HOUSTON -- The debut of a new electronic pricing technology, which was to go from the lab to its first store last month, was postponed.
arkeTechnics show here. However, it may be several months before the system becomes operational in a live store, according to the system developer.
"We're back to the drawing board," said Gil Russell, chief information officer at Fiesta Mart. "We were excited about putting it in our store. It was a disappointment."
Officials from AT&T, Dayton, Ohio, which is developing the system, told SN that certain production details were still being worked out with suppliers in the Far East.
The system consists of plastic price tags that affix to the shelf edge and receive pricing data via high-frequency radio wave technology. A single data base feeds both the point of sale and the price labels in the store, ensuring that prices displayed at the shelf edge match those scanned at the front end.
AT&T officials said the company remains committed to developing the technology and indicated an introduction at the Food Marketing Institute annual convention in May "is not ruled out."
