(insert title here)

How they will/have change(d) the shopping experience.

New Technology in supermarkets that means saying goodbye to the “check out chicks” and hello to “Do it yourself”. Being able to check yourself out at supermarkets is now possible in all Woolworths Company stores. Australian shoppers can now scan, pay and bag their own items with these new self-serve checkout system. Customers can use cash, credit or debit cards, Gift cards. They allow you to sign the signature pad dispense petrol reward dockets (Woolworths) and allow for cash out.

Woolworths implemented their self-serve registers in stores around the country in the past year and with Coles soon to follow indicating that the self-serve technology will be in its future stores. As well as Safeway in 30 locations and the technology is expected to reach more than 200 supermarkets in the next year. Internationally they are also popular which such retail outlets as Tesco.

Woolworths' retail operations manager Marty Hamnett said the self-serve checkouts, which have already been installed in many of the retailer's Big W stores, would not turn checkout operators into an endangered species, for every would be retrained in other area’s as for every 6 Self-serve registers there needs to be at least 2 Self-serve attendants. And the system had been implemented after consultation with unions.

"The self-service checkout certainly doesn't spell the death knell for manned checkouts, under no circumstances," Mr Hamnett said. "What we are finding is that the self-serve checkouts are where people with small baskets tend to go, whilst the larger baskets tend to gravitate towards the traditional manned checkout."

Customers scan their groceries. Shoplifters are prevented from packing items without scanning them by technology that calculates the weight of products. If the weight of the bag does not match the weight the checkout has calculated based on barcodes, staff are alerted. For products without barcodes, customers choose the item from a list of photos on the screen. The item is then automatically weighed and priced. The customer then selects the method of payment on the touch screen. The checkouts dispense petrol reward dockets. Customers have the option of cash-out with or without purchase and At least one member of staff is nearby to supervise and monitor the self-serve for potential shoplifters, If the bag weight does not match the checkout's calculation, staff are alerted to the discrepancy.

The main worry as with any new technology is that it would be hard for the consumers/customers to understand how to use it, but as the machines talk you through the process and you always have a self serve attendant nearby to help the response has been a good one with 25% being able to use them straight away when they were first introduced and has grown to about 75% now. The main worry was with the older generations of customers but they tended to take there time to learn how to use them properly. Other than that there has been a solid customer response.

Self-serve checkouts were popular among shoppers who want to save time and in the younger generations. Consumers like them because they are fast and you can get through quicker that is of course if you use them properly. Woolworths has installed the checkouts in most of its Big W stores, and started testing self-service registers in its supermarkets in 2009, including some in its Safeway store in Camberwell. Being the first food retailer to have the self-service option in Australia. Coles still being in its testing stage, has been testing self-service checkouts in three Victorian supermarkets for more than a year. Spokesman Jim Cooper said the retailer would probably continue to expand use of the technology.

The benefit to the customer is in the reduced checkout time because stores are often able to run two to six self serve checkout units efficiently where it normally would have had one cashier. Self serve checkouts may create an illusion of privacy and anonymity, when in fact the self checkout attendant can track the progress of customers on all machines via a separate terminal known as a RAP (Remote Attendant Post).

The benefit to the retailer in providing self serve checkout machines is in reducing staff requirements since one attendant is all that is required to run four to six checkout lanes at one time. This is also a bad thing though in a way as it cuts out some jobs.

Self-checkout is vulnerable to some shoplifters either with lazy self serve attendants or crafty shoplifters. However, in many cases the machine will pick up the attempt to steal or else cause the shopper to alter behavior (e.g., put an item not on the scales but somewhere else where it should not be put and will be noticed by the system supervisor). For example, a man was charged with replacing the tag of a plasma TV with a $4.88 DVD, and trying to purchase it through self-checkout.

The future out look for the system being to further improve the shopping experience for example A device that looks like a smart phone that scans items as you shop and you return it the checkout operator as you leave or it is Perched on the handle of the shopping cart and scans grocery items as the customer adds them to the cart.

This is going to lead to almost fully automated shopping experience. Brick-and-mortar shops are worried about losing out to online retailers, and they're gearing up to fight back with technology of their own. The future sees a mass of new screens, sensors, and scanners that could alter the way we shop in person.

Self serve will eventually lead to changing pods that fall from the ceiling to custom soundtracks that correspond to the outfit you're considering. The most new-wave dressing room technology involve virtual tools that allow you to try on the clothes that you want virtually, Instead of the use of mirrors.

Responses

ANNE RICKER, of East Hawthorn

"I find it quicker when I only have a few things. It didn't take long to learn how to use. I use it for a small shop … because there is not much room for bags. They are good because there are no lollies and I don't hear 'can I have this?’ It gives the kids something to do."

MELINDA EDWARDS, of Surrey Hills

"I use them when the queues are too long. I wouldn't use them by choice because I'm lazy and I prefer they do it and I think it's faster. I use them depending on the length of the line. It's not complicated, you don't have to be a computer whiz."

KIM CONNELL, of Maidstone

"I like being able to pack my own groceries. I do most of my grocery shopping here at lunch time. I have a two-year-old, Noah, and I work full time, so I shop on my lunch break. I like them because I think it's faster, and I got the hang of it straight away."

References:

http://www.good.is/post/the-future-of-high-tech-shopping-is-closer-than-you-think/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703421204576329253050637400.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDi0FNcaock

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqZj9H5pO8E

2 recommended sources

Biodesign

Future tense

Biomimicry

Problems going on and how to fix them with design

Retail experience

Not enough shoppers due to Internet shopping

Hero with 1000 faces

Mythology used as a teaching tool

Joseph Campbell

There is a certain typical hero sequence of action that can be detected from many stories around the world; it’s worth writing about. Someone who has gone beyond the normal routine. Who devotes himself to something greater. Spiritual hero. Myth of the birth of a hero.

Moral objective of saving something, sacrificing yourself for a cause/person/ideal.

Lots of Star Wars references.

The narrative in the form of myth is interpreted through symbols and themes. (Departure and return) themes include:

1. Facing the dragon

2. Destroying the dragon

3. Conquering temptation

4. Denying the dark side

5. Discovering himself through the heroic journey

In your design practice you may use the narrative form in Advertising (TVC) TV shorts and infomercials. All communication requires “cultural literacy”

Rhetoric: Three-part structure. A picture, a headline and text organised on a central axis designed to sell and agenda, an idea or a product.

Will your storyboard be a combination of both or one or the other?

Question:

1. What has happened to the role models in contemporary films is the model the same or just slightly modified?

2. What is cultural literacy?

(insert title here)

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Finished Storyboard

storyboard so far

Notes

Starting on Storyboard

Report.

Current and future trends in design