NEW YORK — Stop & Shop/Giant Food, a division of Ahold USA that operates 560 stores on the East Coast, now has its Scan It! personal shopper scanners in more than 280 stores and its Order It! deli kiosks in more than 450 stores, said Stephen Vowles, senior vice president of marketing for Stop & Shop/Giant Food.
Speaking Thursday afternoon at The Aberdeen Group Retail Summit here, Vowles said the Scan It! handheld scanner, which loyalty shoppers use to scan and bag groceries and receive targeted offers, represents "a big part of our business," accounting for 13% of front-end sales, 1 million shopping trips per month and $1 billion in annual sales. More than 7% of shoppers use the device, he said.
But Vowles noted that the chain is "not too far away" from the point where mobile phone/PDAs owned by shoppers will replace the mobile device now provided by Stop & Shop/Giant to customers. The stumbling block is the scanning capacity of mobile phones, whose cameras "are OK for scanning one item, but not 60" in a typical shopping trip.
"But that will stop being a problem," he added.
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