Checkout in 10 seconds - Familymart pilot test
Familymart and other companies announced an ambitious retail RFID project in December (see the entry "Here It Comes - Totally RFID Checkout"). At a Familymart conveniece store in Minato-ku, Tokyo, sales items are individually tagged and, at the checkout, the POS machine reads multiple tags at once. Customers can also use RFID payment cards.
This pilot test started on January 30 and will last till February 24. So far, the company seems to be satisfied with what they are seeing so far. They say the checkout processing is twice as fast and it now takes about 10 seconds for each customer. Even during the time when the store is very crowded, with this system, there are only about three people waiting in a line for the checkout.
via Nikkei Ryutsu Shimbun MJ, February 10, 2006 (in Japanese)
Posted by konomi at February 20, 2006 01:23 AM | TrackBack