The new way to shop - smart trolleys

[Su-Yin]

Forget about writing a shopping list - your shopping trolley can now do your thinking for you.

Shopping trolleys with their own checkout consoles attached - you just scan the item when you drop it in - were on show at a retail technology expo in Sydney this week.

The trolleys will be used in the US from next month, and may make it into Australian supermarkets as early as next year.

The console allows you to download your shopping list and, backed by a network of in-store sensors, warns you when you are approaching an item you wish to buy.

It will advertise shop specials as you pass them, and you can scan your loyalty card into the system as well.

You can even place a deli order and receive a message when it is ready for collection.

Self-service checkout systems are being trialled by all the big supermarket chains, and they are proving to be popular as an alternative to the old-fashioned manual checkout.

And if you think you can add a few items to your trolley on the sly, think again. The number of items, and even the items themselves, will be cross-checked when they are bagged.

Fujitsu's U-Scan trolley and similar technologies on show from the computer giant IBM and others promise to transform shopping - but isn't it just another way to cut costs and get rid of checkout staff?

full article