Supermarket Powerhouse, Price Chopper, Selects the Magellan™ 8400 Bi-Optic Scanner for New LEED Certified Stores
Overview
Price Chopper is a supermarket chain dominating the northeastern United States with its customer promise of “Best in Fresh and Low Prices”. The regionally-focused chain of 119 stores is headquartered in Schenectady, New York, where it remains American-owned and family managed by third and fourth generation members of the Golub family.
Price Chopper celebrates its 77th year of operation with an ever-increasing commitment to sustainability – highlighted by initiatives as varied as continuous improvement and recycling programs to construction and engineering plans that solidify LEED Certification.
To reach their goals, Price Chopper has incorporated a variety of energy-saving devices from skylights to occupancy sensors to new point-of-sale (POS) equipment, which includes Datalogic’s Magellan™ 8400 bi-optic scanners.
The Challenge
With their founder’s legacy of innovation in mind, a new generation of Golub executives decided to make changes to store operations to ensure that Price Chopper’s future is as promising as its distinguished past. Having long established signature offers such as custom cut meat, world class seafood, designer floral shops, ‘scratch’ bakeries, and fresh sushi stations, Price Chopper entered the new millennium ready to incorporate upgraded scanning equipment into its green technology plans.
When designing the new environmentally-conscious stores, Price Chopper analyzed the performance of their current POS solution, which featured Datalogic’s Magellan™ Slim Line (SL) bi-optic scanners from the 1990’s. Although this scanner excels in quality, reliability and outstanding first-pass read rates, Price Chopper needed the latest and greatest in scanning technology in order to meet environmental initiatives; thus, Price Chopper developed three key attributes necessary for their new POS equipment:
Support GS1 DataBar™ Codes: With 2010 marking the global acceptance of GS1 DataBar™, Price Chopper wanted the capabilities to support the new bar code to stay ahead of the curve. Reading GS1 DataBar improves front end productivity and also reinforces Price Chopper’s legacy of leadership and innovation.
Low Energy Consumption: Efforts to become LEED Gold Certified translated into a need for scanners with competitively low energy consumption.
Cost Effective: Since Price Chopper is positioned on both price and quality, the new scanner would have to mind the balance between technological expertise and cost effectiveness. With price sensitive customers, Price Chopper must be conscious of the effects of costly investments on shoppers.
The Solution
Price Chopper’s history of purchasing POS scanning equipment from Datalogic began in 1994 with the Magellan™ 2400 scanner. Price Chopper upgraded again in 1997 with the Magellan™ SL scanner and the Magellan™ 8200 scanner in 2004; thus, Datalogic was a natural consideration for their new POS upgrades.
After careful testing, Price Chopper again found that Datalogic best fit their POS needs. More specifically, Datalogic’s Magellan 8400 bi-optic scanner was the ideal choice as it precisely met their scanning criteria. First and foremost, the Magellan 8400 scanner has advanced reading capabilities, which includes the ability to read GS1 DataBar codes. It also has outstanding performance in reading poor quality, disfigured or over printed labels.
Today, Datalogic is leading the market place with extremely aggressive low power consumption in the latest generation of Magellan bi-optic scanners. Specifically in the Magellan 8400 scanner, Price Chopper’s low power consumption needs were met with an average of 7 watts of power consumption. This output represents only 63% of the total output in the previously installed Magellan 8200 scanner.
According to Greg Zeh, Vice President of Information Systems and CIO at Price Chopper, “Datalogic has significantly decreased the amount of power consumption with each new bi-optic product, starting with 14 watts in the Magellan SL, 11 watts in the Magellan 8200 and now 7 watts in the Magellan 8400 scanner. We place a high value on this technology as it not only reduces our costs, but it helps create a more sustainable world.”
Finally, the new scanner allows Price Chopper to enhance their POS with improved reading capabilities, reduced power consumption and innovative features (360° 5-sided scanning, FirstStrike™ software and All-Weighs™ Scale Platter), while ensuring that the investment would not affect Price Chopper’s ‘low price’ promise to their customers.
The Results
Just as Price Chopper is a fourth generation family managed supermarket chain, they are now a fourth generation customer of Datalogic’s Magellan bi-optic scanners. Zeh stated, “Price Chopper has been extremely satisfied with Datalogic’s products over the years. Our selection of the Magellan 8400 for our eco-friendly stores not only reflects this satisfaction, but also shows how Datalogic has continued to adapt to the needs of grocery retailers.”
Since installation, the Magellan 8400 scanner has made significant improvements to Price Chopper’s store operations with the ability to read GS1 DataBar codes. Furthermore, Daniela Allen, Director of Enterprise Business Systems, stated, “Price Chopper is on its way to achieving LEED Gold Certification, with help from energy-saving devices like the Magellan 8400 scanner. Obtaining this certification is invaluable to what Price Chopper stands for and our commitment to aligning ourselves with our customers’ values.”
Customer
Price Chopper
Industry
Retail
Sub-Industry
Grocery/Supermarkets
Application
Point-of-Sale (POS)
Country
United States
Datalogic Products
Magellan™ 8400
