I have noticed in the grocery store which ever one I go to, the cashier
scans each item up seperatly. Let’s say if I have 10 packages of chips they don’t scan the same one 10 times they scan each one. They almost never do the 10 X 1 scan thing.
Why?
Is there a real issue with this in terms of tracking or theft?
I bought two identical casks of wine last night. At the bottle shop they use a hand scanner that you point at the item (easier for cases of beer I guess). The guy pushed a button on the register and scanned one cask. At other times they have scanned both. Maybe it’s easier to just scan them all and not check that they are the exact same item.
To enter the number of items you have to stop move your hands away from where you are dragging the items across the scanner to type the number in the key board. Then you have to move the repeated items without running them through the scanner. Sometimes it is just easier to scan each item.
Stores with automated inventory management must scan each peculiar variety on its own so that the correct amount is ordered for the next shipment. If one buys a bag of regular chips and a bag sour cream chips, then the cashier needs to scan each one. The only way checking the packages first can save time is if they are all the same–if they are not, then the cashier has to check and then scan each one anyway. I’m guessing that a good deal of people wwho buy ten packages of chips don’t get ten of the exact same variety, so it saves time in the long run to scan each item by default.
10 - 15 bottles of pop at a time. Some of the newer checkers will scan each. They want to lift them up, and back down, fine. Experienced checkers are like experienced typist, nano seconds to do the finger thing.
Some managers are anal.
Ever see a checker open a whole sealed case of green beans and scan each can? I have. The manager was frowning by then too. No hand scanner… was silly but hey, I was finally at the head of the line. 
Also, some items are censored, if you don’t scan them and decensor them, the alarm will go off when you leave the door.
In addition to the above comments, if the checker enters a quantity, then scans one item…
1.) Checker then has to make sure the laser doesn’t inadvertently scan any of the items as they’re being pushed down the belt or across the scanner/scale thingy. If one bag of chips or can of pop gets scanned accidentally, now the order will take much longer to ring (while you wait for “Gozar the Key Master”)
2.) Passing items without scanning looks a lot like stealing to managers or other customers.
It’s mainly an efficiency thing.
Going by your ten packages of chips scenario, the cashier could theoretically scan the same bag ten times, but then that would require that the cashier determine how many number of bags of chips you have before the first one is scanned.
Like, once they take that first bag, would they be able to easily determine you have nine identical bags following it? Remember, they have to be fast; they can’t just stand there and count them.
What kind of grocery store has anti-theft sensors?
In my local area: Bi-lo, Kroger, Publix, Food-Lion, and the Wal-Mart Supercenter.
DVDs have anti-theft sensors.
Also, our local stores have anti-theft sensors on practically every OTC drug product.
On top of that, every food item containing alcohol has a special sensor to prevent minors from purchasing some items. So you can’t send your kid down to the store to buy a bottle of vanillia extract - the sensor goes off and you have to be legal age to buy it. I kid you not!
as a former cashier myself, the items need to be identical for you to use the multiple items key (the mysterious X ) … for instance at one time we had Diet Coke on sale, but regular Coke was not. At other times, all Coke products were on sale. So, we scanned each different product and if you had more than one of the same item we hit the multiple key to make sure we were giving you the correct price (let me tell you, there is nothing worse than messing up, having the customer yell at you, and then have the manager come up to you at the end of the week with the dreaded printout telling you that you are a big screwup :smack: ) … as said above… it is also faster to keep the belt moving and the items scanning, because it does take some time to count the items and if you have been standing there for more than a week, you have a pretty fast scanning hand …
hope that was helpful…
In my neighbourhood, they only censor items like corn oil and cucumbers if you don’t also buy some vinegar.
I don’t think the alchohol products are physically sensored with the tags,but the stores computers are set to send up a age check warning when it is scanned at the register.
You know what I don’t get? How does a scanning flashy light show on your goods at the checkout stop the flahy light show and security at the door?
It’s magic isn’t it?!
Not magic,radio waves.
http://howstuffworks.lycoszone.com/anti-shoplifting-device.htm
I just keep picturing a bunch of corn swearing…
If I’m buying a lot of the same item, I’ll only put one on the belt and tell the cashier I’m getting “X” of those. That saves him/her (and me) from lifting ten bottles of water, or whatever.
Recently, I went to a Kmart and bought two of the same item. I used one of those “scan-it-yourself” thingies – my first time. Anyway, I scanned one item and it rang up fine. I tried to scan it a second time (so that I wouldn’t have to pick up the other thing) and it wouldn’t read it. It seemed to be trying to prevent me from overringing an item. It scanned the second (identical) item without incident. I have no idea how the machine knew I was scanning an item twice, but somehow it new. Weird. Oddly, the computer had more personality than some of the checkers at that store.
Thanks for the link, effac3d. Great Site!
Drum God - some of them have pressure sensors involved - they yell at you if you don’t put whatever you just got in the bag. Just a WAG, but possible.