The Digital World keeps spreading and we need to keep learning.  I had a new experience grocery shopping yesterday.  I took our daughter with me to help figure out ‘that new-fangled contraption!’

The Giant Food Stores in MD/VA/DE have added something new to their Self-Checkout Experience.  They now are offering SCAN-IT Technology. (Ok, it’s not exactly new, but I wanted someone with me when I first tried it out.)

Giant Food Scan-It Device

When you enter the store you sign-in using your customer card and receive a hand-held scanner.  Using plastic bags provided or your own re-usable shopping bags, you start shopping.  As you shop you scan each item and place it in your bags.  The device shows the item scanned and total spent/saved.

We experienced a bit of problem in the produce section.  You pick your item (bananas) and place them on a special scale, select the item from the menu and it is weighed/priced.  You then select ‘print’ and a priced bar-coded sticker is printed.  The problem we had was a bag of apples – we could never get it to price it correctly.  We didn’t find anyone to help, so we switched to another type of bag and it worked fine.

It took a bit longer to shop – of course, it had a learning curve.  But we arrived at a self-check-out kiosk, logged in our shopping number and woosh! everything was downloaded, and we checked out.

Pros – No double handling the goods. Touched the items once and bagged them. The scanner kept a running total of the bill as we shopped, so we knew how much we were spending. Very fast checking out. Items were bagged with like items – don’t you hate it when they throw in cans with the bread!?!

Cons – Took a bit longer to shop.  It didn’t give me credit for my re-usable bags (only $0.15, but every penny counts!).  No ‘human’ contact – some checkers are pleasant and fun to talk with at the check-out.

Conclusion – I will give it a try another day.