Electronic supermarket checkout terminals (1978)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
- Horizon: Now The Chips Are Down
First transmitted in 1978, Horizon examines the rise of the microprocessor and asks if automation presents a problem for the future of British industry.
www.bbc.co.uk/p...
What impresses me the most is that the cashiers get to sit down!
That impresses you the most? I'm more impressed on how long you must have to wait in line when you're trying to check out with a full cart. No bar codes.
@@yodaddy9362 I remember those days, even though I was just a little boy.
@@ThePumpin1 I remember when a large bird would look at the item, squawk the price, then use it's beak to punch in the price on the register. Then Wilma would pay.
@@akrenwinkle LMFAO
@@akrenwinkle That's what they still have at our local Dollar General.
This really is fascinating to me. I had no idea that in 1978, supermarkets and their warehouses were already this computerized!
This is by far not the norm for this time.
the future is now old man
this was a gimmick at the time. this is even pre barcode
@@skellious If it was pre-barcode, what kind of code was it, and how was it scanned?
@@ObiWanBillKenobi items weren't scanned. each item had a unique number code that you can see the cashier type in on the video. Also the barcode was around in '78, but it wasn't widely adopted.
What a Tom Scott video would be like in 1978.
your right
@@safepancake7551 *you're
@@jdb47games y’ou’ are
@@jdb47games Your makin meh veggie wet
Fix it betch
If only he had this beautiful classical RP accent
I like to think that there's a skid of 50 year old Rasin Bran sitting in a wharehouse somewhere that is completely missed and forgotten by the system. An anomaly. Lost to the world. Nowadays dismissed as a glitch in the system. Yet it sits there in the vast darkness of the seemingly infinite warehouse. Only in another 100 years will it be discovered.
Not a chance, the rats will get them.
It will grow a super fungus and cause a Last of uS type scenario.
But as the announcer has explained, no one cares.
sounds like a good horror movie
This has already happened, but in a slightly different context!
There used to be an automated car-park in Edinburgh - The sort where you park your car in a receiving bay, and a mechanised system stores/retrieves the car for you - Which I understand fell out of use in the early 2000s, and was demolished sometime around 2016.
When the building was being demolished, photos started circulating online showing the part demolished structure and four late 70s model cars that were still visible inside it.
Now given the cost of cars to most British households, you do have to wonder: _Who on Earth manages to forget ONE car, let alone FOUR of them?!?_ 😳
To think, some cameraman holding up a 1978-era camera that weighed at least 20 lbs agreed to take a ride on an automated, driverless forklift for that one shot.
that shot was cool to me because it made me realise, geez that’s just some guy with a camera trying to get an awesome shot for the video.
and it was worth it because it's an insanely cool shot! I got goosebumps around 2:10, with the endless-hallway vibes. Props to the person with the camera.
They were built different back then
The Arriflex IIC was a versatile camera that provided such capabilities
In the late 80s I worked IT in a Safeway division office, and our grocery warehouse had that same automation.. I always wanted to ride it, but it was STRICTLY forbidden. There was rumor that it used to be regularly done, but that someone had been killed sticking their neck out to see around the machine and getting it hit on a shelf. I never knew if that was true, but the "Highrise warehouse" as it was known was one of my favorite places to have to go fix something.
When I started working at age 16 in 1986, I was a bagboy at a Kroger. They had just introduced the swipe and scan system for ringing up items. No more punching in the prices by hand. They also had just introduced the plastic bag for carrying out purchases. We were told to cram as many items into each bag as we could, because "These bags aren't CHEAP!"
Now days, plastic bags are used everywhere if not replaced all together.
They’re being banned in a small but growing number of locales.
They still do!
"No one needs to know where anything is stored, and no one cares".... until the automated forklift picks up an unstable pallet and dumps it all over the warehouse floor
electronic "shit" happens.
@@roadmaster720
It is so „shit“ successful business use it.
You need a lot of people doing dumb work to do it manual.
@@antman7673 very true
I worked for NCR in the early 1980s, These registers were connected to a minicomputer . It was program loaded with cassette tape and was using an 8K magnetic core card for memory , this was tech used before semi-conductor RAM chips .
Me 2
Given that the microprocessor was first invented in 1971, it's impressive that there were already computerized POS systems in production and use by 78.
These units didn't have much elaborate computing in them, they were essentially terminals tied to a mini computer that didn't use a microprocessor, but rather TTL chip boards, which in essence are a bunch of different chips that did various type of computing and could easily scale its processing requirements. Microprocessors back then were too wimpy to handle these kinds of transactions.
I worked p/t at Sears in the 70's, and the cash registers (or _terminals_ , as they called them ) were programmed by a cassette tape, just like an audio cassette. When there was an upgrade, someone would go to each terminal with a cassette player and plug it in.
We just had to put in the stock number of the item and the price would be entered.
I too worked at a Sears in the mid-1970s. The computerized terminals were a new phenomenon and getting trained on them gave me good start at getting past what was then called computer phobia.
I worked at a retail chain in the early 2000s that still used this cassette system lol
@@milkjamjuice I’m not in the slightest bit surprised at that. By any chance did it have a green on black monochrome display as well?
@@Mikeb1001 The display was surprisingly modern for the time; I’d say it dated back to the mid nineties? Not black and green. I can’t recall the details completely.
In the 1970s Sears was using terminals made by Singer-Friden. Very nifty terminals indeed; I always loved seeing them in action at Sears.
My mum worked as a checkout assistant and you had to remember the price of everything back then
Exactly. I was surprised to see the semi automated warehouse!
I would have bombed within a couple of days. lol. My memory is HELL. lol
@@EphemeralProductions that would have only applied to things like produce that can't be marked(now they are). most grocery items had hand stamped prices on the item.
You have a Egypt mummy there missy. Hmmmmm. Better say mom if you have a mother. Got it missy
@@Inquisitor2574 Mum is English. Mom is American. Got it missy!
We were still using 90s beige tills with LCD screens that were super solid and physical buttons up until 5 years ago when our till system completely crashed and we had to use carbon copy paper and a calculator for 3 days! It became clear we really needed a replacement, so they decided on touch screen PoS units that rattled when you shut the tray, almost entire hollow. The screens were slower for those who were used to the muscle memory of physical button inputs, but finally we had contactless payment and a more reliable scanner.
Those electronic tills then and into the 1980's were like an all in one giant calculator, cash drawer and printer.
Even in 1978, people were fighting the digital surveillance of staff. Impressive
Thank you, checkout girls, for getting them to remove performance tracking. That's really dystopian, I'm glad they got it removed
Didn't know it was a thing but i highly disagree with it's existence.
Now they track self checkout times and charge higher prices for slower customers
The slowest people are the ones who buy a lottery ticket, cash it in, then buy a lottery ticket, cash it in, then buy a lottery ticket, cash it in, then buy a lottery ticket, cash it in, then buy a lottery ticket, cash it in... etc, and the price is no different every time
Dystopian is the way they'll remove the people from the jobs. Eventually no one will be buying groceries because they can't.
It was never removed, see Amazon employees...
Fascinating! My father worked at Aldi in Germany at the time of the video. There the technology existed in a similar form, if I understood it correctly, each item had a four digit number. All employees had to memorize the numbers and were drilled on them and regularly the store manager would conduct a test and stand behind the cashier with a stopwatch to measure. Those who failed to keep up the pace more often were kicked out. The employees were under enormous pressure every day, my father was fed up with it and quit after one year. Even today, the times for scanning the goods are tracked and stored in the central computer, a cashier told me just the other day.
Store Management in the US still keep track of the time. Kroger still times cashiers and they're constantly told to speed up. While Publix believes customers should be allowed time to unload.
I remember in the early 70s when the largest chain grocery store in my area installed the computer registers
It was amazing because prior to that the items were entered by price into stand alone registers that were electrical but not computers
Many stores had mechanical registers and smaller businesses didn't have registers
They had paper bills and did everything by hand
Every sale was hand written
Or the total was added and the money collected without a receipt
I remember butcher shops that were like this, and pizza shops, local restaurants
So many places that were family business didn't have a register until the late 70s or early 80s
Electrical? You mean electronic.
I love how they tried to micromanage cashiers in Denmark and the cashiers just weren’t having any of it.
lol try that in ALDI today
@@MajorKoenig156 Aldi Süd or Aldi Nord?
They did eventually.
They're doing it to farmers, today.
It's so funny. A cashier at the market today made a mistake on an item she scanned and it too so long to have the manager come over and put his "card" in to verify the error in the computer.
The cashier errors getting sorted today slows things down a bit briefly due to needing maager needing to go into the application that's running the scanning checkout tills to sort out the errors. But overall it will be faster than the old manual and electronic touch typing tills even accounting for cashier error.
@@dvidclapperton we are goingbackwards because of deshonesty and people finding new ways to steal.
Actually that might be a policy issue rather than anything else. Usually point of sale systems can be configured to work as needed so certain types of issues need a supervisor or manager to intervene but the same issue in shop might not need intervening. It depends on the managers and/or owners of the company. Source:I use to work in retail.
Funny that the old registers were faster in the end, even when credit cards had to be run on carbon imprint.
Because the cashier doesn't have the authority to change what she entered.
What's really fascinating here is the cashier being allowed the human decency of being allowed to sit down.
That's normal in the UK they all sit down.
No it isn't
we had very similar registers in the mid 90s when i worked in the supermarket. The crazy part was we were allowed to cash payroll checks right at the register. And personal checks were the most common payment method ( that and cash )
cheques?
@@breakingaustin We use check/checking account 99% of the time in the US.
Electric cash registers in grocery stores only got smaller and smaller over the years but the department store ones stayed huge for a long time like at Macy's. No joke. Their NCR machines were huge even in the 2010s. 🤔
in 1978 stores in the US still used little tags with the price on it, each item had to have the price put on it before going on the shelf, each cashier had to manually enter the price on the register for each item, man those girls had some fast fingers, scanners didnt come in until at least the mid to late 80's.
I grew up in the SF Bay Area, a couple of chains implemented the laser scanners as early as 81 or 82
UPCs in supermarkets were not a thing until 1974 so that is not surprising. It would have been that way in most of the world.
They must have learned typewriting and gained typing skills.
I worked in a certain store in 1991 and they still had no scanners yet.
@@Cozmo85 What is this constant "not a thing" nonsense people keep saying? That sounds like something a five-year-old would say. You mean the scanners didn't exist then?
"The checkout girls ... have refused to operate the new terminals" - the video hows not only how much how we have progressed in technology but as a society, as well.
I remember when supermarket scanners first came in and people didn’t trust them, who’s to say the cashier won’t run something through twice or the price is wrong? We were assured that would never happen. Nowadays almost every time I get back from the grocery store I’ll find several items at minimum were scanned at higher than their shelf price, I won’t even leave the store anymore without checking the receipt for overcharges.
When I was a trainee manager in a supermarket in the mid 80s, we had similar NCR terminals. Those terminals did not generally know each individual item that was being sold. That didnt really get going until the terminals had bar code scanners and shops here in the UK didnt have them til the mid 80s at the earliest. The cashier here is entering a price and hitting a department button. There were codes that the checkout operator could enter for a handful of items (lookups) but when we tried it, we had to limit it for about 50 items at the most because it took too long to look them up.
The statement that the till knew what was being sold felt wrong when it was said. Clearly not.
NCR 255 point of sale terminals. The supervisor could watch exactly what you were doing on your terminal in real time from a supervisor terminal located anywhere else in the store. Scanning was around but still cost prohibitive for many retail establishments at the time.
When I was a kid, the grocery store near my house had registers almost exactly like this, but with an orange multi-segment display on the side that could show (truncated) words.
Any idea what they were or how they worked? I believe they were NCR.
I think the groceries used to have 2 stickers on them... the normal old school orange price tag and a blue one with a sku# on it.
The cashiers only rang quantity and sku... no barcode readers.
They could take credit cards but the cashier would imprint the card then stick the slip in the machine to print on it.
In my days, stores had these little sliding objects and carbon slips for credit cards. You'd put the card on the thing, then the carbon slip on top, then slide it back and forth to read the credit card.
@@equid0x The NCR 255 registers were connected to two NCR Minicomputer 726 in the back office. All of the math was done right on the register, just price lookups and credit/check authorizations were run from the minicomputers, though they did send data to the back office on a routine basis.
@@thatjpwing So, it seems plausible that maybe they were the same machines with an extra screen on them. I re-watched the video and noticed the narrator say that the online credit card auth was already being done in New York. I didn't notice that before. As luck would have it, that's where I grew up!
I remember once in a while the guy ahead of you would have a card declined. The register would say "Authorize?" On the side and the cashier would get on the mic and call for the manager. The manager would typically come out of the office with a printout and say the card was declined, and offer to let the customer buy on store credit, with the caveat that they needed to pay it off the next time they came in or they couldn't continue to purchase.
FWIW the chain was called "Great American." I don't think they're around anymore. I just remember all of this stuff being pretty high tech at the time.
@@equid0x that's was until late 1980's when they adding scan strips on the back of the cards now they also have RFI chips imbedded in them.
Self scan (customers taking a handheld terminal round the supermarket and scanning the barcodes on things before putting them in a trolley) has suddenly become widespread, but it's older than a lot of people realise. in the mid 1990s The Safeway on the A38 in Rubery, Birmingham was trialling it. Same shop is now called Morrisons.
A brilliant means of forgetting both to pay for items, and thereby justifying intrusive store detectives to come along and "correct" your innocent errors.
After of course, a loud, elaborate alarm sounds, to not only frighten you to death for your innocent mistake, cause you subsequent lifelong anxiety (subconsciously), cause physical health problems literally every single time you both walk in and then walk out of the shops past those frequency emitting scanners passing waves over and against your cells, but also drawing unwanted attention toward you from other customers, and galvanising low IQ store detectives, to treat their wage generators, as criminals.
And a way of emitting infrared beams at passing customers in the shop as you (or more specifically *other* ignorant customers) unthinkingly affect your health in the process, and show disapproval, at *your* disapproval of their affecting, of YOUR health.
All of which could be solved, by getting rid of those dreadful devices.
@@letsdiscussitoversometea8479 uhuh. Okay bro.
@@Nelo390 are you *_trying_* to elicit a rude response?
Because I can tell you, you're certainly making things very easy for yourself.
@@letsdiscussitoversometea8479 what is an "elaborate alarm sound"?
@@jensaugust743 it's when the sensors at the entrance of the shop (usually right at the entrance door itself) are passed by an exiting customer, only for a VERY loud alarm noise to be triggered (oftentimes by an electronic circuit of some kind), which gives the security guard, the idea that "that *_"quiet"_* customer over there", "is sneaking away, and has been "caught out"".
In other words, an oblivious customer may leave the shop completely innocently - minding their own business - and all of a sudden, an abrupt, loud siren sounds, which draws the attention of EVERYBODY in the vicinity to *stare* at you, and perhaps assume that you're up to no good.
It's humiliating, and increases anxiety of leaving a shop with shopping which you need to take home with you to live, but have to deal with the "what if this happens all over again", if the alarm sounds.
A relative of mine who'd been shopping in the exact same shop ever since the very first day it opened, one day encountered this type of experience, and was left highly upset, after the security guard questioned them.
They became upset and started crying, and EVERYONE was looking.
This relative had been shopping there for a good 25 years by this point, and went there at least two or three times a week, and was known by all the staff.
That sarcastic comment written after my initial one, shows complete hostility, towards peoples' hardships.
*Really* could've done without that.
This reminds me of my days as a cashier at a shoe store in the early 90s that machine was so old cant believe i was only 16 running that old thing and used to open and close by myself counting down the drawer and the credit card machine lol good old days technology is so advanced now
Are you Al Bundy?
Did you play football at Polk High and score four touchdowns in a single game?
And don’t forget the manual credit card machines with the carbon paper
I remember in the 90s as a kid being fascinated by the checkout terminals, they had those big, chunky multi colored keys that seemed to do so many different things
The person that works the register at Aldi’s Supermarket still sit down. I think that’s great!!
This was quite advanced. Things have not changed that much, which is pretty mind-boggling.
Well in the UK they have, self scan, self scan on phones, pay via phone, no checkouts, and shops where you just pick up items and walk straight out without scanning anything.
@@markylon Don't get me started. I'm from Finland. But still.
I worked at Target for many years and there was a heavy focus on speed at the time - they did have performance tracking on the registers, and I was quite fast and accurate, however it was often the customer (or "guest" in Target lingo) that was the main bottleneck. Also, the POS was on really old hardware so it would often take a second or two for the item to come up on the pole display after scanning it, resulting in people sometimes complaining. Performance did not have a huge impact on pay, etc. though, and I figured that if I could keep my speed up, they wouldn't get on my back as much about my inability to sell the store credit card to guests who probably shouldn't have credit cards.
Yeah Target is weird about tracking metrics. The management are a little obsessive about getting their numbers and telling people to do work faster, but pretty much the only thing that comes of it is they make the target (no pun intended) harder to achieve. Not to mention they're constantly changing what number they think is most important, sometimes it's Redcard signups, sometimes it's push percentage, sometimes it's INFs.
I was 7 then, and I wanted to be a cashier desperately. My friends and I would play cashier. Great days.
Lmbo really? I bet you don't wanna be a cashier now 😆
@LoliLoli83 Actually, I'd probably enjoy it... except for the customers.
Pushing buttons all day seemed cooler when George Jetson was doing it.
@@71suezqz Isn't customers like 90% of cashiers work 🤔
About 1984 or 85, the grocery store I worked at in rural North Dakota got the UPC scanners. There were a few of us taking turns to enter into the central register each item's description. In other words, scan the item's UPC, then enter a unique ten-letter (maybe 12-letter) abbreviated description (e.g. KELLRAISBRAN, CAMPTOMSOUP). This took weeks and weeks. Seems to me there should have been some way to get this info automatically loaded when they bought the machines.
On the verge of automation- took almost 40 more years
40 years is not that long at all.
Omg I remember that same register here in the US in the early 80s. I feel so old now!
In America, they never let cashiers sit on stools, at least back in the day when I used to work at Sam's Club. Again, I said back in the day. If they did, I never saw it.
Yes they do.
@@Kelle0284 at aldi. But I've never seem it anywhere else
@@That.Lady.withtheYarn I've seen it at Target. Probably at other places too, unless they find a way of propping people up so they don't fall over.
@@That.Lady.withtheYarn - ALDI is a German store
@@Kelle0284 many places don’t.
Looks like the terminals/cash registers Kmart was still using when they closed most of their stores a few years ago.
When I was very little, cash registers were big, electro-mechanical things, with long vertical rows of buttons. The cashiers' fingers would fly up and fown the rows, as they pushed one button in each column to enter the price, then pushed another button to register it.
These registers were very plain, not like the fancy registers of the past. But I was fascinated by them.
I started working as a cashier at Woolco Dept. store in 1976 using those, they were a blast to use. Yes, they were rather plain compared to the turn of the century brass-plated style, but were pretty much identical in function. I did well enough, and fast enough they promoted me to the cash 💰office to work in...only to find out I didn't count coins as fast as I could use a cash register. Imagine counting out coins to put into paper wrappers for 8 hrs, in a very tiny room only big enough for 1 person, with no window. My hands would constantly go into cramps, so after a few weeks, they put me back where I excelled...Thank God!
They were quite theft-resistent too with all that heavy metal.
Ahhh the old clanky ones! Made a right din!
I worked at Walmart from 1988-2021. The part about the automatic ordering is still an issue, it works but has a lot of problems. Everything would work perfectly if everything was perfect. Once there is a problem, it starts to snowball. So much changed in the 30 years I worked there. There were major tech changes but also major shifts in the Walmart "culture".When I first started it was customer service, treating customers as your family, no hassle returns if you are not 100% satisfied, fast friendly checkouts, and department manager managing their department like it was their store. Now there are no sales clerks, and the grocery department is crowded with associates picking online orders that are timed and can't stop to help. The sales floor is trashed and out of stock. I had a return of some ink pens, I told the clerk I was bringing them back because I had not noticed they were red pens. She gave me the " your stupid eye roll". I had my receipt and had paid by credit card I requested cash . She said it was Walmart policy that I had to return it to my credit card or get a gift card.
I don't trust you. We are now locking the pens behind a case. You will have to disturb a busy employee to get them to unlock the case if you want to buy pens next time. That'll teach you.
@@HunterShows different stores have different security features.
On a similar tangent to your pen story, have you by any chance, noticed the almost identical packaging used on certain items, that contain completely different contents??
I'll give an example:
One day, I went to buy some tins of vegetable curry.
Directly beside the curry, were tins of vegetable chilli.
Both were organic, both were in dark green labelled tins, both had pictures of plates containing a relatively liquid looking substance in a similar colour, both had the same font, written in the same size, and colour.
Now HOW on Earth, would a neglectful - let alone impolite - cashier, handle a customer who has concerns about items being hurriedly "double scanned", on the assumption that they were the *exact, same item,* though possibly at COMPLETELY different prices, AND would be almost impossible to return for a refund if purchased in error by a difficult customer services representative??
Let alone, a customer who is overworked, has to tend to two or three hyperactive kids, AND could be subjected to "scrutiny" by a mean store detective if it ends up looking as though the customer "stole" the conveniently, more *expensive* item in the process of picking up the item that they actually INTENDED to pick up?
Your pen story is ENTIRELY understandable, and the customer service representative's attitude, sounds incredibly small minded of the indescribable upheaval that profit giving, paying customers are being expected to jump through hoops, just to get what they *need* to buy, to live.
But - and this seems to be the case a lot worse in America, than it is in Britain at least - "the employee is just doing their job, making money for their business. Stop making it difficult for them Karen", is the prevailing attitude of the sick public.
What I wouldn't give to be self sufficient...
@@HunterShows Don't forget the camera and screen in every aisle that dings with a big "YOU ARE BEING RECORDED" on it. Dystopian.
Not being able to get a cash refund on a credit purchase is standard for any retail, way too much fraud. Get the cash, reverse the charge and the store is stuck chasing the credit card company down for their money.
I remember that ssme register was used in the "Eatons" stores here in Canada
Meanwhile in eastern Europe where I grew up, back in the 70's it was all about pencil and paper and manual metal cash registers :)))) oh yeah and no credit/debit system existed so cash payments everywhere :)
Most small shops in the UK and other Western countries also used pencil and paper until quite recently, about mid-1990s. It was only big shops that had computers doing everything.
I love how the automatic telephone call to the bank is what we now refer to as the internet.
Back in the day it was an actual dial up phone call, similar to a fax machine, and was not the same interface I-2 internet as you we know today
no.
@@morbidmanmusic that’s basically what the internet is, computers talking to each other.
If I connect two computers at my home with a single network cable, they are talking to each other, but that's not internet. Internet is routed, decentralised, address based and packeted communication.
This was a dialup modem connecting a local phone call routing to a packet switch network provider such as Telenet or Tymnet. The packets made its way to a central mainframe somewhere that processed the incoming requests. It's no different than commercial providers allowed for end-users to access subscription services such as The Source, Compuserve, and Q-link (later known as AOL).
I'm just amazed that the clerks get to sit down. where I work as a salesclerk, we just stand all day.
Sitting is easier on your legs, but it causes some ergonomic issues with upper body twisting.
same there's no sitting anywhere for till workers in my country the only time you get to sit is if you own the place
In Europe and the UK, cashiers sit down at their machines, because their job isn't any different from office workers, who have always been seated while doing data-entry or typing.
In North America, there's a stupid perception that if cashiers are sitting down, they're being lazy. But standing all day is extremely painful and damaging to the body, not just the feet.
@@gravedigr12 But its a job you can do sitting down.
@@OofusTwillip It's ridiculous not to let cashiers sit down if they want to.
What impressed me is the fact we're looking at random people in their lives yet today most are dead in this video
It's strange
"No one needs to know where things are stored and no one cares. The computer does it all." Sounds like what banks do to your money, LOL!
When I was a kid there were no UPC symbols. A guy who had to go around and use a gun to put price stickers on every item. The cashier would manually type every price into the register. If you got produce, the cashier would weigh it on an analog scale with a big dial and look up the price in a book. The bags were made of paper. My mom would write a check or pay in cash. They certainly weren't tracking your purchases. Also there were no security cameras or Wi-Fi monitoring you. The security system if any consisted of a convex mirror in the corner of the store. After you were done in checkout, a guy would follow you out with your groceries and load them into your trunk.
Saying when you were a kid could be today, or 90 years ago, we have no idea how old you are now, so saying when you were a kid is a useless statement. You could be 20 or 95. Please give us a year. eg in the 70s, or the 80s or the 90s etc
Still worked that way with the price gun at the ReStore I volunteered at, even if everything else was modern and sophisticated.
Only a year later barcode readers were first introduced in the UK supermarkets. But I doubt they became prevalent immediately.
You are from Utah there kid
Not immediately, but as soon as one large retailer adopted the tech, others swiftly followed else be left behind and with lower profits.
Back then, barcode scanners quite literally cost the earth - For the cost of two you could upgrade the EPoS terminals at eight whole checkouts! Now the technology's matured a lot it's cheap as candy (All you need is an LED and a simple CCD; Both very affordable now) so becomes a normal thing to see everywhere, but even as late as 2010 my local Aldi was still using hand-keyed pricing!
And further to that, Aldi didn't even use price labels. Either their pricing was done in easily memorable steps (e.g: 150 different products, but only five prices across all of them) or they were training their staff to function as high-performance human databases! 😲
@@dieseldragon6756 As a previous employee of rival supermarket Lidl, I can tell you that all staff regardless of job roll were till trained.
Every staff member is handed a test sheet every month for around 100 different PLU numbers that you must pass.
Ideally though it was handy to remember more than 200 PLU#s and "shortcodes", so that you didn't have to waste time looking through a book for them.
Sure its dino tech now but this is amazing for the 70s
More of these old technology videos please!
The cashier girl refused to operate with terminal with supervisising programme and it was deleted from her terminal. That is simply umbelievable at this days. But Iam quite surprised how pallets are not strapped or compressed with any foil around items and nothing is falling off.
Im in my late 30s, and here in the UK even not too long ago, discount retailers like Aldi and Lidl were still using manual entry registers rather than scanners. Employees had to memorise thousands of items. Technology has come a long way in a short time.
I vaguely remember as a kid in the 70s Sainsburys (in north end road, fulham) had someone going round with this machine the size of a fridge on wheels with a pen on a curly cable which was used to read barcodes for stock keeping
Those same Chep pallets can be seen today! lol
FWIW seen a couple now that have a thin blue box of electronics screwed between the planks, so I guess Chep are doing some electronic tracking of their pallets. Could tell it was electronics cos it had the electronic standards compliance kitemarks on it.
It's strange how little has changed in grocery stores in 40 years. Same lousy inventory and burdensome checkout. Most of the profits have gone to executive compensation.
I totally disagree, it's self scan on your phone or even walk out and pay. I haven't used a checkout for 5 years or more
@@markylon Self scan has been around since the 1990s
Those cashiers were pretty slow. I remember back in the manual entry days. Those cashiers could type in prices faster than you could see.
Exact register I used at Waldbaums on Long Island in 1982. Loved it, was fun to see how fast I could go and piss off the old ladies when I was ringing the items on the belt faster then I could move them forward with my left hand, the old ladies would get upset thinking I was ringing the wrong prices.
I miss Walkbaums - They were early adoptors for POS
I love the fact that they can sit down the whole time they’re working without having to have a medical note to have “special accommodations” for a chair. Also, did anyone else notice the great prices?? 😮
This was 45 years ago. My youngest daughter is 4. I wonder how her world is going to look when she's 49.
AGI will kill everyone by then
...I worked for Winn Dixie in Ft Lauderdale from late 1979 until 1981 - I started on these devices while I was still there they installed the first UPC checkout systems...the main frame computer used disks the size of cake plates and local ordinances required that all products have a price tag on them - to mollify the old farts who claimed they couldn't remember what the item cost...today it's hard to find ANY of these old style terminals in any stores...what seemed so strange 44 years ago is commonplace today...
Imagine what a PITA it was to clean up a tipped over pallet in automated warehouse with scant three feet wide isles
'The ladies refused to work until the supervising program was deleted'
Ahead of its time and Blue Chep pallets are still one of the best today
@newworlddidorder156 & expensive for being in possession of one & using it.
They left out the part about the computer automatically deciding that humans are slowing down the process, and need to be liquified.
In the USA, they would never allow a cashier to sit at their register.
Only if there's a medical issue. I think it's stupid that cashiers can't have stools... it's so hard being on your feet all day. I couldn't physically do it anymore.
Aldi says hi
@@kck9742 It is dumb actually, it could improve a lot the cashiers energy if they are allowed to sit, when ever there is not so much work.
it might be healthier to stand fwiw
@@alquinn8576 Well, we know now that we SHOULD stand sometimes, but not for hours on end and in one place, without moving around much. I think stools should be provided so they can sit when their feet/legs start to hurt.
When I was a teenager there was no scanning. We had to remember all the prices.
2:58 its funny hearing him describe computer automation as "sinister". Now days, AI is on the verge of something that actually fits the term.
Amazon would have you believe their automated warehouses are their gift to the world.
Ooops, 1978 just came knockin to say...
"Whatcha talkin' bout Willis?"
It's 2023 and there are still warehouses that aren't as functional as the one shown in this video.
Barcode scanning must've really blown people's minds 😮
They still used the checkout timing here in the US as of 2000 , however my company did not use it for raises, promotions or demotions. It was used to better their performance to "compete" for prizes.
I hope my local shop implement this tech soon!
We take so much for granted i have taken more time to appreciate things like this
Thanks for sharing. Did not expect this to be in 1978.
Jeff Bazos: Amazon's inventory is computer controlled and the first of its kind in the world!
Meanwhile in 1978:
Amazon's inventory is directly controlled by YOU in your HOME/CAR/ETC. Huge difference. Remember, he started off with just books and he was the first to expand it to offer everything else.
*"IN THE FUTURE, NO ONE WIL HAVE A JOB. WE DON'T KNOW HOW YOU'LL AFFORD ANYTHING, NOR DO WE CARE" - every governement.*
The year I was born. Lol I'm gonna find every type of video on 1978 I can watch on TH-cam .
Was not even using barcode scanners yet - I think that was pioneered by the IBM Supermarket system in the USA in 1973 (IBM 3660).
Barcodes were definitely in operation by 1980 in Florida supermarkets.
Barcode readers were introduced in some UK supermarkets in 1979 according to Google.
I recall barcodes in U.S. stores about 1975.
I think in the mid 1970's UPC scanning started to appear in the U.S. Maybe it was a bit later in the U.K. Now we've gone onto self-service checkout and not even checking out (like at Amazon stores). I was in Switzerland a few years ago and the cashiers did nothing but scan the merchandise. I had to weigh and tag my own produce in the store, unload the items before the cashier, enter my credit card at the terminal, and bag the items after the cashier. For the little work they did they looked at me like I was nothing but trouble. No service with a smile.
You're paying for the products, not for the smiles. Outside United States, people don't need to, and are not required to smile.
"like I was nothing but trouble" - love that. lol
@@mardus_ee But in Switzerland, the customer is the enemy. They looked at me like they wanted to kill me.
They might have a lot more computing power now but the basic functions haven't really changed too much in 47 years.
" this is ALREADY being done in shops in NY " brilliant.
I remember in line in an edmonton grocery store. an old lady wanted part of a package of tomato's, not the whole thing. wanted to be charged less, the girl said she couldn't because the price was in here, pointing at the electronic register. the lady got mad....darn those computers. lol. 1980.
Worked at Macy's in the late 70s and this is the NCR terminal they used.
A cashier sitting down and taking their time? Now that's science fiction.
That was the year I was born and therefore the world was born around me to keep me company
Oh, so since I was born in 1958, my purpose was to have 20 years preparation to keep you company. You have revealed to me my purpose in this life and I am grateful!
That’s the exact register I used in 1975!!! We had 52 keys and had to ring “by touch” no peeking at your fingers!!
No round of applause for what those automatic warehouses and stocking have become.
Good thing those ‘computers’ never caught on.
If I was this slow as they were with these when I was a cashier I'd been fired week one
I hope you upload more videos like this! It was very interesting! And to echo a comment from a previous poster, I had no idea supermarkets were already that computerized in 1978 either. I’m def going to watch the video of you brushing your dog’s teeth lol but I’m hoping for more like this one, so I’ve subscribed. Thank you so much! 🙂
I first used a computer terminal in 1976 while working at a Sears.
At the time, most supermarkets were really not computerized as shown in the video; just a few of them.
and in 45 years, these computers will think they know better than you, ignore your commands, and do whatever they think is best.
2:38 ... "We're on the verge of automated shopping systems that'll use very few people." Like today with so many self-checkouts in supermarkets, and the accompanying retail theft galore.
Oh how nice to be able to sit in a 🪑.
When Aldi/Lidl first came to the UK, i heard staff had to memorise the prices for all the goods from a big book before being took on as till operators.
Not true. The items had the price on and they had to be fast to key them in.
whoa...what an age we lived in.
This was still a few years from bar codes coming along which made checking out even quicker.
Holy shit, blue CHEP pallets over in Britain and back in 1978!
Thanks for this internet gold ♥️
I was born later than '78, and I consider myself old. I love technological development.
And yet my local mega super super market runs out of stuff 45 years later, they tell me to come back in 2068, we should have it by then🙄