SUPER GRADE A UNIT GIVES ESLS AN 'A' GRADE FOR PRODUCTIVITY

DEENA AMATO-McCOY

NORWALK, Conn. -- Super Grade A ShopRite here has documented substantial productivity and sales gains in its Brookfield, Conn., store by using electronic shelf labels.

"Since we no longer had to do manual price changes, productivity increased strongly enough for us to get 15 to 20 additional cases per hour stocked on shelves," said Thomas Tully, grocery manager for Super Grade A.

In addition, sales per man- hour -- determined by measuring the number of hours allotted to stocking a specific department and dividing that figure by the department's sales per hour -- went up $100 a week, according to Tully.

The four-store independent retailer began using ESLs in its Brookfield store more than a year ago. Executives are considering expanding the technology to its other stores, though no timetable has been set.

Super Grade A has approximately 13,000 radio frequency ESL units, from Telepanel Systems, Markham, Ontario, installed on store shelves, according to Sharilyn Johnson, scanning coordinator for the store.

Price changes are transmitted from the computer to the store's point-of-sale systems and shelf tags concurrently within seconds, said Johnson. "By updating prices at the front end and on the shelves simultaneously we are able to eliminate price discrepancies," she said.

The electronic tags replace paper price labels commonly found on store shelves.

"Originally we had to scrape old labels off the shelves and then reapply the new sticker labels" each week, explained Tully. "By replacing that process with ESLs we saved on labor and increased productivity."