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20 minutes? In France we have these manual scanners that you can carry around the supermarket and scan items as you put them in your bag. Then when you exit th

20 minutes? In France we have these manual scanners that you can carry around the supermarket and scan items as you put them in your bag. Then when you exit the store, semi-randomly an employee will rescan part of your items, or all of them (it happens more often if you often forget to scan things - which can happen, but it can also be wilful shoplifting of course). Then you pay and the gate opens. Most of the time it does take about 30 seconds, also you don't have to get your stuff out of your bag and you know all along how much you're going to pay. I think I haven't used the regular lines for years.

danmaz74 9y ago
Same here in Italy. I use them all the time.
jaclaz 9y ago
>Most of the time it does take about 30 seconds, also you don't have to get your stuff out of your bag and you know all along how much you're going to pay. And this latter has an interesting side effect. At the time these readers were introduced the "message" to the public was "your convenience, faster checkout" (while actually the reason was "let us reduce the number of cashiers"). What was soon found out was that the "poor man's average shopping" was raised by some 10-15%. Imagine you go to the supermarket and you only have in your pocket a single 50 Euro (or 50 dollars) note. You put things in your basket making a mental calculation of the total amount in order to avoid, when you checkout, if the total is more than 50, to have to leave some item (and also to avoid the "social shame"). With the new method, where you can see your progressive total, that kind of shopping has raised from 42-45 to 48-50, i.e. people use "all they have" without risking to "look bad".
- adamio 9y ago
  who is this hypothetical poor man who's so bad at managing money that an exact total of the amount he's spending will cause him to overspend ?
  - jaclaz 9y ago
    >who is this hypothetical poor man who's so bad at managing money that an exact total of the amount he's spending will cause him to overspend ? It is not hypothetical, it is a peculiar - but not so uncommon - man/woman with a limited amount of money in his/her hands (and of course no credit card or similar), the single 50 in the example (but it could be 20 or 100) banknote. He/she is willing to spend the whole amount of money, but before didn't because he/she was afraid to be seen as having only that given limited amount of money and by making approximate mental calculation tended to undereestimate (or if you prefer preferred to be on the safe side). With the barcode reader he/she can spend the whole amount of money he/she has available with no risk of appearing (to the cashier, to the people in queue) as "poor". The poiont is not that with the new system this kind of "poor" people overspend, rather it is that before it underspent.
- janekm 9y ago
  When I'm using the app-based version of this kind of system, I find myself much more likely to put an item back on the shelf when I see the price come up in the app (or when I notice how high my total bill is getting). Being surprised at the total spend after visiting a supermarket used to be quite common for me, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that experience! Of course Amazon are well aware of this psychology and only send you the bill after you leave the store...
melkiaur 9y ago
> it does take about 30 seconds As long as there's nobody in the queue, and the "scannette" (yes, that's how they're called) still has enough battery, and you haven't tried to buy razor-blades which require a manual action from an attendant to remove the theft-protection device, and the granny in front of you isn't trying to pay with coins.
- seszett 9y ago
  Never had a problem with battery or a queue that lasted more than a minute or so (either at Carrefour or Auchan, some of the largest ones in Lille). The manual action doesn't take long because the attendant has little to do, and I don't use the lane where you can pay with cash, but the many others that only take a credit card.

danmaz74 9y ago

Same here in Italy. I use them all the time.

jaclaz 9y ago

>Most of the time it does take about 30 seconds, also you don't have to get your stuff out of your bag and you know all along how much you're going to pay. And this latter has an interesting side effect. At the time these readers were introduced the "message" to the public was "your convenience, faster checkout" (while actually the reason was "let us reduce the number of cashiers"). What was soon found out was that the "poor man's average shopping" was raised by some 10-15%. Imagine you go to the supermarket and you only have in your pocket a single 50 Euro (or 50 dollars) note. You put things in your basket making a mental calculation of the total amount in order to avoid, when you checkout, if the total is more than 50, to have to leave some item (and also to avoid the "social shame"). With the new method, where you can see your progressive total, that kind of shopping has raised from 42-45 to 48-50, i.e. people use "all they have" without risking to "look bad".

adamio 9y ago
who is this hypothetical poor man who's so bad at managing money that an exact total of the amount he's spending will cause him to overspend ?
- jaclaz 9y ago
  >who is this hypothetical poor man who's so bad at managing money that an exact total of the amount he's spending will cause him to overspend ? It is not hypothetical, it is a peculiar - but not so uncommon - man/woman with a limited amount of money in his/her hands (and of course no credit card or similar), the single 50 in the example (but it could be 20 or 100) banknote. He/she is willing to spend the whole amount of money, but before didn't because he/she was afraid to be seen as having only that given limited amount of money and by making approximate mental calculation tended to undereestimate (or if you prefer preferred to be on the safe side). With the barcode reader he/she can spend the whole amount of money he/she has available with no risk of appearing (to the cashier, to the people in queue) as "poor". The poiont is not that with the new system this kind of "poor" people overspend, rather it is that before it underspent.
janekm 9y ago
When I'm using the app-based version of this kind of system, I find myself much more likely to put an item back on the shelf when I see the price come up in the app (or when I notice how high my total bill is getting). Being surprised at the total spend after visiting a supermarket used to be quite common for me, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that experience! Of course Amazon are well aware of this psychology and only send you the bill after you leave the store...

melkiaur 9y ago

> it does take about 30 seconds As long as there's nobody in the queue, and the "scannette" (yes, that's how they're called) still has enough battery, and you haven't tried to buy razor-blades which require a manual action from an attendant to remove the theft-protection device, and the granny in front of you isn't trying to pay with coins.

seszett 9y ago
Never had a problem with battery or a queue that lasted more than a minute or so (either at Carrefour or Auchan, some of the largest ones in Lille). The manual action doesn't take long because the attendant has little to do, and I don't use the lane where you can pay with cash, but the many others that only take a credit card.