"Kroger is rolling out new technology to its stores that could change grocery shopping as we know it.
The technology, which digitally displays pricing and nutritional information, video ads, and coupons, is installed on store shelves where paper price tags hang. The digital shelving is being tested throughout two pilot stores and has been rolled out to about 100 Kroger stores' end caps, an industry term for the space at the end of store aisles.
The digital price tags give Kroger the ability to instantly change prices and activate promotions across its stores, enabling it to undercut sales at other retailers and freeing up employees who would otherwise change prices by hand.
The technology also communicates with customers' smartphones to help them complete their shopping lists"
So... "freeing up employees who would otherwise change prices by hand" means freeing them up to perform other tasks in stores, right? It doesn't mean, you know, cut hours and reduce the labor force by a certain percentage, right? I mean, the front end didn't lose hours when self check out and Scan, Bag, Go was rolled out, so... this is bound to be a good thing and I'm sure the digital tech will never glitch up or fail and everything will run smoothly!
"Kroger is rolling out new technology to its stores that could change grocery shopping as we know it.
The technology, which digitally displays pricing and nutritional information, video ads, and coupons, is installed on store shelves where paper price tags hang. The digital shelving is being tested throughout two pilot stores and has been rolled out to about 100 Kroger stores' end caps, an industry term for the space at the end of store aisles.
The digital price tags give Kroger the ability to instantly change prices and activate promotions across its stores, enabling it to undercut sales at other retailers and freeing up employees who would otherwise change prices by hand.
The technology also communicates with customers' smartphones to help them complete their shopping lists"
So... "freeing up employees who would otherwise change prices by hand" means freeing them up to perform other tasks in stores, right? It doesn't mean, you know, cut hours and reduce the labor force by a certain percentage, right? I mean, the front end didn't lose hours when self check out and Scan, Bag, Go was rolled out, so... this is bound to be a good thing and I'm sure the digital tech will never glitch up or fail and everything will run smoothly!
"Kroger is rolling out new technology to its stores that could change grocery shopping as we know it.
The technology, which digitally displays pricing and nutritional information, video ads, and coupons, is installed on store shelves where paper price tags hang. The digital shelving is being tested throughout two pilot stores and has been rolled out to about 100 Kroger stores' end caps, an industry term for the space at the end of store aisles.
The digital price tags give Kroger the ability to instantly change prices and activate promotions across its stores, enabling it to undercut sales at other retailers and freeing up employees who would otherwise change prices by hand.
The technology also communicates with customers' smartphones to help them complete their shopping lists"
So... "freeing up employees who would otherwise change prices by hand" means freeing them up to perform other tasks in stores, right? It doesn't mean, you know, cut hours and reduce the labor force by a certain percentage, right? I mean, the front end didn't lose hours when self check out and Scan, Bag, Go was rolled out, so... this is bound to be a good thing and I'm sure the digital tech will never glitch up or fail and everything will run smoothly!
Probably end up going haywire like the 360 did with RRoD.
If you do see the shelves, you will notice the "price tags" looks strange and or miss-shaped for the item or shelf. Also, think about a flickering light or TV screen, I thought I was going to have a seizure.
If you do see the shelves, you will notice the "price tags" looks strange and or miss-shaped for the item or shelf. Also, think about a flickering light or TV screen, I thought I was going to have a seizure.
This 100%. I can't imagine an entire aisle of them, my eyes would bleed by the end of the shift. I don't know why they didnt go with e-ink.
I like the idea of it. If it actually worked, maybe we could get rid of our scanning coordinator. She's a worthless bitch who doesn't do her job, so we are continuously drowning in old tags.
The problem is that I don't see how Kroger and MS couldn't **** it up.
How poorly does it cope with being rammed by a cart or electric cart?
Considering the shelves actually run Linux, that surprises me as to why Microsoft is getting in on this. If they put their hands in, it's going to get worse before it gets better!
Customer: Excuse me, sir. How much is this item?
Kroger Employee: You have to look at the screen.
Customer: Yo screen messed up.
Kroger Employee: Aww crap, it's a BSOD.
Customer: That means it's free, right?
Krogrr still uses Internet Destroyer as its official browser, so, the partnership of ineptitude makes some sense.
Do the self check outs still run on Windows XP? I remember not too long ago, I saw the Windows XP logo when a self check out machine was being rebooted...
Do the self check outs still run on Windows XP? I remember not too long ago, I saw the Windows XP logo when a self check out machine was being rebooted...
Well, we have Toshiba self checkouts now. And they run their own operating system, called "4690." Hey, at least you won't see a BSOD. But yeah, the handhelds run some mobile/embedded version of Windows.
I do wish we'd get new pinpads that can take Apple Pay and other Pays.
"Kroger is rolling out new technology to its stores that could change grocery shopping as we know it.
The technology, which digitally displays pricing and nutritional information, video ads, and coupons, is installed on store shelves where paper price tags hang. The digital shelving is being tested throughout two pilot stores and has been rolled out to about 100 Kroger stores' end caps, an industry term for the space at the end of store aisles.
The digital price tags give Kroger the ability to instantly change prices and activate promotions across its stores, enabling it to undercut sales at other retailers and freeing up employees who would otherwise change prices by hand.
The technology also communicates with customers' smartphones to help them complete their shopping lists"
So... "freeing up employees who would otherwise change prices by hand" means freeing them up to perform other tasks in stores, right? It doesn't mean, you know, cut hours and reduce the labor force by a certain percentage, right? I mean, the front end didn't lose hours when self check out and Scan, Bag, Go was rolled out, so... this is bound to be a good thing and I'm sure the digital tech will never glitch up or fail and everything will run smoothly!
I worked at Kohl's when they switched over to electronic signs, and honestly it's about time Kroger stepped it up. Using and throwing away all those tags and signs and paper is so wasteful especially when it's a huge corporation. This will be much better for the environment. Don't see why hours should be cut for tag people because some still has to maintain the signs and input info, unless info is input at the corporate level, but since it's Kroger then they will probably cut hours.
Considering the shelves actually run Linux, that surprises me as to why Microsoft is getting in on this. If they put their hands in, it's going to get worse before it gets better!
Microsoft's been embracing both Linux and cloud infrastructure services over the past several years. WSL on Win10 is pretty nice, though the sort of people who have a weird cult around Richard Stallman treat it like the devil because MS had a strategy of "embrace, extend, extinguish" back in the 90s under Gates and Ballmer said Linux was a cancer nearly 20 years ago so obviously the company still acts the same way under Nadella's leadership ¯\_()_/¯
As for why Kroger would partner with MS for this, Ars Technica's article says it best: "Microsoft's Azure cloud service handles most of that data, as Kroger (like many others) didn't want to pay Amazon for the use of its AWS cloud infrastructure. Azure is AWS' biggest competitor"
I like the idea of electronic tags since it means that the prices will automatically be updated. I'm not fond of the fact that "Kroger plans to sell digital advertisements on these displays that can be targeted to customer demographics"
Wait, do your stores have the file people hang the tags?
Our store only has one and a half file people (there's a cashier/front desk person who helps out on price change days and covers the position when the main file person isn't available) but the tags are hung by people from the departments. The file people just make signs/change prices/scan things to check for bad prices/adjust prices if required.
I suppose the digital shelf tags would take out the need to scan random stuff, but... well, take the seasonal aisles. We always start out set to POG, but by the end of a season we're shuffling things around and shoving things from the back room wherever they'll fit. I'd hope either the GM or file department can tell the digital tag strip what's in a particular location.