DailyTech - Microsoft and MediaCart Bring Tech to Ordinary Grocery Shopping Carts

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Gadgets Microsoft and MediaCart Bring Tech to Ordinary Grocery Shopping Carts
Brandon Hill (Blog) - January 14, 2008 10:54 AM

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29 comment(s) - last by Spivonious.. on Jan 15 at 3:23 PM

(Source: Microsoft)

Microsoft lays its hands upon shopping carts

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.

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Easier?

By Spivonious on 1/14/2008 11:09:34 AM , Rating: 3

quote:
It seems quite interesting that ShopRite would allow store maps to be implemented in the MediaCart system -- making it harder for shoppers to find what their looking for only to stumble across something that they otherwise would not have purchased seems to be quite a popular tactic with grocers.

Or they could choose a path for the shopper that leads them right past the hot new product that they're trying to sell.

Overall, I think this is not going to catch on. Is the company really going to let all those LCD screens sit outside in the rain and/or get stolen?

RE: Easier?

By imaheadcase on 1/14/2008 11:16:24 AM , Rating: 2

Exactly, you would have to see stores redesign the outside of stores to fit this. It is cost prohibitive, esp since lots of customers just purchase items without a cart.

Maybe on NEW businesses built, but for existing..nah.

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RE: Easier?

By wushuktl on 1/14/2008 11:19:22 AM , Rating: 2

i hate change. change can never work. this will never catch on. i hate computers and the internet

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RE: Easier?

By crystal clear on 1/14/08, Rating: 0

RE: Easier?

By wordsworm on 1/14/2008 12:44:00 PM , Rating: 4

Why, oh why do people fail to grasp even the simplest irony?

It's funny, but I had conceived that this was inevitable. I'd love to be able to upload a grocery list into the cart and have it direct me to where things were, not to mention notify me of specials, be able to give me e-coupons, etc.

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RE: Easier?

By wushuktl on 1/14/2008 3:28:53 PM , Rating: 2

this is exactly how i feel. i'm glad somebody out there got it. i didn't think it was that much of a mental exercise.

i can see this lcd screen as potentially being quite helpful

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RE: Easier?

By Alexstarfire on 1/14/2008 5:43:24 PM , Rating: 2

I don't see why the age really makes a difference. Depends on what all needs changing a guess. If it's about convenience for the customer, which we know if a load of crap, then all they'd have to do is make more of the self-serve checkouts. You know that in like every store they have 20-40 lines, but like 5 MAX are open. If they had them all self serve we'd never have lines either, and it'd a be a lot easier to maintain than these new shopping carts.

Ohhh, and depending on the type of monitor they use, it could easily cost $1k. I mean, it's not like they are going to make it bulky. The smaller and lighter it is, the more it'll cost.

Overall I think it'll flop. Might catch on later, like 5 years from now, but not now. I don't need anything like that for my shopping. I know what I'm getting before I get there, most of the time.

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RE: Easier?

By TomZ on 1/14/2008 5:57:33 PM , Rating: 2

I think the advantages are for the retailer - cost savings mainly - and not for the consumer.

And there is no way you're going to convince me that customers fumbling with their groceries and trying to figure out the self-serve machines is going to be faster compared to a casher who does that job day-in and day-out. It makes no sense.

No, instead of more self-serve checkout lanes, the store should have more express lanes and keep them open. That will get you out of the store quicker.

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RE: Easier?

By AlexandertheBlue on 1/15/2008 1:08:54 AM , Rating: 2

I'd settle for more cashiers of any sort.

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RE: Easier?

By SanLC504 on 1/14/2008 11:27:29 AM , Rating: 2

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree. When was the last time you went into a Wal-Mart or other type of grocery store more than a year old and saw nice, well kept grocery carts? They're made out of plastic so that they can be manhandled and prevent rusting. The last thing we need is $2,000 shopping carts being rolled down the street by thieves or hoodlums.

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RE: Easier?

By TomZ on 1/14/2008 11:53:20 AM , Rating: 2

You're probably over-estimating the cost by 5-10X.

Since these screens can be used to carry ads, they will be worth their weight in gold. I'd guess that in 5-10 years, you won't be able to find carts that do not have an LCD advertisement display, at least in the US.

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RE: Easier?

By crystal clear on 1/14/2008 11:28:36 AM , Rating: 2

Anyway , most people don't give them a second thought

(Sorry Brandon,to borrow your comment from your article)

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RE: Easier?

By Screwballl on 1/14/2008 2:28:03 PM , Rating: 2

They tried some pilot program like this at a local wally world and they found that rarely do people use it. The problem is that with most large retailers, the majority of its shoppers are uneducated and unwilling to even pay attention to this overpowered calculator so they will continue shopping as if it never existed.

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RE: Easier?

By BrownJohn on 1/14/2008 2:47:37 PM , Rating: 4

I think this could work really well. When it sees you putting tons of junk food in your cart, like in the picture, it could start reccommending some slim fast and other diet foods. This will help control the obesity issue in the US.

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RE: Easier?

By HighWing on 1/14/2008 5:15:20 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
I think this could work really well. When it sees you putting tons of junk food in your cart, like in the picture, it could start reccommending some slim fast and other diet foods. This will help control the obesity issue in the US.

*laughs* now that would be something. Even better, give it speakers and a voice so it could say things like "Are you really going to eat ALL that?" or "Put that down fatty you have enough junk food"

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RE: Easier?

By Spivonious on 1/15/2008 3:23:13 PM , Rating: 2

LMAO

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Need more guards?

By dickeywang on 1/14/2008 11:29:21 AM , Rating: 3

This sounds like a cool toy.
How many security people do they need to cover the entire Walmart parking lot in order just to prevent these carts/LCDs be stolen? :D

RE: Need more guards?

By kkwst2 on 1/14/2008 11:38:59 AM , Rating: 2

Perhaps they could make them removable and put those old folks that greet customers to good use and have them snap/unsnap the screens off the carts as you go in/out. I could see this working in a place like Sam's club where someone has to check your card/cart going in/out anyway.

It might reduce lines and these clubs have a large impulse buying factor that would make advertising on the screens desirable.

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RE: Need more guards?

By derwin on 1/14/2008 1:50:41 PM , Rating: 2

Thats a good point. If you can do the checkout straight from your cart, you could have one of the people regularly assigned to work a checkout line to stand at the entrance and apply/remove the screens. Put an RFID chip in each screen that would set off the alarms on the way out too for extra security.

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RE: Need more guards?

By TomZ on 1/14/2008 12:03:31 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
How many security people do they need to cover the entire Walmart parking lot in order just to prevent these carts/LCDs be stolen?

What is the value of such a device if someone were to steal it? It's designed to do a particular job - it's useless to consumers at their homes.

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RE: Need more guards?

By wushuktl on 1/14/2008 12:23:50 PM , Rating: 3

i bet the kind of people who are willing to try and steal shopping carts are the kind of people who wouldn't already know that. it's not going to stop them from stealing it.

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RE: Need more guards?

By ninjit on 1/14/2008 2:00:07 PM , Rating: 2

It isn't exactly "stealing" that's the problem with Shopping Carts that go missing.

1. Kids like to race them down pathways (a dangerous pass-time)

2. People who walk to the store, then buy too much to carry back (or rather they're too lazy to try), often push the cart all the way back home with them.

Given these two causes, most of the carts are still within a 2 or 3 block radius of the store.

The stores in my area will sometimes just hire a guy with a truck (like those haulers), to drive around and pick up all the carts he finds every now and then.

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RE: Need more guards?

By nitrous9200 on 1/14/2008 5:36:53 PM , Rating: 2

At my local Pathmark, the shopping carts' wheels have locks that activate if you go past sensors outside of the parking lot. It won't stop it from getting stolen, but it'll deter some thieves. Or, they could make you give them back before you leave the store and use a regular cart to bring the stuff back to your car. It's still an issue, though.

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I'd be happy to put up with a few non-audio ads to be able to check out from my cart

By s12033722 on 1/14/2008 4:33:45 PM , Rating: 2

I frequently use the self-service checkouts at the grocery store. This seems like the next level of that idea to me.

RE: I'd be happy to put up with a few non-audio ads to be able to check out from my cart

By TomZ on 1/14/2008 5:13:19 PM , Rating: 2

I would use them if they offered a discount for doing the work myself. I haven't seen any stores do that, however, so I avoid them on principle.

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Not More Advertising

By kelmon on 1/14/2008 12:05:03 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
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.

Joy - more advertising. I'm sorry, I know where to find things in my supermarket and I don't need any more bloody advertising. Self-scanning is a feature of many supermarkets already so I don't see what this brings apart from additional complexity to an experience that is already simple. Seems like technology for the sake of technology to me...

Bashas in Kingman Arizona had this like 10 years ago...

By SilthDraeth on 1/14/2008 1:57:05 PM , Rating: 2

The finally canned it. The systems on the carts in the Bashas where tablet PCs mounted to the handle of the cart on the side that you pushed it from. Touch screen and weather proof. I liked the idea, but apparently it failed, or the cost of maintenance was to high because they no longer use the screens.

Albertson's had hand scanners

By VoodooChicken on 1/14/2008 2:07:03 PM , Rating: 2

Even I never bothered to use them. I'm sure it could have saved me time at the checkout line, but I guess the concept was too fundamentally awkward for me to even care to attempt. I don't think they ever caught on, Albertson's ditched them, and closed most of their stores and stopped sending checks to Patricia Heaton.

Wow...

By Locutus465 on 1/14/2008 2:13:04 PM , Rating: 2

I'd like to see Food Line, Harristeeter and or Kroger here in NC pick these up... I'd be very happy to not have to wait in line again to make my purchase.... Well, I suppose unless the checkout girl is very cute ;)