Thread: Fulfill This Need... Please!

The superstore in my city has self-checkout machines. I <3 them enough to eschew the walmart built across the parking lot for them.

But really, what I've noticed to be the actual problem is that they never have enough people working cash. It's as simple as opening more than one or two of your 12 lines during busy time.

Great idea and it's used in the real world already.

I recently came back from Las Vegas. We were waiting in line for 2 hours for a buffet. You can actually pay $12 extra per person to skip the waiting line and go straight to the table to sit down.

I have extended idea on that VIP card.

You walk in the grocery store. You pick up a handheld device and swap your VIP card on the device. You use the device to scan the barcode on the items you put into your cart. It will show you the total amount you need to pay. You then have options to swap your credit card or VIP to put that on your bill.

So you return the device and walk out the door with your cart full of items.

In some of the Walmart stores, the device has built-in RFID features. So all you have to do is to put the items in your cart and walk to the check-out station. The system already know how much you need to pay.

I am also developing the similar idea at local sector. You show your VIP card to the guard at the front door of the popular night club. You don't have to wait in line. You will walk in like celebrity. You also earn rewards and get exclusive specials.

This will work very well at luxury restaurant and club.

One challenge is that every brand or chain store will want their own branded VIP card. And I have the solution for that, but need to fine tune the actual process.

Take a look at RFID sometime. One scenario - You take your shooping cart full of groceries to the checkout area. Everything in your basket has an RFID that is instantly read and your bill is calculated immediately. Then the RFID of your debit card is processed and you are charged for your groceries while walking out the door.

I posted this, then saw that Terencechang beat me to it!

Now if retail can get all the manufacturers to comply with RFID tags...... they have to be shown as a benefit to manufacturers and everyone agree on a standard. tough to do. Walmart had big plans to require suppliers to do so already years ago but must have softened up on the plan.

Originally Posted by FDJustin

But really, what I've noticed to be the actual problem is that they never have enough people working cash. It's as simple as opening more than one or two of your 12 lines during busy time.

I totally agree with this. And this is probably due to either 1) poor management or 2) lack of employees (trained to work the cash register)

If the problem lies within #2, the membership fees from the VIP program could offset the cost of hiring / training employees and simultaneously increase customer satisfaction.

Or you could order everything you want from a computer. Pay online or pay when you get there. Determine when your pick up time is. Maybe you order at 7am but won't be there to pick up the food until 6:30pm. By the time you get to the store to pick up your groceries, the food is bagged and your bill/receipt handed to you. Of course this would come with a premium. But as long as your time is worth more this shouldn't be a problem.

- order everything from computer
- pay online or when you get there
- people from the "pre-purchase unnamed company", who are ready and waiting for online orders in your local supermarket, go around the store, pull the items off the shelves, and bag them
*tricky part* - once items are "picked", the cart goes into a freeze room to make sure that cold stuff stays cold (tricky because you would prob. have to install freezers for this purpose, i doubt stores have a ton of freeze storage unused)
- you can pick up your order anytime before the store closes, high fee for "empty carts" of not picked up food
- orders are "signed for" to verify that the customer is satisfied that everything ordered actually made it in the cart

If this became popular, there could even be a drive-through build into new stores for this particular service - give the man your ticket, he goes and gets your cart, you verify you are happy that things are there, he loads them for you, you drive away without even setting foot in store

In the future a real fancy version would be a no-human grocery store, with an inventory managment system just plucking food from shelves automatically and putting it into computer-controlled carts

Originally Posted by Rem

Or you could order everything you want from a computer. Pay online or pay when you get there. Determine when your pick up time is.

Ah, this sounds like a "Platinum" VIP membership level - your own personal shopper.

I like that, but I also agree with what ThrottleForward mentioned - you may not want to use this for cold / frozen items unless there's a way the store can keep it cold for you (probably unlikely) or they deliver for you (maybe a "Diamond" VIP membership level. haha).

I would be willing to bet that there's a pretty big demand for this service, whether it be having a personal shopper or just skipping the line.


And like TC mentioned, the concept of "paying for faster service" or "paying for extra service" isn't new and it could apply to many different business models.

Additional examples of it already in use: valet parking, airport vip lounges, next-day-air delivery, liposuction (as in paying to look better without having to diet & exercise. haha).


Therefore, maybe a more relevant question to ask ALL FASTLANERS would be: Could a spin-off of this concept work for YOUR business??

Originally Posted by kwerner

Therefore, maybe a more relevant question to ask would be: Could a spin-off of this concept work for YOUR business??

My answer on that is definitely YES. Especially, in the new social world online. People want to feel they are special like celebrity. VIP is a way to classify social status. That's why Casino in Las Vegas have different level of VIP. From gold, premium to 7 stars, etc. Starbucks has reward card with different levels too. The more you spent the more exclusive access you will get. The beauty is that people are willing to pay extra to get better social status. Really. It's not much about saving money.

VIP program is also good for business branding.

The main problem is the cost to acquire customers to join the VIP and the cost to run the VIP program itself. Branding is also the reason why most merchants (Ex. Macy's & Dillards) want to have their own VIP program and don't want to work together.

So here we go. We've got the problem. Can we solve it?

Originally Posted by Rem

Or you could order everything you want from a computer. Pay online or pay when you get there. Determine when your pick up time is. Maybe you order at 7am but won't be there to pick up the food until 6:30pm. By the time you get to the store to pick up your groceries, the food is bagged and your bill/receipt handed to you. Of course this would come with a premium. But as long as your time is worth more this shouldn't be a problem.

I really like this idea!

I can think of something where you order your items online, and print out a receipt. Then you pick up those items, and you can head straight to the door where a "vip checker" makes sure that all your items are on the receipt.

Seems like there's a lot of potential with this one!