I often shop at the Hawthorne Fred Meyer, and noticed several months ago a large monitor at the front of the store named Que Vision. If has a graphic of three yellow circles, labeled; Open, Action Now and 30 Minutes. Or some such. The first checker I asked about the screen said , "Oh that. Ignore it. It is useless". Still curious, on a subsequent trip I asked a different cashier and got a bit more thorough of an answer. Apparently the system has sensors that measure how many people enter and exit the store and may even measure where we are in the store. It then uses historic data to predict when we'll check out. In theory, this system helps managers anticipate rushes and slow times, and allocate cashiers accordingly. I think this is pretty cool, and an interesting use of crowd data for a practical use. I also love the idea that I might screw up their predictors. Ha! The system thought I was headed toward checkout, but instead I veered a quick right to ethnic foods.
I did a bit of googling and happened on the Kroger employee bulletin board and a discussion of the system. It sounds as though Kroger has an initiative to only have one person in line, in addition to the person checking out. This seems to be a departure from their previous two people in line in addition to the person checking out. To meet this goal, without having a bunch of cashiers standing around on the payroll, the employee discussion board says all departments are being cross trained to serve as cashiers. So in a heavy period, folks from other departments help check out, and in slower times they work in their assigned departments. I haven't noticed this at the Hawthorne Fred Meyer, in general usual cashiers are at their stations. The employee bulletin board made it sounds as though Kroger designed this system themselves, rather than buying any of the already on the market products.
Does your grocery store have Que Vision, or a similar substitute? Do you think your wait times at the checkout line have been reduced?
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