Kroger Checkout System
By: Ruiting Cao
Tags: Design, Human Behavior

1. Introduction

“Scan, Bag, Go” is a system Kroger released for consumers to check out quickly. When I was shopping in Kroger last week, I practiced it for the first time and checked out by a scanner. This system had been tested in 25 stores last year, and Kroger is continuously receiving positive feedbacks from users. Therefore, Kroger decided to spread it to the 400 stores of Kroger by the end of this year [1]. How’s my experience of “Scan, Bag, Go”? This reflection paper will answer these questions by analyzing my Kroger adventure with the concept of affordance and signifiers, three levels of emotional processing and four threads of experience.

2. “Scan, Bag, Go”

Users can use the “Scan, Bag, Go” system on their own with their smartphone or handheld scanner in Kroger. The process of using it is rather artless. Firstly, use your smartphone or scanner to scan items as you place them in your cart. Then, you can put items you scanned into your bag or bags provided by Kroger. If you are using a scanner, after you take all the items you want to buy, you can pay at the self check-out kiosk by scanning the “Scan, Bag, Go” barcode and pay. If you are scanning by smartphone, click on “Pay” on your phone [2]. Then you are free to go!

3. Experience

Last week, I went into Kroger at 9 pm, for the meeting with my teammates ran overtime. By the entrance of Kroger, there was an array of scanners. I have never used scanners, and out of my curiosity, I took out one of them and started to read the instructions. It looked simple, but I was not sure if it works. I grabbed a package of apples nearby, and pressed the “Scan” button, trying to scan the barcode at the bottom of it. “Beep.” The scanner replied me in a crisp tone. I found it relaxed and entertaining and decided to start my journey of Kroger with it. Each time I scan an item, the “beep” sound makes me feel good, and I even want to scan more products to hear the tone. After hanging around for some time, I took out my smartphone to check for the next bus running home. It turned out that the last bus of that day was arriving in one minute! After two seconds of astonishment, I dashed to the check-out kiosk, paid in 10 seconds, grabbed my bag and started to run. The moment I arrived at the bus stop, the bus was about to leave. I yelled and waved to stop it. Finally, when I sit on the bus, I felt relieved and quite happy.

4. Key Concepts

My experience in Kroger with “Scan, Bag, Go” system can be analyzed with some of the concepts we have gone through in SI 588：Fundamentals of Human Behaviors lectures.

4.1 Affordance And Signifiers

Signifier is a word introduced by Donald Norman in the second version of his book “The Design of Everyday Things.” Affordance is a word describing the relationship between an object and an interacting agent. It determines how the object can be possibly used. Signifier refers to the indicator of where users can conduct appropriate interaction with a product [3]. For example, the laptop in this picture affords to be opened, because you can see it is folded now. The signifier of it is the groove showing that users can place fingers there and open it.

Figure 5: Laptop with Signifier

4.2 Three levels of emotional processing

The three levels of emotional processing are the visceral level, behavioral level, and reflective level. Visceral responses are our automatic responses of a product or an event, and it relates to the fundamental protective mechanisms that make you intuitively stay away from danger and quickly respond to accidents [3]. You can imagine the scene people yelling out as they see spiders on their arm. The emotion processing on the behavioral level is related to users’ negative or positive emotions originated from their expectations of a product, and the feedbacks of their behaviors [3]. The reflective level of emotion processing relates to conscious cognition. It is a cognitive, deep, and slow process of thinking over the overall process, satisfaction and memory of an event after it [3].

4.3 Four threads of Experience

The four threads of experience refer to the sensual, emotional, compositional and spatio-temporal threads. The sensual thread experience is concerned with our sensory engagement with a product or a situation [4]. It is similar to the visceral response from Don Norman. The emotional thread refers to the emotion people feel when their expectations are met or not met, such as joy, sorrow, anger. They are closely related to that event [4]. The compositional thread is concerned with the relationship between the parts and the whole, and the narrative structure. It brings the meaning to an experience [4]. The spatio-temporal thread relates to the space and timeline of our experience. The space and timeline we felt in an experience or remembered in our memory may be changed by our intense emotion [4]. For example, when I was waiting for my bus in the wind and snow of Ann Arbor for 5 minutes, I thought it was half an hour.

5. Analysis

5.1 Affordance And Signifiers

In retrospective, there are reasons that I succeed at the first time of using a scanner — The scanner of Kroger is well designed and it is self-explanatory about the way of using it.

Figure 6: Kroger Scanner

Looking at the shape of the scanner, I can easily tell that this is an item that I should hold on hand. The form of it showed its affordance of holding to me. The giant green button, which is pretty eye-catching, is the button I need to start and the one I use most frequently. When I press down the “Scan” button, there will be a red light cast on the item I am scanning. That red light is useful to identify the scan area and help me to adjust the angle I hold the scanner. The green button and the red light are both signifiers showing me the place to interact with.

5.2 Three levels of emotional processing

The three levels of emotional processing from Norman can be used to dissect my whole Kroger Scanning experience. As I walked into Kroger, the colorful and dynamic poster of “Scan, Bag, Go” attracted my attention, and the wall of scanner raised my curiosity from the visceral level. As I started to use the scanner, I got addicted to the “beep” indicating the success of scanning. This is because the instant clear feedback met my expectation in the behavioral level, and that encourages my further behavior. When it comes to my thoughts on the bus, it belongs to the reflective level of emotion processing. My feeling of relief and please are the overall reflection of that experience, and these feelings are to be remembered in my memory.

5.3. The Compositional Thread of Experience

After this experience with scanners, I like them and feel we have some connections. This experience and the scanner thing could have been another ordinary and prosaic experience, but I choose to assign them the meaning. One of the reasons is that I enjoyed the interaction with the scanner. Another one is that it enabled me to catch the bus and spared me from walking back home or call Uber at late night. The scanner got its meaning because of its function in my whole story of Kroger shopping and catching the bus, and that applies to the compositional thread of experience.

6. Generalization

I noticed that many of the elderly users in Kroger were also using a scanner. That makes sense to me since the poster, slogan “Scan, Bag, Go” and the scanner itself is quite simple, clear and intuitive. Users don’t need pre-knowledge to control scanners, and the design of affordance and signifier is naturally leading their use. The positive feeling I have about this experience in three levels of emotional processing originated from my interactions with scanners as an average customer; thus I believe it can be applied to a more general user base as well.

As for the compositional thread of experience, it is very likely few people would have a strong emotional connection with scanners. The specific affliction built between me and the scanner is the story happened, which seldom happens to other customers.

7. Conclusion

The “Scan, Bag, Go” system has its value in saving users time in Kroger as well as providing fresh and enjoyable grocery shopping experiences. The intuitive design of its shape and interactive system is enabling the general public use of it, and its instant feedbacks serve as stimulations enticing scanning. Overall, it is a product that users would feel comfortable and pleasant to use!

Bibliography

[1] Flacy, Mike. “You May Soon Be Able to Skip the Grocery Checkout Line at Kroger.” Digital Trends, Digital Trends, 31 Dec. 2017, www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/skip-grocery-checkout-line-kroger/.

[2] Kroger, www.kroger.com/d/scan-bag-go-how-it-works.

[3] Norman, Donald A. The Design of Everyday Things. Basic Books, 2013.

[4] McCarthy, John, and Peter Wright. “Technology As Experience by John McCarthy.” Goodreads, Goodreads, 1 Sept. 2004, www.goodreads.com/book/show/1453857.Technology_As_Experience.