it's new technology that some say may
make your trip to the grocery store
faster and easier the lines are too long
and almost all major storms scanning the
product here there we are right there
but does it work and will the tech
upgrade for some to lose their jobs this
is just the way for stores to phase out
cashiers and bag people and and all of
those important jobs within a store how
do you guys respond to Don seems like
everybody is looking to find more time
in their day so true and it's one of the
reasons Kroger has introduced an option
that lets shoppers take more control of
their experience in the store and
tonight our consumer investigator Hank
Winchester puts it to the test hey we're
here inside the Kroger in Northville and
we're talking about this new product
scan bag go it's supposed to make your
shopping experience easier faster but
the question is does it really work and
what does it mean for the future of
shopping we're all busy house chores
kids schedules work grocery shopping
just another thing to add to the
ever-growing to-do list
there's curbside pickup and delivery
options to make things easier and now
Kroger adding scan bag go easy in and
out also another convenient for our
customers it's just an option and also
we are giving them their time back and
control over their shopping experience
as well but does it really make shopping
faster and easier
you grab the device from the kiosk in
the store or you use your own smartphone
the enter your phone number and
hit enter start my shopping session but
up first on our list bananas we need
some bananas there is a bit of a
learning curve
the first struggle produce since many
times you pay by weight you yourself
will be putting the produce on the scale
and then scanning label just tell me as
I shop how much money I'm spending you
can pay using your smartphone but if you
don't you must stop at the self checkout
and pay up it is fairly easy I like it
but what I don't like is that you must
have a Kroger card I also think about
whether jobs will be cut this is just
the way for stores to phase out cashiers
and bag people and and all of those
important jobs within a store how do you
guys respond at I and I assure you that
it's not it's just like I said a
different option for our customers easy
in and out but it hasn't been so easy in
other rollouts Walmart for example tried
it and ditched it a short time later
saying it was frustrating for shoppers
they in some other stores moving towards
an apt base checkout program Meyer and
Sam's Club among those using that
smartphone technology and what about
theft won't this just drive up prices of
crooks think they can scan bag and steal
there is a lot of things behind the
scenes that the system itself tracks we
also have an audit process once you go
through self checkout it's called the
order verification and we trust our
customers that they will do the right
thing in our store now we put this
method up against the other ways we shop
our producer and intern using self
checkout and the regular cashiers line
all armed with the same grocery list
self checkout took the longest at 6
minutes and 40 seconds the regular
process that took 6 minutes and 15
seconds and scan bag go took just 5
minutes and 20 seconds so what do other
shoppers think about the technology no I
would not use that personally I just
want to leave my phone in my pocket
while I was shopping I noticed Lynn she
was using scan
I'm the kind of person I don't like to
be doing nothing but Lynne brings up the
concern that I think many people share
the only thing I worry about is putting
people out of jobs the new feature is
now available at 14 different Kroger
locations around Metro Detroit yes we
did save some time
the learning curve did take a while and
for a busy parent who may be shopping
with kids and focusing on their own
phone this technology may just be too
much of a distraction i'm hank
winchester helped me Hank hmm now using
the technology won't cost you because
the coupons and the promotions are
already loaded into the device because
we didn't see that part of it using the
coupons snipping what do you think
interesting you know I'm with the lady
with the jobs like I even hate going to
the self checkout line because I feel
like I want those people the humans that
are there be working and to continue
works the other part the idea that you
have to have a credit card a lot of
people don't like having giving away all
of their sort of data yeah interesting
nonetheless