Scan, Bag, Go coming to 30 Ralphs locations starting in February 2018

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CalItalian
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Scan, Bag, Go coming to 30 Ralphs locations starting in February 2018

Post by CalItalian »

https://www.ocregister.com/2018/01/31/r ... echnology/

Studio City will be first in late February. Redondo Beach will be second in March.

Can't wait to test it out at the Redondo Beach location. ClickList is already a huge joke (which is available at the LAX Westchester and Ladera Heights locations 8 to 10 miles north of the Redondo Beach location but not Redondo Beach). I expect this will be too. Seems ripe for theft but so does the California bag law that retailers wanted so desperately to make 10 cents a bag off customers.
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Re: Scan, Bag, Go coming to 30 Ralphs locations starting in February 2018

Post by BillyGr »

This isn't really that new (overall) - Stop & Shop (and likely their Giant chains further south) have had a very similar program for several years now.

They started with the hand scanners (which to get one you scanned your store card) that you carry to scan each item and put it in a bag, then you just went to a checkout lane and scanned the end code there and then your store card again at the register and it pulled up the list of items, you processed anything else (like coupons) and paid.

I'm pretty sure that they offer a version now using a phone as well.

One thing that helped with avoiding theft is that they would randomly pick orders to be checked by the cashier (so you didn't know if that might happen, which would prevent people from putting in items not recorded).

The only thing that seems different here is the (eventual) option to pay with a connected card through their system to avoid the checkout register entirely, which, I suppose, could make it more of an issue, since they probably couldn't have the random checks that way?
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Re: Scan, Bag, Go coming to 30 Ralphs locations starting in February 2018

Post by CalItalian »

BillyGr wrote: February 1st, 2018, 5:48 pm This isn't really that new (overall) - Stop & Shop (and likely their Giant chains further south) have had a very similar program for several years now.

They started with the hand scanners (which to get one you scanned your store card) that you carry to scan each item and put it in a bag, then you just went to a checkout lane and scanned the end code there and then your store card again at the register and it pulled up the list of items, you processed anything else (like coupons) and paid.

I'm pretty sure that they offer a version now using a phone as well.

One thing that helped with avoiding theft is that they would randomly pick orders to be checked by the cashier (so you didn't know if that might happen, which would prevent people from putting in items not recorded).

The only thing that seems different here is the (eventual) option to pay with a connected card through their system to avoid the checkout register entirely, which, I suppose, could make it more of an issue, since they probably couldn't have the random checks that way?
Checkout will be at self checkout, initially. That's one cashier for 6 or more self-checkout registers. In Westwood Village, they have 16 self-checkout registers and one cashier. I know these cashiers personally. They're busy already. That's not going to work. Most Ralphs have multiple entrances unlike Sam's Club which has a similar program. Ralphs are not designed to hold people at the door and check as they do at Sam's Club, either.
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Re: Scan, Bag, Go coming to 30 Ralphs locations starting in February 2018

Post by storewanderer »

Albertsons tried this technology under Larry Johnson and we know how that all went. 14 years ago. I saw Kroger is pushing electronic shelf tags too. Another Albertsons idea of 14 years ago that never moved beyond a store or two. I wonder if Kroger is getting its ideas lately by reading old Albertsons, Inc. annual reports from 14 years ago.

Maybe things will go different (I doubt it) since a lot of things about Kroger (pricing, promotions, private label program, merchandising) are definitely a lot better than the Albertsons of 14 years ago.

The other big difference is Albertsons was smart enough to try it in some backwoods locations like Idaho or Texas where fraud is pretty low, stores are not terribly busy, and stores are pretty large and spacious (makes it easy to have a lot of cameras with good camera views). Trying a program like this at just about any Ralphs is absolutely a stupid idea. With the high traffic, theft, smaller than average store size, and other unique factors in California like the bag ban, how will this ever work there?

These stores in California all already have strict policies of "do not fill reusable bags while shopping" and I have seen customers approached by employees and told to stop filling their reusable bag while shopping and empty what is already in the bag; and this program seems to literally slap that idea in the face.

Kroger can't even accept Apple Pay like all the other grocery stores do. Their technology is so far behind, it isn't even funny.

I also do not see the average Kroger customer in a lot of the middle US having much interest in this program. In fact, trying to push this program on customers could well backfire and make people go elsewhere.
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Re: Scan, Bag, Go coming to 30 Ralphs locations starting in February 2018

Post by BillyGr »

CalItalian wrote: February 1st, 2018, 8:32 pm
BillyGr wrote: February 1st, 2018, 5:48 pm This isn't really that new (overall) - Stop & Shop (and likely their Giant chains further south) have had a very similar program for several years now.

They started with the hand scanners (which to get one you scanned your store card) that you carry to scan each item and put it in a bag, then you just went to a checkout lane and scanned the end code there and then your store card again at the register and it pulled up the list of items, you processed anything else (like coupons) and paid.

I'm pretty sure that they offer a version now using a phone as well.

One thing that helped with avoiding theft is that they would randomly pick orders to be checked by the cashier (so you didn't know if that might happen, which would prevent people from putting in items not recorded).

The only thing that seems different here is the (eventual) option to pay with a connected card through their system to avoid the checkout register entirely, which, I suppose, could make it more of an issue, since they probably couldn't have the random checks that way?
Checkout will be at self checkout, initially. That's one cashier for 6 or more self-checkout registers. In Westwood Village, they have 16 self-checkout registers and one cashier. I know these cashiers personally. They're busy already. That's not going to work. Most Ralphs have multiple entrances unlike Sam's Club which has a similar program. Ralphs are not designed to hold people at the door and check as they do at Sam's Club, either.
Actually doing it with the requirement to go through self checkout (or a cashier) not only makes sense in the elimination of the theft issues (since it would still be easy to see someone walking out not going through a checkout lane of some sort) but could even make it easier for the cashier(s) running the self checkout, and possibly for other cashiers in the store as well.
[Note that the system described doesn't have people checking at the doors either]

If it's anything like the system I described above, you don't normally need the employee for anything - you just scanned the code and card, then chose your form of payment and used your card or put cash in or whatever and got a receipt from the machine. You'd only need assistance if something didn't work right (as can happen with any self checkout), so not too much (if any) extra work for those at that station, at least once people understand how to use the system.

On the opposite side, it's going to take 6 people longer to ring their entire order at a self checkout (ringing one item at a time then bagging, or ringing and having it go down a belt then having to bag at the end) than it will for 6 people to process this payment only part at a self checkout, so you can move more customers through each self checkout in a given time.

Additionally, you may get some people who normally go to a staffed checkout to use this system (those with larger orders, who may not want to stand at a self check doing many items but would be easier to do if they can scan s they shop), which would lower the number of people needing to be checked at the regular checkout, making those faster for everyone else as well.
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Re: Scan, Bag, Go coming to 30 Ralphs locations starting in February 2018

Post by lola42 »

I’ll be interested to see how this goes. Whoever can crack the code of fast checkout wins.
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Re: Scan, Bag, Go coming to 30 Ralphs locations starting in February 2018

Post by storewanderer »

I hate to be negative but I have doubts this will work. Albertsons tried it 15 years ago. Wal Mart has tried it for a while off and on...

20 years ago we heard everything would have an RFID Chip in it and eliminate the need to stop at checkout. What ever happened to that?
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Re: Scan, Bag, Go coming to 30 Ralphs locations starting in February 2018

Post by lola42 »

I'm very surprised Walmart hasn't gotten there already. They've had the resources, don't know if they've always had the talent but certainly they do now. Likely answer is front end labor hasn't been expensive so no pressure to change.

15 years ago Albertsons was busy disintegrating, so they weren't going to go crack the code.

I bet my first born son and two front teeth that the companies that master fast checkout and implement the technology on a global scale will be standing in 10 years. The others will not.
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Re: Scan, Bag, Go coming to 30 Ralphs locations starting in February 2018

Post by CalItalian »

Ralphs Redondo Beach is getting ready for Scan, Bag, Go. Coming in two weeks. I know a number of the cashiers at this location. They hate it already. I was also told they are going to add 6 self-checkout stations to the right side of the checkout area (this week) to add to the 4 self-checkout stations on the left side of the checkout area in anticipation of it being a "huge success". We'll see about that. This is a large store being a former Zody's.

I posted 6 photos on Yelp of the Scan, Bag, Go areas on either side of the store. They're already up.
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/ralphs- ... bP0mZ2LPHA
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/ralphs- ... UuJeM01B0w
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/ralphs- ... J7GDha4uBw
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/ralphs- ... ZUVfytGEQA
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/ralphs- ... wjQRx4iEQA
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/ralphs- ... Y9viWLLHMg
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Re: Scan, Bag, Go coming to 30 Ralphs locations starting in February 2018

Post by BillyGr »

Looks like this a very similar setup to what Stop & Shop has had for years (those "holes" under a couple of the covers on the displays will hold portable scanners for those not having a phone with the app to use, it appears - just like the original setup with S&S before most phones had the capacity to do this).
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