Waitrose Cuts Customer Wait Times With Help From Datalogic Scanning

Published 11th December 2007

Watford, December 10th, 2007 - Waitrose, a UK grocery chain and part of the John Lewis Partnership, has cut queues in its new store in Rickmansworth, Herts by implementing scanner/scales technology from Datalogic Scanning, the world’s leading manufacturer of high performance POS (point-of-sale) retail bar code scanners...

Datalogic Scanning and partner, Wincor Nixdorf has provided 17 fixed position in-counter Magellan® 8200 scanner/scales to the new store, located in Homestead Road, The new 24,000sq ft Waitrose store has 10 main checkout lanes and four smaller podia checkouts.

The Datalogic Magellan® 8200 uses OmegaTek™ Productivity Technology, which comprises hardware and software that significantly improves the scanner’s first pass read rate on hard-to-read codes. For the customer this means less time at the checkout, as the Datalogic Magellan® 8200 can read poorly printed and damaged bar codes, as well as those printed on highly reflective packaging, or irregularly shaped items that traditionally cause reading difficulties. Five-sided (360°) scanning using FirstStrike® decoding software means Waitrose Customer Assistants do not have to waste time repeatedly adjusting the angel of an item when presenting it to the scanner.

David Todd, IT Project Manager from Waitrose said, ““We chose Datalogic because of the flexibility of their 5 sided scanning and the option of using Sapphire glass which is scratch resistant. Waitrose promotes excellent customer service and these features mean fast and reliable scanning at the checkouts something which is very important to us and our customers. The smaller footprint of the Magellan® 8200 means we can design and install space saving podia checkouts. Over the years we’ve found the Magellans very reliable and are very pleased with the way they perform in branches.”

Charlie Trumpess, Marketing Manager, Datalogic Scanning, said, “Compared with competitive devices the Datalogic Magellan® 8200 is extremely energy efficient using just 9 watts compared with others on the market, which typically use between 13.5 to 20 watts. Naturally, lower energy consumption is better for the environment and keeps Waitrose costs down.”