Self-checkout concept makes your phone the cash register
Diebold wants shoppers to buy products by scanning them with their phones.
Even with modern self-checkout machines, every quick shopping trip comes to a screeching halt when it comes time to pay -- every single item needs to be scanned all at once, consecutively. This is why you have to wait in line at the grocery store, but it doesn't have to be that way: Diebold wants to revolutionize shopping by having customers scan each item individually as they place it in their shopping cart.
The concept follows the trend of the firm's other bring-your-own-device ideas, like the Irving concept ATM, a small cash machine with no physical screen (and no ATM card) that uses your smartphone to control transactions. The retail checkout concept is similar -- shoppers would scan items as they walk through the store using a mobile wallet app that keeps payment information on file. At the front, users would only need to tap their phone to collect a receipt and possible cash back from the transaction. If you don't have to scan anything, there's no line.
It's a good idea, but it's just a concept for now, set to debut at the National Retail Federation's "BIG" show (that's what it's named, really) later this month. It also depends on how much stores trust their customers.
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