Instead of just holding the item name and price, the RSS can tell the grocer who produced it as well as the expiration date, weight, meat cut and price. If a customer uses a DLM loyalty card when she buys a pound of ground beef that is later recalled, the store can call her before the meat makes it to the family dinner table, Gridley said. Using the new bar codes in the meat and produce departments, grocers could get a better handle on what is selling and when. The Dorothy Lane Market store in Washington Square, where the test is under way, carries more than 300 fruits and vegetables and more than 700 meat items. Cashiers sometimes have trouble telling an organic orange from a regular one or a Fuji apple from a Gala, for example.
Cashiers scan the new produce bar codes like any other item and the computer rings it up accurately.
DLM stockers face during the test, said Amy Brinkmoeller, DLM's information systems manager. Dayton is a hotbed for bar code technology. NCR's human-factors group, based near Atlanta, is analyzing the ergonomics of scanning the new bar code. Using small, ceiling mounted cameras, the group videotaped cashiers before the test and is doing so again this week, now that the new bar codes are in use. The UCC contracted with another company to conduct a cost-benefit analysis once the test ends in late May, said Greg Rowe, the UCC's manager of industry initiatives.