DOROTHY LANE SCALES GOING UPSCALE WITH ,TCP/IP USE

DEENA AMATO-McCOY

DAYTON, Ohio -- Dorothy Lane Market here is updating information for scales used in service departments at rapid speeds by using Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.

"TCP/IP allows us to transmit data throughout store scales at a rate of about 200 items per second," said Jack Gridley, meat and seafood director for Dorothy Lane. "We will be installing the technology in our second store in six months."

The Internet protocol runs with software provided by Hobart Corp., Troy, Ohio. TCP/IP runs through a dedicated telephone line that filters information through the software to update and control price changes, and to add and remove items from scale memory throughout all store departments in real time.

In addition to the retailer's express meal ready center, other departments benefiting from the speedy data transmission are seafood, deli, bakery, meat, and even floral, because scales are used to print item Universal Product Code labels, he said.

In the past, Dorothy Lane's ability to update scale data was far more sluggish.

"We would move information through a modem, and it had to be done in the evening because it processed data at such a slow rate," he said. "The data was limited to 2,400 baud -- which is slow by today's technology standards."

The retailer is planning to use the Internet protocol in other areas within its two stores -- such as its point of sale.

"We've been doing a lot of Internet research and we are planning to use TCP/IP when we upgrade our POS system to a Windows-NT platform by the end of the year," Gridley told SN. "The protocol will allow us to update price information instantly -- similar to the way we use it for our scales."

Since the retailer will transfer information to the POS via a dedicated phone line, a higher capacity of activity can occur over the line.

"By cutting down on multiple phone lines and using a bigger dedicated line, we get a faster connection to transfer credit card information, pricing updates, positive check files and sales information to POS," he said.

The retailer is hoping to take the technology one step further by enhancing on-line shopping and order fulfillment using the Internet protocol.

"We want there to be a common open platform," Gridley said. "Our goal is to someday have all of our on-line functions talk to each other through the TCP/IP protocol."