Computerized Check-out

Bleeping and flashing at the checkout counters of a Kroger store in the Cincinnati suburb of Kenwood, the new device looks and sounds like something from a sci-fi movie. In fact, it is an experimental RCA computer system designed to speed customers through the counters and minimize chances that they will be overcharged by tired, rushed cashiers.

The new system works this way: stickers with an inked numerical code signifying the product, brand, size and price are pasted on all packaged items. For example, Kroger crinkle-cut French fried potatoes, Code No. 010270280. The stickers can be put on at either the producer's plant or in the store. Coded tags for meat and fresh produce are affixed by the butchers or clerks who weigh them. At the checkout counter the cashier rapidly moves the code marks across an optical scanner. This relays the information to a computer, which is connected to a screen and a cash register. As the computer flashes the price of each item on the screen, it also rings up the cost on the register, emitting bleeps for each item. When the computer is finished, the cashier punches a button, the total shows up on the screen and an itemized sales slip pops from the register. All the cashier then has to do is ring up the money and make change.

The computer has shortened the check-out line, and by freeing cashiers to pack groceries, has also eliminated the cost of employing separate baggers. Kroger officials seem enthusiastic enough to indicate that the computerized bleeps may become familiar fixtures at check-out counters.

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