Self-Service Checkouts at Big W

Sad, but true. Considering my geeky interest in retail self-service technology, I'm disappointed that I didn't hear earlier about the Retail Business Technology exhibition taking place in Sydney this week.

What's worse is that heard about it on TV Channel Nine's A Current Affair (ACA) show (honestly, I wasn't really watching it). Unfortunately you won't find a transcript on the ACA site, but what I can tell you is that their report included a visit to a Big W store which showed shoppers using self-service checkouts. However, after a quick bit of googling I discovered much to my disappointment that they've been in place since at least 2003 and more recently in Cessnock. At least Australia isn't quite as far behind the US and UK as I had previously thought.

Fujitsu was a major sponsor of the exhibition and there are a couple of related articles available - Retail: Remember how it used to be... and Why shopping might never be the same again.

Tags: self-service checkouts, technology