Technology shortens lines at checkout

H-E-B employees focus on bagging groceries as customers unload their baskets at the company's new Fast Scan checkout system at the McCreless Market H-E-B Plus on the Southeast Side. H-E-B employees focus on bagging groceries as customers unload their baskets at the company's new Fast Scan checkout system at the McCreless Market H-E-B Plus on the Southeast Side. Photo: H-E-B Photos Photo: H-E-B Photos Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Technology shortens lines at checkout 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Long lines at the grocery register soon may be things of the past if new checkout technology succeeds at H-E-B and Wal-Mart stores in San Antonio and other Texas cities.

At one store on the Southeast Side, locally based H-E-B recently began testing a 360-degree scanner that automatically registers the bar code on each product as it travels down the conveyer belt. And in 10 locations across the state, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. now lets shoppers use an iPhone application to scan and bag items as they browse the aisles, before completing their purchase at a self-checkout register.

Both companies said customer expectations drove them to offer the new checkout options.

“Our shoppers are shopping differently than ever before,” Wal-Mart spokeswoman Ashley Hardie wrote in an email.

“So in order to meet their ever-changing needs, we're experimenting with innovative technologies (to save) them time and money,” she added.

In February, H-E-B invited customers to try out a new scanning “tunnel” for the first time at its McCreless Market location at 4100 S. New Braunfels Ave.

The company spent about three years developing the so-called Fast Scan technology, which allows cashiers at the end of the register to focus on properly bagging the already-scanned items, said Jaren Shaw, H-E-B's vice president of customer service. She said the company is in the “very early stages” of testing the checkout system and will wait to decide on expanding it to other stores.

“We were introduced to the concept of 360-degree item scanners in Europe a few years ago and have been watching the technology emerge since then,” Shaw said in a statement. “H-E-B took an inclusive approach and developed the checkout fixture based on feedback from customers” and employees.

After shoppers finish their Fast Scan purchase, they can rate the new scanner by selecting one of four buttons with faces displaying emotions ranging from happy to angry.

Shaw said H-E-B has been encouraged by customer response.

“Fast Scan is without a doubt the newest technology our customers have experienced in checkout,” she said. “One customer described it as 'high tech, high smile.'”

Like H-E-B, Wal-Mart cited customer feedback as the catalyst behind the development of its new mobile scanning app that it has piloted at more than 200 locations across the United States.

None of the company's stores in San Antonio have the service, which Wal-Mart has dubbed Scan & Go. But the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer does offer it at stores in the Austin, Dallas and Houston areas.

There, shoppers can scan items on the Wal-Mart app, which then transfers the shopping list to one of the store's self-checkout registers so customers can pay without rescanning the products.

Wal-Mart plans to roll out the app to other mobile devices in the near future, Hardie said.

“We began testing the feature late last year in two markets and so far this year, more than half of our customers have come back to use the technology a second time,” she said.

The different approaches H-E-B and Wal-Mart took to diversifying their checkout lanes reflect how useful the companies consider self-checkout registers.

Recently, H-E-B has pulled the self-checkout registers out of some of its stores.

“H-E-B's top priority in checkout is to offer the best customer service while getting our customers through the line quickly,” spokeswoman Dya Campos said in an email. “We are not completely satisfied with the technology of self-checkout and the satisfaction of our customers as they interface with it.”

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart has doubled-down on self-checkout registers.

This year alone, the company will install 10,000 of them in more than 1,200 of its stores across the U.S.

“Our multiple checkout options give us a unique advantage to provide our customers with the quick, easy and convenient checkout experience they tell us they want,” Jeff McAllister, Wal-Mart's senior vice president of innovation, said in a news release.

nmorton@express-news.net

Twitter: @nealtmorton