A technology report, released by the Food Marketing Institute at Marketechnics 2002, was on the same page with retailer sentiments concerning technology investments for supermarkets.
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"By switching to self-check, the store can improve customer service for everyone," the report concluded in its executive summary.
The report cites convertible self-check units as the latest in self-check technology.
The report, prepared by Kurt Salmon Associates, Atlanta, and Business Strategy Group, Ponte Vedre Beach, Fla., highlighted the Top 10 trends in supermarket technology.
The Top 10 report listed the technologies in three categories: rollout, early adoption and innovative.
The rollout technologies cited were: Internet communication and shopping; customer relationship management; and in-store kiosks.
The report indicates that a number of retailers are not only using their Web sites for Internet shopping but for setting up a digital, online community where customers can get recipes and household tips, too.
In the early adoption category were: alternative checkout; energy management; Web-based store architecture and applications; and electronic shelf tags.
The methods of alternative checkout cited included self-check, portable checkout and scan-the-cart checkout.
The innovative sector consisted of nutrition and safety; mobile computing and customer linkage, and radio frequency identification tags.
Since grocers are becoming increasingly concerned over the risk of selling contaminated food, bar codes that can detect pathogens and indicate contamination by changing color are being considered more seriously now.
Ken Fobes, chairman, Business Strategy Group, Ponte Vedre Beach, Fla., said that as retailers look ahead to what technologies to invest in, several factors will be on their minds.
"What are the systems I need to better serve customers is a big question they will ask," Fobes said.
