Shall we kiss the queues goodbye?
- CS
- Mar 10, 2017
- 2 min read
Don't write off long queues in the supermarket and cash yet, but be prepared for the new shopping era. It may not be as far as you think. Grocery shopping is not one of the favorite hobbies, especially when time is limited. Is it possible to avoid the long queues at the supermarket? Well, in some parts of the world it is. Retailers have recognized that the efficiency and convenience experienced by online shoppers needs to be part of the in-store experience, with click and collect services having become mainstream. (Cassidy, 2015).
But is this panacea?
One attempt was made in Morissons, the British supermarket chain. Morissons introduced the Intelligent Queue Management system to reduce the queues, which was however abandoned as the comments were not satisfying. Mr. Potts, a former executive at Tesco, said: 'We intend to be an organization that listens very hard to its customers and staff and, wherever possible, responds quickly. Our colleagues in our stores are best placed to use their experience and personal judgment in deciding how best to serve their customers, keeping queues low at the checkouts and improving the customer’s shopping trip.'
A year later the company launched the ambitious bid. The supermarket giant is pushing to cut down the length of time customers have to queue at checkouts with a ‘one-plus-one’ system which would mean one person waiting while another is being served. What will happen?
Check out this video for more info:
(source: YouTube)
On the other part of the planet and specifically in Korea, the digital aspect was better received. In 2009, Tesco introduced the virtual grocery shops and QR code shopping. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response Code) is the trademark for a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) first designed for the automotive industry in Japan. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that contains information about the item to which it is attached. (wikipedia).
How it works?
The walls of the store are plastered with posters of products. The shopper scans the product QR code with a smart phone camera and adds it to his cart. Then, he pays by using his phone and the groceries are then delivered to his home. Cool, huh?
On the same path- or a similar one- Amazon Go tries to make the queues a memory. Do you have a smart phone? Then forget the waiting at the till! You just scan your phone upon entry and your purchases are charged directly to the shopper’s online Amazon account.
Is the industry going to follow? That remains to be seen...
Cambridge, E. (2016). An end to the supermarket queues? Morrisons trials system where only one shopper waits while another is served. Retrieved from: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1235111/is-this-an-end-to-the-supermarket-queues-morrisons-trialling-new-scheme-which-means-no-more-than-one-shopper-is-waiting-while-another-is-served/
Cassidy, A. (2015). Does tech mean the end of the line for queueing? . Retreived from: https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/oct/01/apps-location-tech-queuing-retail-digital
Mulli, G. (2015). Morrisons brings back human staff to monitor till queues as it ditches 'pointless' hi-tech system. Retrieved from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3010834/Death-self-service-checkout-Morrisons-brings-human-staff-ditches-pointless-hi-tech-queuing-system.html
Titcomb, J. (2016). End of the supermarket queue? Amazon opens futuristic shop with no tills or cashiers . Retrieved from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/12/05/end-supermarket-queue-amazon-opens-shop-no-tills-automatically/
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