Key Food Stores to Speed up Check-Out With IBM Technology

Key Food Stores to Speed up Check-Out With IBM Technology

IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today it has teamed with Man-Dell Food Stores to deploy new IBM scan-and-bag and point-of-sale technology in five Key Food locations the company owns in the New York City area. With margins thin and customer loyalty on the line, independent grocers like Man-Dell Food Stores are searching for innovative ways to save time and create efficiencies. Leveraging customer-assisted services, like self-checkout, enables grocers to meet consumers’ expectations and apply resources to other areas of their business.

Man-Dell replaced NCR ScanMaster systems with new IBM SurePOS™ 700 Series systems running the IBM 4690 operating system, and later added the powerful new “scan-and-bag” self-checkout terminals from IBM.

“IBM Self Checkout offers customers a faster, more reliable, and more flexible shopping experience,” said Scott Schubert, MIS Director of Man-Dell Food Stores. “We estimate that 28 percent of our shoppers now use self-checkout on a daily basis, which proves that busy shoppers want a speedy ‘in and out’ experience, without dealing with long lines.”

IBM, in conjunction with Premier IBM Business Partner STCR, helped Man-Dell Food Stores deploy seven IBM SurePOS 700 systems and four IBM Scan-and-Bag Self Checkouts, making it the first New York area independent grocer to offer such self-checkout. The Queens-based store chose IBM and STCR to help enable a better customer checkout experience due to the high percentage of express to mid-size orders and limited front end space. In September of 2007, Man-Dell Food Stores plans to install additional self-service machines in four more locations.

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