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Grocers get taste of future: Store owners who want to stand out in the crowd these days are embracing cutting-edge services(Orlando Sentinel, The (FL) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jan. 21--Grocery shoppers in Central Florida may one day be able to place a deli order from a computer screen on their carts while browsing the frozen-foods aisle, or get personalized coupons on their cell phone as they pass products on their list. This week, store executives got a peek at a high-tech store of the future during the National Retail Federation's annual convention in New York, which doubles as the shopping industry's biggest trade show. Some of the technologies featured at the event could eventually find their way into stores in the Orlando area as retailers search for new ways to lure busy, tech-savvy shoppers. Already, grocers in the Orlando area, including Albertsons, Winn-Dixie and Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market -- which opened a fourth Central Florida store this week -- have rolled out self-serve checkout machines, a technology that is expected to become much more common. Marshal Cohen, retail analyst for the research firm NPD Group, told those at the convention that today's consumers are increasingly looking for a shopping "experience" that caters to individual needs and entertains. To that end, retailers hoping to stand out from the crowd are embracing cutting-edge services such as a Web-based shopping assistant that can help you navigate through a store to find that favorite brand of chocolate ice cream. Wal-Mart Stores, which continues to expand in the region -- its next supercenter is scheduled to open in Clermont at the end of the month -- said it has been testing a digital assistant that attaches to a shopping cart and can point you to store specials, download your shopping list, and keep a running price total of the items in your basket. The device, a version of which was on display at the convention, also speeds up the checkout process by printing up a receipt of chosen items that can be scanned at the counter in place of scanning individual products. "It is a great form of technology to provide assistance to customers," said Carolyn Walton, the company's vice president of information systems. Grocery stores are also experimenting with new forms of radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology, a tagging system that sends product information via radio waves. A retail "wine cave" in the convention's futuristic store demonstrated how RFID-tagged wine bottles could be scanned by customers at kiosks with touch-screen displays that offered information about the wine's vintage, suggested wine-food pairings, and offered discounts. The demonstration store also showed how retailers could track customers' movements throughout a store by picking up signals from their RFID-enabled loyalty cards. While RFID tags have raised some privacy concerns, analysts say it is only a matter of time before the technology takes hold in the market. Wal-Mart, for example, already puts RFID tags on some individual products, though it has been waiting for the price of the tags to drop before fully adopting the technology. Orlando's largest grocery chain, Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets, says it recently started a pilot project to test RFID tags on store items. The grocer wants to see if the technology can help streamline its inventory system and keep its produce fresh. "We want to continue to make that human contact, but we do understand that some customers do like the technology," spokesman Dwaine Stevens said. Mark Chediak can be reached at [email protected] or 407-420-5240. |