E-ink shelf tags at woolies. Does it make sense? What's inside? Hack? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: Bendba
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2023, 10:23:31 am
content: I just noticed today that our local Woolworths has replaced the paper shelf tags with epaper/eink tags. I quite welcome the change for the fact that it gets rid of those in your face "specials" tags. But it leave a few questions.Will those tags pay for themselves? Sure, it saves on paper and wages for not having to manually swap paper tags. But how many tag changes equate to the cost of a single display unit (considering that they still need to be updated somehow)Is it actually a "greener" solution?What's inside? The devil in me wants to pinch one and dissect it but my conscience prevails. Does anyone have a way to get their hands on one by honest means?

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2023, 10:45:19 am
content: I think it's more or a "shelf management" thing.Products get re-arranged on the shelves all the time, so now you move stuff, target them with your scanner, transfer to shelf tag and - boom - the shelf tags are matching the products.

author: Terry Bites
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2023, 11:25:49 am
content: Have you bought the manger a six pack- solves all Ausie tech problems I've found.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 15, 2023, 11:30:13 am
content: It means they are always up to date and in correct place. There is no need to spend employee time to constantly check if tags are up to date and actually in place and not missing. Also I guess it allows them playing with pricing in fast manner. And if price suddenly changes, good luck proving that unless you took a photo.

author: SmallCog
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2023, 11:21:51 pm
content: I briefly worked in retail whilst between gigs (Supercheap Auto for the Ausie's)Catalogues specials came out every fortnight, there was more than a few hours involved in printing all the little paper shelf tickets for the items in the catalogue, plus time tearing them neatly along the perforations and sorting them out (typically by isle in the store)Then there was the time putting them up, which was (shared across a few workers) a few hours per catalogue, and another hour to pull them down.You then had price changes to deal with which could be anywhere from an hour to a day's work depending upon how many items changed price.Then there was price integrity, walking around the store scanning every single item and checking that the little paper price label on the shelf was correct, if it wasn't new labels had to be printed, torn up neatly, put out, etc.This was just a car parts/accessories shop it'd be an order of magnitude more work in a supermarket or large hardware storeHaving the prices on the shelf tied directly to the database that the registers are looking up the price from? That's priceless!

author: SL4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2023, 11:38:28 pm
content: I remember when e-ink shelf tags first appeared about 30 years ago.An interesting idea, which worked,but not quite ready yet.I’m guessing the technology, comms and management has caught up some.These tags, purchased in 10K lots, are probably about $2-$3 a unit.It doesn’t take long to earn that back.I was fascinated by the use of Li-Fi to update the original tags… what are they using now ?

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2023, 11:43:47 pm
content: wonder how long before there talking to your store loyalty card, every customer gets there own price

author: Someone
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2023, 11:47:06 pm
content: For those looking for a teardown:https://hackaday.com/2019/02/25/e-ink-price-tags-fall-off-store-shelves-onto-your-workbench/

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2023, 09:59:49 am
content: Quote from: themadhippy on March 16, 2023, 11:43:47 pmThat’s widely done: customer-specific coupons.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2023, 10:06:41 am
content: Quote from: Bendba on March 15, 2023, 10:23:31 amThe cost of the paper is more or less irrelevant. The real cost is the labor to update shelf tags: print or receive them, walk around and find the item, swap out the tag or sign.I’ve worked retail, and sign/tag management was way more work than you’d think. It’s absolutely no surprise that my former employer eliminated shelf tags and signs altogether and instead uses apps on the devices themselves (and an iPad running a custom app next to items that don’t have their own screen). That was computer retail so a) the number of SKUs is quite small, just a few hundred, and b) price changes were infrequent, so for accessories they literally just use price stickers on the boxes.A supermarket has tens of thousands of SKUs, and their prices change much more frequently. Changing a bunch of shelf tags is actually a huge amount of work.Modern electronic shelf tag systems allow you to configure a tag for a particular SKU, and then price updates can be issued automatically as headquarters change prices.