In EY the newest thing in the big supermarkets, like Osher Ad, Shaarei Revacha and Yeish, are the handheld barcode scanners. Basically you get a cart that has a scanner holder next to the bar to push the cart, and as you go through the store you take your items, scan them with your scanner, and when you’re finished you put the information from your scanner into a checkout computer, pay, and go home. Bagging is up to you. Some people bag it all at the end, but a very smart woman I saw had the large heavy duty shopping bags all open in her cart, and as she scanned her items, she put them straight into the bags, making her job super fast at the end.
Now I have one issue, in Osher Ad, there is one catch. You have to take your cart to a special station and weigh it when you’re finished. There is a bar code on the cart, which records the weight of the empty cart, and the difference is the weight of the products you purchased. I imagine that this is their way of trying to prevent people from taking things that they did not scan (hopefully unintentionally), but I found that due to the fact that there is only one of these scales (maybe 2) in the whole giant store, the line for this process is longer than the lines for having a regular clerk ring up your order. This defeats the whole purpose of using the scanner. I also found it a little insulting that they seem to be not willing to trust that people are honest and will scan everything they put into their carts. Oh well, I just did not use a scanner when I shopped in that store, but everywhere else, I’m happy to use them when they’re available as they simply save a lot of time.