2012 100 - Networld Media Group

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ELECTRONIC SHELF LABELS
Given the headaches and hours of labor it takes to keep prices accurate
and up to date for a superstore’s worth of product, electronic shelf
labels would seem to be a no-brainer. Yet ESLs, while widely used
in Europe and parts of the West Coast, have seen only limited, experimental
use in other locales. ESLs connect to a storewide network,
communicate with the retailer’s POS system and download prices to
labels at the store, or from a corporate location for numerous store locations
simultaneously. ESLs can also display additional information
via a touchscreen interface such as nutritional information, priceper-measure,
or even recipes. Even though the cost of implementing
ESLs has decreased over the years thanks to improvements in battery
technology and economies of scale, there are still significant startup
costs. The tipping point for ESLs will come if and when there are sufficient
gains in flexible and responsive pricing to justify the cost difference
over cheaper labels.
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TESCO
CEO Phillip Clarke is confident about
the future of Tesco’s Fresh & Easy
Neighborhood Market because of the
enthusiasm and loyalty of its customer
base, despite the company’s decision
to shutter 13 underperforming units.
“The key components are coming to-
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RFID IN RETAIL
If the predictions of RFID advocates have their way, grocery store checkout
lines will soon be a thing of the past. RFID technology uses ink laced with
carbon nanotubes to print electronics directly onto items such as cereal boxes
and potato chip bags, and then transmits information about an entire cartload
of groceries when the shopper wheels past a detector that instantly tabulates
the total. RFID also gives retailers an unprecedented ability to fully track
and trace inventory throughout the supply chain from source to shelf to final
sale with near-perfect accuracy. Research conducted by Dr. Bill Hardgrave of
the University of Arkansas RFID Research Center shows that RFID is capable
of accuracy rates topping 99 percent.
gether,” Clarke says, for Fresh & Easy
to achieve profitability in 2012 or 2013,
by which time Tesco expects to be operating
close to 400 U.S. stores. For the
six-month period that ended Aug. 31,
2011, Tesco’s U.S. division, which then
encompassed 159 stores, lost $151
million, while sales rose 47 percent to
$392.7 million and same-store sales
rose approximately 10 percent. The
chain experienced additional losses,
due to costs related to its acquisition of
two suppliers, and increased rent from
unopened stores.
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