Consumerism and Technological Change: Tne Case of the Automatic Checkout

Abstract

In 1966, the Kroger Company, America's third largest supermarket chain invited a group of equipment manufacturers to attend a seminar devoted to the subject of technological needs of the food industry. At the top of the list of suggested ideas generated at that conference was the automatic checkout. Today, almost ten years later, the technology of the automated checkout has been perfected and operating equipment is now being tested in supermarkets in various parts of the United States. But instead of finding that consumers welcome this cost‐saving innovation in food distribution, the supermarket industry today finds itself embroiled in an unforeseen battle with consumer activists who are violently opposed to an important aspect of the new checkout system—the removal of price from food packages.

Citation

Bloom, G.F. (1976), "Consumerism and Technological Change: Tne Case of the Automatic Checkout", International Journal of Physical Distribution, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 14-21. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb014384