Show New Yorkers a checkout line and they’ll tell you whether it’s worth the wait. Starbucks at 9 a.m.? Eight minutes, head to the next one down the street. Duane Reade at 6 p.m.? Twelve minutes, come back in the morning. But now a relative newcomer to Manhattan is trying to teach the locals a new rule of living: the longer the line, the shorter the wait. Come again? For its first stores here, Whole Foods, the gourmet supermarket, directs customers to form serpentine single lines that feed into a passel of cash registers. Banks have used a similar system for decades. But supermarkets, fearing a long line will scare off shoppers, have generally favored the one-line-per-register system
The threat of coronavirus is changing the way retailers handle in-store traffic, with many stores limiting the number of shoppers who can be inside at any one time. With social distancing guidelines constantly in flux, retailers are turning to location technology and machine learning to help make shopping safer for both customers and employees.
Fingerprint identification had once been the most widespread biometric technology around the world. However, many argue that this technology has quite a lot of shortcomings.
Few companies could have predicted the global pandemic. Likewise, there wasn’t a corporate guide to the national outcry to the killing of George Floyd and the other forms of racial injustice our society is belatedly confronting.
As retail finds its footing after being upended by the effects of COVID-19, most in the industry are anticipating lasting changes in the way consumers shop — and thus the way merchants will need to serve them.
A new survey reveals anxieties and expectations consumers have about shopping in stores as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacted a heavy toll on the U.S. economy following many of the shelter-in-place orders enacted by states beginning in March to stem the spread of the disease. As of May 14th, 36 million American have filed for unemployment due to the coronavirus outbreak.
With COVID-19 changing the way many retailers operate their stores and distribution centers, tech providers are offering innovative solutions designed to reduce the risk of infection.
Smart & Final of Los Angeles is streamlining checkout in the age of social distancing with a new queuing system that it says will guide customers more efficiently through the purchasing process.
A socially distant inspired checkout process being put in place at Smart & Final stores borrows heavily from an approach nonfood retailers put in place long before COVID-19.
Amid the panic and confusion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the San Diego-based tech company Indyme, who specialise in shopper engagement and loss prevention, are making social distancing easier to follow inside shops selling essential items, such as groceries and pharmacies.
SmartDome is a battery-operated device that monitors an area in store and when it detects people in that area, announces a message reminding them to maintain a safe social distance.
Indyme’s launch of the SmartDome comes as essential retailers, such as grocery stores and pharmacies, address consumer’s concerns during the pandemic. According to the CDC, COVID-19 appears to spread between people who are within 6 feet of each other, which has led to widespread social distancing efforts across the U.S.
That same voice calling for a cleanup in the produce aisle may also start telling people to break it up. With social distancing currently a top priority of retailers in the current environment, a supplier of shopper engagement and loss prevention technologies has flipped the script, now making devices that heighten real-time awareness of social distancing in retail stores.
A top priority of retailers in this volatile COVID-19 environment is ensuring the safety of everyone in their stores. To support this effort, Indyme, a leading provider of shopper engagement and loss prevention technologies, introduces SmartDome. This new device heightens real-time awareness of social distancing in retail stores – especially in areas frequented by multiple shoppers.