Havelock North man Patrick Dingemans has led a successful campaign to get supermarkets around the Hawke's Bay to display additional QR codes at the checkout. Photo / Warren Buckland
Havelock North man Patrick Dingemans has led a successful campaign to get supermarkets around the Hawke's Bay to display additional QR codes at the checkout. Photo / Warren Buckland
A Havelock North man's campaign to get people scanning in when they visit Hawke's Bay supermarkets has prompted changes that could be replicated nationally.
Patrick Dingemans, 81, diligently scans QR codes for Covid-19 tracing purposes wherever he goes.
Since about October, he's grown increasingly frustrated by fellow shoppers whowalk by both the QR codes and the sign-in sheet.
"I am concerned that there is a poor compliance with the general public scanning their phones into the QR codes that are required to be displayed by all places of business in New Zealand."
A Hawke's Bay Today snap test in early January this year found just seven of 100 people signed in on the app at the door at Countdown Hastings, and 11 of 100 did the same at Pak'nSave Napier.
Having spent the past three weeks visiting supermarkets around the region and making observations, Dingemans decided the issue was where the QR code displays were posted.
"All of these businesses were displaying the Covid-19 QR code.
"However, few had QR codes displayed at the checkout points, including the self check out points."
Patrick Dingemans said he wanted to make it easier to scan after growing frustrated by shoppers who ignored the QR codes and sign in book. Photo / Warren Buckland
He felt the scanning of QR codes would be "greatly increased" if stores also had them displayed at the point of sale or a reception desk.
He took this feedback to the 11 supermarkets he visited and was "delighted" when 10 of them agreed to implement these changes.
Now Dingemans hopes to see it adopted at a national level.
"As I have had such a positive response from the supermarkets to this suggestion, I would like to encourage the Government to attach the regulation that required all businesses to display the QR code at their entrances to extend that to require a QR code to be displayed at the point of sale or a reception desk."
Antoinette Laird, head of corporate affairs at Foodstuffs NZ - which supplies New World and Pak'nSave - said QR codes could always be found near the entry of their stores.
"Additionally, we aim to make scanning as easy as possible for customers so stores may also place QR codes in multiple locations around the store.
"Our owners know their customers well so we trust them to place additional QR codes up if they feel it is needed to assist customers with scanning."
Kiri Hannifin, of Countdown, said the QR posters had been displayed in stores across the country since the COVID Tracer app was launched but acknowledged use was intermittent.
