Pretty much the title. Like, get those handheld scanners and attach them to the carts. I scan items as I put them in, roll up to a “register” where the cart is weighed and verified by a cashier. I just hand over the cash then leave. Or even better, install load sensors in the cart.
Usually I like to pack my groceries into my boxes as I get them into the cart. Keeps things orderly and neat and I also don’t buy more than I can carry home. But this means I have to unpack them to place on the belt then pack them all over again after paying. It would be kinda nice to just pay by the cart load.
I’ve been doing this for years! My local grocery has a little scanner you can take around with you, I carry 2 wicker baskets, scan items as I fill them, and then the self checkout lane reads a code from the scanner, I tap to pay, and walk home. It’s honestly seamless.
Some giants have had handheld scanners for a decade… You just grab one as you walk in, scan and pack everything and hand it to the cashier on way out.
And you need a membership card because of course you do
Also why involve a cashier when self-checkout is available?
S Chain in Finland offers this, you have to of course have their customer loyalty card.
But if you want to just use the self-service cashier automats, I think the loyalty card is optional. For scanners though it might be required, I’ve never used those. The self-service cashier points are easy enough for me. 😊
For the scanner you need the card, yes. For the self check out only no
Walmart doesn’t even let you do the scan and pay thing with your phone unless you’re a Plus member. Which is fucking stupid. We basically already have a scanner with the ability to pay in our pocket, and they even have systems that let you do exactly what you’re asking about. But then they make you pay extra for it. Like, you’re already trying not pay employees and you expect me to pay you to do what a cashier does? Fuck that and fuck you, Walmart.
If you pack your groceries in boxes in the cart, wouldn’t that throw off the weight at the checkout?
Sam’s Club does it all with a self-checkout app and cart-scanning cameras at the exit. If you only get one or two things and don’t use a cart, then an associate needs to spot-scan on the way out, but otherwise it works great!
Grabbing a scanner at the door makes more sense otherwise they would have to be made waterproof since people take and leave their carts outside.
I worked for a company that did a demo using RFID tags. Every item had one and you just walk through a scanner when you’re done shopping and it rings everything up instantly.
amazon fresh stores do something like this.
They had this at Stop & Shop for a while in the US. Don’t know if that’s still how it works though.
Honor system wouldn’t work in all places unfortunately
Already exists and being used, search for “smart shopping carts”
Tesco in the UK has had handheld scanners for years, and are trialling scales.
Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose all do this in the UK
We have that in France too.
I’m going to assume you’re in a country where they have the self checkout things which have a ‘bagging area’ of some sort wit a scale under it?
In the Netherlands we have selfcheckout without this weighing. You walk into the store, grab a handscanner, and as you walk through the store you can pick something up, scan it, put it in your own bag and continue. When you get yo the register, you scan some barcode on the screen of the register woth your scanner, touch your nfc bank card to the terminal, and walk out. No need to take anything out of your bag.
Sometimes they do random checks, then some employee comes over and scans a few items from your bag. But you can just let it be their problem. They’ll usually put the stuff they’ve taken out back in again aswell.
We had those briefly where I was in the states right before and during COVID. It was so nice being able to pack things in bags neatly and just ring it all up at the end easily.
Some places in the US have this! My local Stop and Shop does.
We have something similar in the UK.
Typically, you need to already be a member of the stores loyalty/rewards scheme, so that they know who you are before you start scanning items. And if anything goes wrong, like you try to rip them off, or a technical issue with the scanner, you get locked out from using the scanners until you call their support line and sort it out.
At least in Germany, at a lot of Rewes (supermarket chain), this is absolutely a thing and very common. You can place the handheld barcode scanners in a specialised holder on the cart handle and then scan as you go, and neatly package all your stuff before going to the checkout and paying at a terminal. If even Germany has got this by now, then every other country on the planet surely does too lol.
Our Edeka has a system like that too.
So does Kaufland and Albert in the Czech Republic
Do they make it easy to put something back if you change your mind?
Yup, you can just edit the amount of items you scanned. Also makes it easier to “scan” an item in bulk.
They dont check the cart weight, instead they just randomly pick out people where they go through their scanned items and check that nothing else is in the cart. I’m being checked about once every 20 times I go.
That all sounds awesome. We definitely don’t have that in NW US yet. Hope we get it eventually.
I heard some grocery chain was experimenting with rfid chips on all their products so you can just load up and leave and sensors at the door detect what you’re carrying and charge you the appropriate amount automatically. Personally I’d rather pull up to a register and have it show me a list of what’s in my cart and the total price rather than automatically charging, but otherwise it’s not a bad idea.
I’m with you. Automatically charging sounds like a nightmare. I still always want a human to verify everything a computer says. I don’t trust a corporate entity to not try and rio me off.
Well you’d get a ticket or a screen showing it all before paying? Like when you scan yourself.
My concern is the e-waste of a trillion RFID chips.
Yeah, RFID may be a shit way to go tbh. I was definitely thinking just traditional barcode scanners attached to a small computer on the cart.
