Yes I do JFD. the moment it's not, I order elsewhere

Whole Foods brings what I want to my door. It's kind of rad.

RFID probably not that far away. A German store started back in '04 and other stores try it.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.07/shoppers.html

http://m.supermarketnews.com/latest-news/metro-group-using-rfid-track-meat-promotions

The folks in Lawrence, MA had its down to a science a few years back. When a brand new supermarket opened up as the centerpiece of an urban redevelopment project, the customers did not bother paying at all. They just took what they wanted and ran. But the biggest thieves were the employees, who were emptying the shelves and selling the merchandise to mom in pop grocery stores in the city. You could actually buy fresher meat at the local mom and pop than you could in the store, and for half the price. After a few weeks of this, the supermarket just loaded up what they could late one night, locked the doors, and left town with no notice, walking away from a ten million dollar building and over $60 million projected annual sales.

Elbow, the service we use sources from whole foods....or we can shop ourselves and have the latter deliver

I thought about this topic for getting a drink at the bar when it's really crowded. You know what I'm talking about. When you have to by some act of God get the bartenders attention to get a drink, which can take 30 minutes of standing there like an idiot. Lots of people just leave at that point.

If something could help your bartenders get the drinks out 2 or 3 times faster, you could serve all of those people and really increase your profits. Plus people would like your bar more for having better service.

What if self checkout was more like the xray conveyor at the airport? You put your stuff on the belt, it goes through a tunnel, the tunnel has scanners on all sides, on the other side you, unload the belt into your cart. You pay by car or cash just like the current self checkout and out the door you go.

That still involves taking everything out of the cart then putting it back in

Yeah, but taking stuff out and putting it back in isn't the slow part...it's the dumbasses who can't scan their stuff faster than turtle speed.

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I thought about this topic for getting a drink at the bar when it's really crowded. You know what I'm talking about. When you have to by some act of God get the bartenders attention to get a drink, which can take 30 minutes of standing there like an idiot. Lots of people just leave at that point.

If something could help your bartenders get the drinks out 2 or 3 times faster, you could serve all of those people and really increase your profits. Plus people would like your bar more for having better service.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFwHt0oUCbc

Any automated system, people will try to cheat. If a place thinks it will lose more money this way than they'd make in increased sales, it's probably not going to happen.

I prefer to have my groceries delivered to my front door a la Randalls PeaPod service.

I know somebody that used to cheat the self checkout lines all the time. He would just stockpile coupons out of the paper and use them in the self checkout lines even though he wouldn't have the item. Sometimes he would just hand the checker at Wal Mart a handful and hope they wouldn't notice.

but these days the coupons have a UPC code that must match items that have been checked out

Yeah, I know the ones that are handed out at HEB do. Do the ones in the paper have that also? I have never cut coupons, especially recently, so I have no idea

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That still involves taking everything out of the cart then putting it back in

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You pretty much have to do that anyway, since you need to bag stuff.

I don't see bagging as you shop as becoming a standard practice.

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I thought about this topic for getting a drink at the bar when it's really crowded. You know what I'm talking about. When you have to by some act of God get the bartenders attention to get a drink, which can take 30 minutes of standing there like an idiot. Lots of people just leave at that point.

If something could help your bartenders get the drinks out 2 or 3 times faster, you could serve all of those people and really increase your profits. Plus people would like your bar more for having better service.

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Have a self-input ordering system with a iphone add-on also, let the customer input their order and pay for it, send the order to the bar tender, helper grabs drinks and gives them to you in exchange for your order number which is either printed a the bar counter if you ordered that way or delivered to your iphone if your ordered that way. If you are paying cash them you have to order at the bar counter and there is a cash receiver similar to a grocery store.

So employees never touch the money and speed is increased as the ordering and paying is done by the customer. The bartenders focus solely on making drinks.

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walking away from a ten million dollar building and over $60 million projected annual sales.

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Weren't they really walking away from $60M in theft at that point?

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Yeah, but taking stuff out and putting it back in isn't the slow part...it's the dumbasses who can't scan their stuff faster than turtle speed.

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Or the dumbass at the end who never realizes that I already grouped all my items in bagging order and still manages to put my chicken in the same bag as celery...

I want a grocery list app that will map out the most efficient path through the store, tell me where to find things, and even show me a map to the appropriate isle and section for obscure items. It would be even better if they could include the inventory so I'm not searching for something that has sold out. Linking the coupons to it would also be great.

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I want a grocery list app that will map out the most efficient path through the store, tell me where to find things, and even show me a map to the appropriate isle and section for obscure items. It would be even better if they could include the inventory so I'm not searching for something that has sold out. Linking the coupons to it would also be great.

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No 2 stores are the same. Each chain would need each location on the app. And each location would need an app admin constantly updating it.

Good idea, but I don't see it ever happening.

I agree that it would be difficult. However, if RFID and building gps systems are eventually installed then it would be possible and automated.