Next to Put Grocery Checkout Lines in its Sights: Microsoft
In the second half of the year, in Wakefern Food Corp.’s ShopRite supermarkets on the east coast, Microsoft and MediaCart Holdings Inc. will test a grocery cart-mounted console that helps shoppers find items in a store and then scan and pay for them without waiting in the checkout line. Loyalty card holders will be able to type their grocery lists into a website at home. Once at the store, when they swipe their cards on the MediaCart console, their lists will appear. The unit will keep a running tally of their bills, check items off customers’ lists as those customers scan them, and even display department-and-aisle-specific advertising messages by employing RFID technology. Don’t worry, though. “‘This is not all necessarily about bombarding consumers, about targeting advertising,’ said Scott Ferris, general manager of Microsoft’s Advertiser and Publisher Solutions group. ‘It’s about also making the shopping experience better for the consumer.’” (Let’s review. To save shoppers from a few minutes of catching up on their favorite celebrities in the checkout aisle, this innovation asks them to do “shopping homework” on their computers, and then to scan their own merchandise. What a deal!) The Wall Street Journal Subscription required. The Times of London (Jan. 14, 2008)
Tags: aQuantive, grocery cart, MediaCart Holdings Inc., Microsoft, RFID, ShopRite, Wakefern Food Corp.