SUPERQUINN has become the first supermarket chain in Ireland to allow customers to check out their own purchases.
Its marketing director, Mr Eamonn Quinn, predicts that long queues at the weekend to have groceries sorted, scanned and paid for will soon be no more than a bad memory for shoppers.
However, it will be the end of next year before all 16 Superquinn stores will be able to offer this service to customers. At present the facility is restricted to its Lucan branch.
Mr Quinn said it was brought in on a pilot basis two months ago and it was now hoped to expand the facility to customers at other branches at the rate of one branch a month. About 1,000 customers at Lucan are using the new do it yourself system regularly.
Customers simply ask to be registered, and the process can be completed within a couple of days, said Mr Quinn. After that they are given a scanning device to record their purchases as they select them around the store. If they subsequently decide they do not want a product the scanner has a facility to deduct the purchase.
The scanner provide's a final bill which can be paid without unloading groceries at the check out and repacking them. The scheme is being linked with the launch of a new series of shopping trolleys and heavy duty boxes which allow customers to arrange purchases as they wish.
For customers with credit cards no cash need change hands. The check out scanners can be used to charge payment to their account.
How will Superquinn know that customers are paying for everything? "We trust them," said Mr Quinn.
However, he added that there would be a computer generated random check system. From time to time a sign will flash up on a check out saying that this particular customer's trolley should be checked in the old way.
Mr Quinn insisted that this was as much to protect customers who find new technology difficult from overcharging themselves as to catch those abusing the system. He declined to say how much the new system cost but it was expected to be self financing, because it would increase business and attract new custom.
Mr John Douglas of Mandate said the union had agreed to the introduction of the new system on a trial basis, following guarantees from the company that it would "have no negative impact on employment". There are about 300 check out staff.
"In the past new technology has helped create jobs," said Mr Quinn. "At the moment we can't handle the volume of business at existing check outs."