Associates scan and record the customers' purchases while they're in line. Once they get to the check-out counter, the cashier electronically retrieves the purchase record. The customer pays and is out the door. Griffin said the new application is in about 700 stores right now and should be in all 1,340 stores by the end of the year.
Nobody likes waiting in line.
Anything we can do to expedite this process makes our customers happier. The company worked with Home Depot to develop the Unleashed application from existing technology that was being used to manage store inventories via computers mounted on small carts. Associates simply roll the carts in front of the products they wish to re-order, scan the bar code and adjust the recommended order quantities as appropriate. The information is transmitted directly to the vendor, who fills the order. The company employs 250,000 associates and has 1,200 stores in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Chile, Mexico and Argentina.