5) Telxon (pronounced "TELL-zahn". Never heard that term used at my store but I read it here often.)
6) Gemini
7) Handheld
8) Barcode Scanner
So why so many names for one device? yeah, I sorta kinda know the answer to my question. Different terminology is used by different stores because Kroger is such a disorganized mess and is still grappling with 'proper" terminology across the board for all divisions, regions, stores and departments. Whatever one employee started calling it, another employee started copying, and then on and on as new people are hired......or someone called it 'such an such' at another store or at an entirely another company.
Looking up online, it seems like the 'real' name in the manufacturing industry of such a "thingy" should be along the lines of: Radio Frequency Barcode Scanner. Well, Maybe I will start calling it "Thingamajig".
I think in the training video I took 9 years ago, it was called a telxon.
I call it a telxon.
About 5 years ago, we were instructed to never call it a gun in the store. I heard in another store that a customer overheard an employee calling it a gun and freaked out.
What does CAO stand for? No one in my store knows what it means...
Computer Assisted Ordering I believe. As they often talk about the fact that there are some products in the bakery that know how to check when the levels are getting low and will automatically order themselves.
As for other names for it at our store or at least in the depts. I've been in, I've heard it called the RF, Gun, or Handheld. No idea about that Gemini reference.
What does CAO stand for? No one in my store knows what it means...
Computer Assisted Ordering I believe. As they often talk about the fact that there are some products in the bakery that know how to check when the levels are getting low and will automatically order themselves.
As for other names for it at our store or at least in the depts. I've been in, I've heard it called the RF, Gun, or Handheld. No idea about that Gemini reference.
We have that at my store. It's helped some when it comes to getting in too much product but it has its flaws. For one thing, it doesn't increase the order on items that are going on sale. It orders too much of some things and not enough of others. Also, you have to make sure the BOH for each item is accurate. Anytime someone cuts a cake into cake-for-two or uses pudding cakes to make a pudding cake tray they need to scan the item(s) on the RF unit under lows and holes and subtract however many they use from the BOH. You also have to make sure you manually receive each day's frozen food order. Otherwise, it won't count the stuff that comes in when it calculates how much it needs to order.
What does CAO stand for? No one in my store knows what it means...
Computer Assisted Ordering I believe. As they often talk about the fact that there are some products in the bakery that know how to check when the levels are getting low and will automatically order themselves.
As for other names for it at our store or at least in the depts. I've been in, I've heard it called the RF, Gun, or Handheld. No idea about that Gemini reference.
We have that at my store. It's helped some when it comes to getting in too much product but it has its flaws. For one thing, it doesn't increase the order on items that are going on sale. It orders too much of some things and not enough of others. Also, you have to make sure the BOH for each item is accurate. Anytime someone cuts a cake into cake-for-two or uses pudding cakes to make a pudding cake tray they need to scan the item(s) on the RF unit under lows and holes and subtract however many they use from the BOH. You also have to make sure you manually receive each day's frozen food order. Otherwise, it won't count the stuff that comes in when it calculates how much it needs to order.
Good to know. Any tips on how to get the warehouse from scratching so many products? As that seems to be a major thing for us lately. Order something and then it just never shows. But they will bill ya for it anyway. Like really?
The Wikipedia article for such devices is under the name "portable data terminal", listing as synonyms enterprise digital assistant, data capture mobile devices, batch terminals, and portables. Manufacturers often just label them as "mobile computers" (like the Motorola/Symbol devices Kroger uses). Telxon is a brand name of one such manufacturer, whose products Kroger chose over Symbol's back in the mid-90's, but in 2000 Telxon ended up being bought out by Symbol anyway (then Symbol was bought by Motorola in 2007 and Motorola Solutions was bought by Zebra in 2014). So it's an old brand with a name that's persisted generically within the industry, like Baskart.
At my store they're generally called handhelds, RFs, or guns.
What does CAO stand for? No one in my store knows what it means...
Computer Assisted Ordering I believe. As they often talk about the fact that there are some products in the bakery that know how to check when the levels are getting low and will automatically order themselves.
As for other names for it at our store or at least in the depts. I've been in, I've heard it called the RF, Gun, or Handheld. No idea about that Gemini reference.
We have that at my store. It's helped some when it comes to getting in too much product but it has its flaws. For one thing, it doesn't increase the order on items that are going on sale. It orders too much of some things and not enough of others. Also, you have to make sure the BOH for each item is accurate. Anytime someone cuts a cake into cake-for-two or uses pudding cakes to make a pudding cake tray they need to scan the item(s) on the RF unit under lows and holes and subtract however many they use from the BOH. You also have to make sure you manually receive each day's frozen food order. Otherwise, it won't count the stuff that comes in when it calculates how much it needs to order.
Good to know. Any tips on how to get the warehouse from scratching so many products? As that seems to be a major thing for us lately. Order something and then it just never shows. But they will bill ya for it anyway. Like really?
I print out the invoice. High light the missing products and if the loss is over $200, then the store managers can get a credit.
For anything that we are billed for but it is constantly missing, I email my department district coordinator and he contacts the warehouse to find out what is going on. After that, then it is "out of stock" for a while.
I think when you sign on to ISP, Computer Assisted Ordering is on the screen after you log in. That was one of my questions for a department manager interview.
-- Edited by Anonymouse1 on Monday 21st of August 2017 07:30:04 AM
What does CAO stand for? No one in my store knows what it means...
Dear employee, I'm honestly NOT trying to sound smarty, but if "no one" in your store truly knows that "CAO" stands for "Computer-Assisted Ordering", it sounds like your store has-- potentially-- some real problems. The reason I say that is because I am sure when I was hired over 3 years ago (just for a menial entry position in the deli dept) the term was included in my required computer training courses and/or in a handbook listing a rundown of frequently-used terms when working in retail at Kroger (like the meaning of "Backroom", "Bascart", etc). I thought anyone in the depts. that would be using an RF scanner would learn what it meant.
What does CAO stand for? No one in my store knows what it means...
Computer Assisted Ordering I believe. As they often talk about the fact that there are some products in the bakery that know how to check when the levels are getting low and will automatically order themselves.
As for other names for it at our store or at least in the depts. I've been in, I've heard it called the RF, Gun, or Handheld. No idea about that Gemini reference.
We have that at my store. It's helped some when it comes to getting in too much product but it has its flaws. For one thing, it doesn't increase the order on items that are going on sale. It orders too much of some things and not enough of others. Also, you have to make sure the BOH for each item is accurate. Anytime someone cuts a cake into cake-for-two or uses pudding cakes to make a pudding cake tray they need to scan the item(s) on the RF unit under lows and holes and subtract however many they use from the BOH. You also have to make sure you manually receive each day's frozen food order. Otherwise, it won't count the stuff that comes in when it calculates how much it needs to order.
Good to know. Any tips on how to get the warehouse from scratching so many products? As that seems to be a major thing for us lately. Order something and then it just never shows. But they will bill ya for it anyway. Like really?
I print out the invoice. High light the missing products and if the loss is over $200, then the store managers can get a credit.
For anything that we are billed for but it is constantly missing, I email my department district coordinator and he contacts the warehouse to find out what is going on. After that, then it is "out of stock" for a while.
I think when you sign on to ISP, Computer Assisted Ordering is on the screen after you log in. That was one of my questions for a department manager interview.
-- Edited by Anonymouse1 on Monday 21st of August 2017 07:30:04 AM
I think my back up manager does that. Even had me do that once(checking over the invoice). And yea for some things we use a heck of a lot of temporarily unavailable stickers. Particularly for the PS brownies.
And mini p.s. to this whole discussion. I don't know when they finally realized I and other employees weren't joking when we said we couldn't login into the "guns" at all. But now I can finally log-in! Totally makes my job easier.
