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| Grocery checkout: one b e e p, goodbye—Canadians want RFID chips on their carrots and oreos |
June 19, 2007 |
Here’s the scenario: you’re just about finished the weekly grocery shopping. The cart is full, the kids are cranky. Instead of standing around while the cashier processes each of your 200 items, you simply roll the cart past a scan station and a receiver reads the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chip attached to each item. The total is calculated instantly, you pay and get on your way.
Sound good? If you answered yes, you’re in agreement with the 75 per cent of Canadian Internet users who are willing to try an RFID-enabled grocery checkout lane, according to a new poll from TNS Canadian Facts.
“Canadians are increasingly pressed for time and they appear eager to accept innovations that will free them up to focus on more important priorities than mundane tasks like grocery shopping,” said Jennifer Bylok, research director at TNS Canadian Facts and author of the study.
Industry studies show waiting times at checkout counters could drop by about 30 per cent if stores adopt RFID, and 74 per cent of people identify time savings as the major advantage. However, threequarters of survey respondents fear RFID costs would be passed to consumers, 70 per cent think the technology may not work properly and 43 per cent believe the shopping experience will be less personal.
Still, almost half of consumers would like RFID tags to also maintain an ongoing inventory at home of what they have bought and consumed.
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