Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 27, 1992 TAG: 9203270260
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Just plain frustrated and don't know what to do?
Consumers in stores across the nation will soon be able to glance down at the shopping cart, press a button and let VideOcart, a 6-by-9-inch computer, do the work for them. The information is displayed on a screen.
The so-called "smart cart" relies on in-store sensors and radio waves to tell the user what's on sale, where to find items and even which products are offering electronic-coupon savings.
With both the supermarket novice and the shopping maven in mind, VideOcart aims to meet consumers' changing habits. Gone are the days of shoppers who just wander the aisles, food companies and analysts say.
The VideOcart's only detractors are "people who are not computer oriented," said an Atlanta Kroger Co. executive.
Many older shoppers "really like" the computer-carts because it saves them time and steps in a large store, said Brent Scott, manager of store operations for Cincinnati-based Kroger's Atlanta marketing area.
"If you're in aisle 7 and you want to know where tomato sauce is, you can call up a directory and it will tell you," he said.
Scott has put the carts in 23 Kroger stores in the Chicago metropolitan area after getting positive results from a testing period. He said the stores are stocked with 50 percent smart carts and 50 percent old style.
The Kroger divisions operate autonomously, though, so what happens in one area doesn't necessarily hold true for others. A spokesman for the Kroger division in Roanoke that serves the mid-Atlantic area said there are no plans to put VideOcarts in its stores.
The smart cart, test-marketed in 60 stores nationwide for about two years, has advertisements and a map of the store, and it even offers nutritional advice that can help in choosing products.
It also can help while away the time in line with news, weather updates, trivia and movie reviews, said Bob Froetscher, vice president of marketing for VideOcart Inc. in Chicago.
VideOcart executives hope to have it in 500 stores by the end of the year, reaching a potential 8.5 million shoppers.
One dad out shopping for the first time with the kids said VideOcart is a welcome relief for the reluctant shopper overwhelmed by a store's cavernous size.
"It's great, especially when you're in a hurry," said James Webb of suburban Arlington Heights. "You stop in to look for things, go to VideOcart and you can pick it right up."
Marie DeSantis of Buffalo Grove, Ill., said she could find things on her own but used VideOcart to remind her of sale items and while waiting for checkout.
She complained, however, that the display screen on the right-hand side gets in the way of tossing items into the cart.
Supermarkets don't pay anything for the service. VideOcart Inc. makes up the $125,000 installation cost, which includes sensors in the ceiling, computer terminals and the cart devices, by charging manufacturers for advertising space, Froetscher said.
An analyst who follows food merchandising said VideOcart has found a new marketing niche that's likely to grow.
"The good thing about VideOcart is that it'll make [shoppers] think about buying something they hadn't before," said Susan Olson, president of the Olson Group Inc. in Chicago.
Sales increased significantly with the electronic-coupon feature, tested at a single store in the Midwest, Froetscher said. That feature will be available to all VideOcart-equipped stores in June, he said.
Electronic coupons, which manufacturers pay VideOcart to display, are available at the press of a button.
As a shopper heads down an aisle, the screen presents coupons for items in that aisle. The customer selects the coupon, the computer stores the information and automatically transmits it to the cash register when the shopper enters a line.
Business writer Sandra Brown Kelly contributed to this story.
by CNB