like scanning/paying - then what?
Texticle, May 04 2006
  

       You get sent up the river, shipped to the big house, stationed in Sing Sing, on your way to hard time, baby. That's what happens if you don't just gosh darn feel like paying. Do the crime, do the time.   

       Or you could just put everything back.   

       Or, more likely, just abandon the cart and flee like the wind. Be on the lam, high tail it outta there, make like a tree and leave, skeedaddle from the long arm of the supermarket manager. Yeah, baby!
NotTheSharpestSpoon, May 04 2006
  

       my idea for a fast supermarket check-out would be a chute/funnel which you dump all your groceries (carefully). As items slide by, they would be scanned (either barcode or RFID) and deposited into bags (maybe with the help of a bag-packer).   

       if we're sticking with the old-fashioned barcode (rather the RFID), the barcode would need to be printed around the entire perimeter of the product (thus scanned from any direction).
xaviergisz, May 04 2006
  

       Baked, and in frequent use in UK supermarkets for at least ten years, unless I am not undestanding the idea. Shoppers can elect to take a portable scanner with them and record all their purchases as they go around. See link
xenzag, May 04 2006
  

       Got the self check out here in Atlanta.
Galbinus_Caeli, May 04 2006
  

       I still can't see what stops people from stealing some/all of their grocery items under this system. It's a shop in which no-one actually asks you to pay.   

       I don't know, maybe I just have too much mistrust.
Texticle, May 06 2006
  

       with this idea, what happens if someone decides not to scan one of their items? I think current self-checkout systems use a scale to see if people really bag their items *after* paying.
sninctown, May 06 2006
  
      
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