Dirty_Den

What a great system! I'm on A/L at the moment, so decided to get some shopping in before the crowds after work. I've been using scan & go for a little while now, but today was the first time I got asked to be rescanned - presumably due to the rather large amount of beer I was purchasing!

Is there an 'honesty system' built in? If you get scanned and you weren't ripping them off, do you get scanned less often in the future? Is it completely random? Is it related to what you buy? (so if I buy half the liquor isle in one trip, am I more likely to be rescanned? )

Still a great system though - watching all the muppets queuing at the checkout is very satisfying....

Den

Devil's Refugee

It's completely random and there are ways to "cheat"
Used the Sainsbury's system when it was brought out.
There's a certain item limit that I noticed a re-scan would go up to, so basically, stick all your scanned items in a couple of bags (making sure that they total more than half of your shopping) and a selection of unscanned items in another bag.
Hand over the scanned items to the checkout if a rescan is warranted.....it'll scan up to a certain point and then automatically pass the rest.

Disclaimer: Not that I advocate this sort of thing you understand or have direct experience

Dirty_Den

Cheers DR -

I think the Safeway system must be different - if you get selected for a rescan, you have to unload all your items onto a checkout and the whole lot gets rescanned.

I'm not interested in ripping them off. As the point of the whole system (to me anyway) is to avoid the queues and having to unload/bag the shopping at the checkout, I wanted to know how it works, so I can avoid the inconvenience of being selected for a rescan.

Den

Dave P

Also had a full rescan in Sainsbury's. Marks are bringing in a systme where you dont even have a checkout person. You pay straight into a machine... It knows the weight of all the things you bought so you can't fidle it.... something like that

what would scooby do

Good news is that they are trialling the system whereby every product has a chip on the label. You fill your trolly up, go through a doorway size scanner and exit (to your scooby parked it the furtherest corner of the carpark).

The system picks up everything you bought and you just pay and leave. I think they where also doing automated charging (you could have a chip implant yourself I guess so when you walk out it debits your bank account)

RoShamBo

iTrader: (1)

So what would happen if you tampered with the tag ? Someone will find a way to block the signal from the scanner - quite easy I would have thought & you can do it quite descreetly as you wonder round.

& with the weight thing - how would it differentiate between say a tin of spaghetti & a tin of beans which weigh virtually the same amount ?

Ro.

[Edited by RoShamBo - 12/18/2002 1:43:24 PM]

what would scooby do

The tampering is out of the question as the store is crammed full of detectors. The products radiate a signal from point of manufacture and is tracked all the way through distribution to the store exit. If a product suddenly goes "offline" i.e. you break the chip then they will be on to you.

The next stage IIRC is that your kitchen can be fitted with a scanner so your PC can track when you are out of stuff so you can re-order.

Biggest problem that I can see is the "Big Brother" aspect in that potentially the store can profile your purchase and consumtion rate (well to be honest they do that already with loyalty cards)

Devil's Refugee

Wrap them all up in tin-foil is what I say

what would scooby do

..ah but the tinfoil will be chipped and it will grass on you..

weapon69

Safeway always rescan after a couple of times using it, then if u got too many 'unscanned items' then they check u pretty much all the time, cus the info is held on a database. before u ask, im not a safeway trainspotter type, i just work there!

Chrisgr31

I am using Waitroses self scan system (not sure how as a scooby driver I can afford to shop in Waitrose but thats another story!).

So far I have used in on 5 separate occasions and not been stopped for re-scanning. You scan it all in then go and pay. There is n automated payment system too, where you just put card in to pay. Can do a weeks shopping with no staff interference.

Chris