Check this out for faster service

Margaret Roche, of Miramar, uses a hand-held scanner at Kilbirnie Pak 'N' Save. Herald picture / Mark Mitchell

Are you fed up with queuing to buy a loaf of bread while the shopper in front stocks up for the latest world crisis?

If so, the answer to your prayers could be coming to a store near you - the self-service checkout.

US-based retail technology giant NCR will be installing its FastLane self checkout equipment in stores this year, enabling customers to sidestep small talk about the weather and scan their own shopping before paying at an ATM-like machine.

It's not yet clear which stores would use the service, as NCR could not reveal them for "commercially sensitive" reasons.

The new service could prove to be popular in this country.

A survey commissioned by NCR showed a significant number of New Zealand consumers would take their business to a store with such a service.

The findings were similar to those in a 2003 investigation by market analyst IDC in the United States, which found "an overwhelmingly positive response among both retailers and consumers utilising self checkout technology".

Graeme Muller, IDC New Zealand country manager, said the success of similar technology, including check-in kiosks used by Air New Zealand, showed Kiwi consumers could also be strong adopters of such services.

In Britain, one million customers used NCR's 2000 self-service checkouts every week, said Geoff Evison, the company's Asia Pacific director of self-service.

The NCR survey, conducted by Galaxy Research, showed a strong demand among Kiwis for the time-saving payment option.

Galaxy interviewed 500 people throughout the country aged 15 years and above, and found that 96 per cent visited a store at least once a week to buy just a few items.

And 42 per cent, equivalent to more than 1.3 million people, made these mini shopping trips at least three times a week.

Frequent trips for fresh produce, including meat, milk and bread, were made by 56 per cent of respondents, while 29 per cent went shopping on impulse.

Sixty-nine per cent of those surveyed said they had experienced "frustrating delays" within the previous four weeks and 53 per cent would actively seek a self-service store to avoid delays in the future.

The areas where interest in self service was highest included checking prices in store (49 per cent), finding store locations for items (47 per cent), at the checkout (40 per cent), pre-ordering items from the deli counter (35 per cent), and ordering an out-of-stock item (34 per cent).

But retailers have some concerns about using the technology.

The first issue concerned the impact on a store's stock losses.

Traditionally, stock losses occurred mostly from genuine mistakes at the checkout, shoplifting or staff theft.

NCR's scanners might not shoot the breeze with customers while the bill was tallied, but had no hesitation in saying when a mistake was made.

Where the service is installed, the scanner's bagging area sits on top of a weighing scale at the checkout.

The customer zaps each item with a barcode reader, then puts it in a shopping bag.

The till compares the weight of the bagged item to a library of product weights to ensure they match.

If the two weights don't match, the till instructs the customer to remove the item and correct the error or sends a message to an attendant to help out.

Stores operating the system usually have one attendant for every four self-service tills.

Evison said the system enabled more checkout lanes to be run with less staff and could significantly reduce queuing time.

However, self-service technology was designed to complement rather than replace the traditional check-out person.

"At the end of the day it's about convenience and choice."

Foodstuffs Wellington has used a self-scanning system at its Pack 'N' Save stores for about nine years.

Customers registered for the service use a handheld scanner to register goods as they shop, then go through a special express checkout lane where they hand over the device and pay the amount owing.

"The customer gets to budget as they go around, and the second thing is they have a much faster and more convenient shop," said George Sutherland, Foodstuffs' general manager of retail services and marketing.

Every three or four trips, the self-scanning customer is asked to put their goods through for scanning by checkout staff for a comparison check.

The system was an integral part of Foodstuffs' Wellington's business, Sutherland said, but there were no immediate plans to introduce full self-service checkouts.

Meanwhile, Richard Manaton, the general manager of marketing at supermarket company Progressive Enterprises, said a more personal service - including having your bags packed for you - continued to be important to shoppers.

"We've yet to be convinced that self-service [checkouts] and the lack of human intervention is the way to go."

But, he said, "technology keeps on moving and you can never say never in this space".