The Great Scan It!

Phaser: Armed!

Louis Vuitton Brentwood purse which costs more than my computer:check!
Boxes of Mac & Cheese: check!

Angela and I went to Giant in Sterling last month and, lo and behold!, they had the new Scan It! system in place. If you aren’t familiar with this tool, here’s what they say about it at the Giant web site:

“Scan It!
Scan and bag in the aisle as you shop, with a running total on how much you’re spending and saving, plus exclusive offers just for you.“

It was with a little trepidation that I said ‘sure’ when Angela basically strong armed me into trying this out. It was pretty interesting – you walk around and scan the UPC codes of the products you want to buy. If you get to something loose like fruits or veggies you weigh it at a special scale.

Wandering throughout the store you are able to keep track of your purchases and how much you’re spending. If you’re on a tight, tight budget it allows you to make decisions on what has the greater priority: the Advil to kill your headache or the gallon of ice cream. As we loped along we put it in the little holder in the cart and, every once in a while, an advert for something in the immediate vicinity would disply on the screen.

Now, let me point out a few problems with this set up:

1. Carrying around this scanner seems a bit unsanitary. Unless they have individual holsters in the charging area with some means of cleaning and disinfecting the handheld device, I’m a little wary of holding it. Especially during this period of swine flu paranoia
2. There should be dedicated lanes for people to use and pay for their purchases. As it stands, you use the scanner and you still have to wait in line with every other techno-phobic goober. You have regular lanes with checkers, express lanes and self-service lanes. How about a self-service SELF-SERVICE lane for payment?!
3. The cash register noise was both hard to hear and confusing. I kept thinking someone else had been making noises near me and I was getting pissed off. I didn’t realize until later that it was Angela.
4. This sounds really stupid, but I wish it was easier to hold on my body. A shoulder strap or holster to wear would have been nice.

All in all the experience wasn’t too bad. Angela is a control freak. She’s told me before that she’s always wanted to be the cashier and the bagger at the grocery store. This allowed her to do that as well as keep a running tally of exactly how much was being spent before things got out of hand (I think I remember her telling me to put down the $5.99 magazines I picked up. On two different instances no less.)

Me? I could see me racking up a monstrous grocery bill because I would want to play laser tag with the things. I’d be running around, going ‘Pew! Pew! Pew!’, inadvertently scanning UPC codes each time I pressed the trigger.