JULY 14, 1972: Bye, Bye, Baggers…Kroger Company’s new electronic scanner, first of its kind in the world, in a trial run at the store in Kenwood Plaza, may be the forerunner of automatic supermarket checkout across teh U.S. Miss Sally Kokenge of Kenwood watches the scanner in the slot “read” the symbol on her packages before they glide into the carryout bag. Anna Marie Eul, left, monitors the RCA system and key punches any items that the scanner can’t handle. The scanner flashes the symbol to a computer that automatically prints out the sales slip from the scanner’s messages, cutting down checkout time, the possibility of error and personnel. Its success here will be a guide for future developments in the field. Customers generally seem to like it. The Kenwood Store is the only one of Kroger’s 1395 stores to test the systems, developed in an effort to speed up the checkout stands. Developments here will be studied by other food producers and retailers.
The Enquirer/Ed Reinke
scanned June 28, 2012