Shopping carts are pretty simple tools that nearly everyone
uses to transport their bounty around a grocery store and later to their
vehicles. Unless an errant shopping cart finds itself wedged up against your
pristine car or truck, most people don't give them a second thought.
Microsoft, MediaCart and Wakefern Food Corporation are
looking to change
our idea of the shopping cart with the addition of computerization.
Microsoft and MediaCart worked together to develop a shopping cart-mounted
system which allows customers to locate products in a store, scan them and
finally pay for them without ever waiting in line.
Wakefern Food Corporation's ShopRite grocery stores will
become the first to receive MediaCart solution in the latter half of 2008.
The MediaCart solution is built on Microsoft Atlas, Windows
CE and SQL Server technologies. Microsoft is also using its recent
aQuantive purchase to good use with the MediaCart system. Customers will
swipe their ShopRite customer loyalty card on a shopping cart and be presented
with targeted advertising and store specials based on previous ShopRite
purchases.
"In working with companies like MediaCart, we’re
continuing to push the envelope in the digital advertising realm to enable new
and innovative ways for advertisers and agencies to create brand loyalty and
engage with their target audiences in a highly relevant, measurable and
targeted way," said Scott Ferris, general manager of Microsoft's
Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group.
"Digital advertising opportunities are expanding
rapidly into new areas, as many of consumers’ daily activities, such as
shopping, become increasingly ‘connected,’ and Microsoft is committed to
working with advertisers and agencies to take advantage of these opportunities
as they unfold."
In addition, the LCD screen on the shopping cart will
display store maps to make it easier to locate items, electronic coupons,
recipes, nutritional information for products and comparative price checks.
It seems quite interesting that ShopRite would allow store
maps to be implemented in the MediaCart system so that customers can find products more easily -- making it harder for shoppers
to find what they're looking for only to stumble across something that they
otherwise would not have purchased seems to be quite a popular tactic with
grocers.