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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1992-08-28
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BUSINESS, Page 38Business NotesTECHNOLOGYBellying Up to The Bar Code
It may prove to be a lifesaver for agoraphobiacs and those
simply daunted by the quest for the perfect ripe tomato.
ScanFone, a high-tech home-shopping and bill-paying system, is
designed primarily for ordinary grocery shoppers too busy to get
to the store. Introduced last week in San Francisco by
Virginia-based US Order, ScanFone allows Bay Area customers to
pay bills and buy their groceries using a special Touch-Tone
phone, a bar-code scanner and a 6,000-item catalog from Safeway.
Unlike some predecessors, including a discontinued supermarket
shopping system introduced by the home-computer information
network Prodigy, ScanFone is not linked to personal computers
or terminals. Its cost, now $9.95 a month, is comparable to
postage and gas expenses.
Each ScanFone unit, which can also function as a regular
telephone, features a magnetic-stripe credit card reader and a
light pen to scan bar codes. After selecting groceries,
customers punch in a delivery time, run a credit card through
the magnetic reader and await delivery. On the retailer's end,
a computer registers the order and professional shoppers hit the
aisles, instructed to select the best cuts of meat and the
freshest vegetables and fruits for ScanFoners. If successful,
the system is expected to serve 16 cities by June.