I was shopping for Thanksgiving last Wednesday at City Market. I glanced at that TV screen mounted from the ceiling behind the checkout lanes. It displayed the number “666.” Does City Market know something I don’t? If the world is ending, I would prefer not to spend my final day in a hot kitchen preparing turkey and baked yams. – Paying Attention to Numbers
The display of “666” was an omen of sorts. But it has nothing to do with the End of Days.
That notorious number merely signaled to store managers that the store was busy and no one should go on break for a while.
In that regard, the sudden appearance of the Mark of the Beast was actually preventing a shop-ageddon or cart-astrophe.
The three-numeral TV display is QueVision, a product and service created by Irisys, a U.K.-based technology firm.
In England and many parts of the world, a shopping line is called a “queue,” pronounced just like the letter “q.”
Anyway, it’s not on the QT that queuing tees-off customers, and grocers have been trying to shorten lines for years.
So along comes Irisys. It found a new application for infrared imaging, which is typically used by law enforcement and the military for night vision.
Instead of revealing camouflaged enemies or criminals cowering under a tarp, infrared sensors and cameras are used to count warm-bodied shoppers.
The QueVision system uses a combination of infrared devices “installed over store entrances, exits and checkout lanes to count shoppers by their body heat – and, using intelligent software that leverages both real-time and historical data – to predict how many staffed lanes should be open in 15- and 30-minute increments,” Irisys explains on its website.
The results are impressive. Since 2010, Kroger, the parent company of City Market, has installed the system in most of its 2,424 stores. Wait times have been slashed 900 percent.
Prior to QueVision, the average queue lasted 4 minutes. Now it’s down to 26 seconds, the grocer recently announced.
And here’s an interesting additional result: shoppers are spending less time in the store but buying more items.
Tracking warm bodies also created a warm-fuzzy for Kroger. Customer satisfaction surveys noted a 42 percent improvement, according to Marnette Perry, senior vice president of operations and strategic initiatives at the Cincinnati-based enterprise.
“There are 7 million shoppers at Kroger stores today – we’ll save them 25 million minutes today,” she was quoted as saying earlier this year in USA Today.
Closer to home, a worker at north City Market said the store was No. 1 in its division for speedy checkouts and that City Market was tops amongst the various Kroeger stores.
The City Market worker wanted anonymity because the person would “take some heat” if named. Which is ironic since we’re talking about a system that identifies people by their thermal signature.
So let’s get back to 666. The numbers on the City Market TV screen lets managers know that they currently have six lanes open, six lanes will need to be open 15 minutes from now and likewise in a half hour.
Nothing sinister there. Besides, locals should be accustomed to triple 6’s.
It was the name of Purgatory ski trail back in the day, and 666 was once the number for highway through Cortez.
But the most interesting 666 is an address on Camino del Rio. It’s where you’ll find Denny’s restaurant, where a devilishly good Grand Slam breakfast can be had for just less than $6.66.
Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can request anonymity if you wonder what happens to your thermal image in the frozen foods aisle.
