CHECKING OUT SELF-SCANNING

COLE CORBIN

As retailers continue to take a chance on automating the checkout experience, they are also focusing on the best ways to convince customers about the benefits of using the technology. Then once the customers are sold on the technology, retailers hope they will begin to reap long-term returns, including reduced labor costs.

While self-scanning is popular in the United Kingdom, implementation of self-scanning devices in the United States has been slower, according to retailers. But retailer and customer interest in the technology is picking up.

Retailers are also dealing with the key questions of whether self-checkout technology has improved customer relations.

"This has been successful in Europe, especially in Great Britain, but they have much longer checkout lines there," said Bill Homa, chief information officer at Hannaford Bros., Scarborough, Maine. "[In the U.S.], most of our customers don't have to wait that long [on line]."

Mickey Clerc, spokesman for Winn-Dixie Stores, Jacksonville, Fla., said that although self-checkout has not appealed to every customer, many customers have reacted positively to the choice in checkout.

"We think it's been good," Clerc said. "Not everybody likes self-scanning, but it gives us the opportunity to offer the customer something different. We've had a good acceptance at a number of stores. It also helps us during those sudden rushes at the checkout."

Last month Winn-Dixie furthered its commitment to automated checkout with the installation of portable self-scanning units at 112 store locations -- nearly 10% of its total number of stores, according to Clerc. The retailer began installing stationary self-checkout units in the last quarter of 1996.

"Our divisions [install self-scanning units] at their discretion, when we identify a store where we think self-scanning will be accepted and beneficial," Clerc said.

Hannaford installed portable self-scanning units in its Scarborough store in the summer of 1997. The response so far, however, has not been strong enough for the retailer to roll it out to other stores.

"It's not quite at the point where we can roll it out to offset [our] labor," said Homa. "The customers that use it love it. We just don't have enough customers using it. And our customers who love it, won't let us take it away," Homa added.

Most retailers told SN they believe the key to attracting customers to use the self-scanning devices is to convince them of their benefits. Gerry Desautels, point-of-sale coordinator for Calgary Cooperative Association, Calgary, Alberta, said retailers must first give the customers a reason to use the devices before they can expect the self-checkout to really take off.

"You've got to sell those factors to the customer and keep driving the point to them," said Desautels. "Up here, no one else has it, the people aren't used to it. It will take a while before [self-scanning] catches on."

Calgary Co-op began using portable self-scanning technology in one store in October 1997. Desautels said the customer response has been stronger in the store that featured the units during its grand opening as opposed to the store that originally launched the technology.

Retailers also dispute whether users will realize a time convenience by using the units.

"We found that speed is not really a factor in these things. It isn't faster [than regular checkout], but it is perceived by the customer to be faster," said Desautels. "The customer has to use it and perceive an advantage."

"You have to give the customer a compelling reason to use it," said Hannaford's Homa. "I think it is faster to go through the store with the self-checkout, but you have to convince the customer it is faster."

Some retailers see the advances of the current self-checkout technology as just an initial step in the evolution of radio frequency checkout -- where the customer's basket can be scanned in one swoop and automatically debited from an account.

"All of this is just an interim step toward RF checkout -- the Holy Grail of checkout," Homa said, noting that such technology is still at least eight to 10 years away, and would require a number of further steps.

For now, most retailers recognize that the next frontier is getting the consumer more involved in the current self-checkout technology. In order to get to this step, some retailers are currently testing more than one form of self-scanning technology in order to find the best solution for their customers.

A&P stores will soon begin testing a new four-lane stationary self-checkout system in addition to another vendor's version of stationary self-checkout units the retailer has at 15 stores. The retailer will test the two systems to determine if "one has a significant advantage over the other," said Frank Urbaniak, vice president of retail systems for A&P, Montvale, N.J.

Similarly, Marsh Supermarkets, Indianapolis, recently launched portable self-checkout technology fast on the heels of a test of stationary self-checkout units.

Most retailers told SN they had not seen much of a demographic distinction between customers who used the self-scanning technology and those who did not.

"We found that there are no specific users [of the self-scanners]," said Desautels. "Instead there are all sorts of different demographics -- both young and old, both big basket spenders and small spenders. That surprised us."