Good Friday, Bad OS: Store Closed, But Computer Opened Doors For Shoppers Anyway
Written by Frank HayesApril 27th, 2011
In-store automation gives and it takes away. On April 22, automation opened the doors of the biggest supermarket in Hamilton, New Zealand, at 8 A.M. local time—even though no employees were anywhere near the store, because the store was closed for Good Friday. When customers arrived, they were able to shop and even use the self-checkout without the help of in-store staff, at least until someone tried to buy liquor. Customers didn't seem to notice the absence of store associates.
Automation is always about cutting out human labor, but just piling it on without fully integrating it into a store's operation is bound to generate problems—in this case, potentially huge problems. No one actually backed up a truck to haul away everything in the store. But that depended on the goodwill and honesty of customers, which is not something any chain can count on.
This Story Is Only Available For Premium Subscribers. Click Or Login In Below To Read The Rest Of This Story.
Already a Subscriber? Login Here
Pages: 1 2
Leave a Reply
Readers, specifically those who want to comment on a story:
Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
We're at a nexus in the evolution of customer reward and incentives and the tools that are being used are based on 1980's batch processing technology. 
-Thad Peterson
