Scanning — The trials and the triumphs

On 25 January Tesco, carrying the beacon for others to follow, opened its first “live” scanning store, in Edmonton, and 15 more are planned to open over the next year. Other groups are still at the trial stage, and RDM heard about their progress during the Article Numbering Association's annual conference held in Wembley, London, on 22 and 23 March. The whole conference was headed “Article Numbering — can you afford to ignore it?” and the first session looked at some of the teething troubles the UK groups were facing, for instance whether to barcode in store and how to tackle the problem of transition from price‐marking to bar‐coding. The data that can be retrieved from scanning makes it “one of the most important management tools in our industry today,” according to Chuck Gramlich of Ralphs Grocery Co which is based in Los Angeles. He showed how this group, which was the second in the States to go 100% scanning, used the data to reduce shrinkage, improve cashier productivity, reduce energy costs, examine customer buying patterns, and test new products.