MARTIN SLOANE \ Supermarket Shopper Scanning the light fantastic

Are you ready for your supermarket's scanners to shift into warp drive?
The NCR Corporation has announced a new checkout counter scanner system that can scan the bar codes on several items at the same time. Denny Westheimer, the marketing manager for NCR's new RealScan Super ASIC Scanner, recently discussed the machine's capabilities with me. I won't try to explain the new technology, but compared to typical scanner systems, the computing power of the RealScan super system is an 800-pound gorilla.
The new RealScan system will start to appear in supermarkets in September. If you visit a supermarket that has it, you will first notice that the cashier can scan with both hands. As each item is scanned, the system is instantly ready for the next one.
There is another surprise when you first see this new system in action. The cashier can grab several items together, for example, three boxes of Jell-O, and scan all three with one pass over the scan window. This is scanning by the handfuls! You will also hear the difference. When two items are scanned together, instead of the typical scanner beep, you will hear what Denny Westheimer describes is a lower dual tone.
The good news is the Super ASIC system will make the checkout lines move more quickly. An experienced "one-handed" cashier can scan 40 to 50 items a minute on current scanners. Denny would not tell me what his new system can do, but my guess is this NCR scanner on steroids can easily scan 60-plus items a minute.
NCR is positively giddy about it: "This advancement is truly amazing," said Pierre Abboud, NCR's vice president of RealScan. "Imagine the impact on productivity as well as customer service!"
Keeping track
I tried to imagine how customers will be able to follow the ring-ups. Many shoppers try to follow along with the register display, watching for price errors, especially incorrect sale prices. But this may seem impossible if the register display looks like the electronic sign that keeps a running count of the U.S. population, and the scanner sounds like the "Flight of the Bumble Bee." What should you do?
The super scanner is a new technology that smart shoppers can control. Just instruct the cashier to slow down, explaining that you want to keep track of the ring-ups on the display. I wonder how cashiers will react to the NCR super scanner. Store managers will expect cashiers to take full advantage of the multi-scan speed of the new system.
Checkout test
Faster and easier checkout is also the objective of a test now going on in three Stop & amp; Shop supermarkets in Massachusetts. The chain is testing the Exxon Mobil Speedpass payment system in a store in Natick and two stores in Framingham. With the Speedpass, customers don't need to reach for cash or credit cards; they simply point a miniature electronic device (you can attach it to a key chain) at a countertop reader. A spokesperson for Stop & amp; Shop told me customer response has been good. "It enhances the customer's shopping experience by speeding up the checkout. Just one swipe pays for the groceries and gives the customer our card holder benefits."
Car wash at supermarket
One-stop-shopping at the supermarket may soon include a new service. At the recent FMI supermarket industry convention in Chicago, the Ryko manufacturing company of Grimes, Iowa, offered car wash equipment. This is not as far-fetched as it sounds. According to Energy Analysts International of Westminster, Colo., 1,230 supermarkets were selling gasoline in their parking lots in 2000. Last year the number rose to 2,440 and is rapidly climbing. Supermarkets should be interested because it will cost a store about 50 cents to wash a car and customers could be charged several dollars. That is the kind of profit margin supermarkets dream about. The supermarkets that are now pumping gas are promoting it with groceries. So, I can picture promotions like "Free Wash With a $50 Purchase!" Or, "Free 2-liter Cola with a Wash!" to bring new customers into the store. Would you use a car wash at your supermarket?
Getting a lift
Lifting and unloading heavy items, such as gallons of milk, large turkeys and hams, pet food, or bags of potatoes, from the bottom of the shopping cart basket can be difficult if you are short, or expecting, or you have back problems. The new Ergo-Lift is designed to reduce the strain on back and neck muscles when unloading a shopping cart. It is a platform supported by metal springs that fits in the bottom of the basket. As the load gets heavier, the platform moves downward; as the items are removed, the platform rises to the level of the checkout counter for easier unloading. Ergo-Lift is made by Applied Concepts of South El Monte, California.
Would you welcome any of these new innovations? Write to me, Martin Sloane, The Supermarket Shopper, in care of The Vindicator. I publish the most interesting letters.
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United Feature Syndicate