You have been scanned
April 2nd 2010 05:31
Scanners have become so commonplace in retail these days it's odd to think that there was a time back in the nineties when not everyone had one. Even though we'd progressed to a computer and could well have done with a scanner to process our stock, the cost of buying one was prohibitive on the shop's miniscule budget.
I remember the salesman coming in and saying it would only cost $395, which I mistook for $3.95. I thought, 'that's cheap', until the misunderstanding was cleared up. At that time $395 was big money.
We never actually got to a point where we used a scanner before I finished up at the shop. I think it never became a real necessity; most of us were perfectly capable of typing in the PLU codes by hand, and we never exactly pushed for time.
That $395 figure would now probably be around $6-700, inflation being what it is. But I see that scanners have come down in price - and certainly they're everywhere these days.
Scanners are no doubt more sophisticated too: the LS2208 range appears to have capabilities that probably weren't thought of when I was in the market for a scanner. For example, it can do up to 100 Scans Per Second - I'm not sure if it's operator could cope with that, but I guess that in some business that might be useful.
It can be dropped at least five feet onto concrete and survive. (Which is possibly more than I could.) It reads standard 1D and RSS symbologies - which again is more than I can do. I'm not even sure what a symbology is. (Wikipedia says it's the study of symbols - okay, we have a scanner that studies symbols....hmmm.)
It has a 17" reading range. That's handy: the operator could just casually swipe past a code and the scanner could read at a distance...without glasses.
Obviously this is the model to go for if (a) I ever go back to retail; (b) I find the need for a scanner in another market.
Regrettably neither of these are likely possibilities.
I remember the salesman coming in and saying it would only cost $395, which I mistook for $3.95. I thought, 'that's cheap', until the misunderstanding was cleared up. At that time $395 was big money.
We never actually got to a point where we used a scanner before I finished up at the shop. I think it never became a real necessity; most of us were perfectly capable of typing in the PLU codes by hand, and we never exactly pushed for time.
That $395 figure would now probably be around $6-700, inflation being what it is. But I see that scanners have come down in price - and certainly they're everywhere these days.
Scanners are no doubt more sophisticated too: the LS2208 range appears to have capabilities that probably weren't thought of when I was in the market for a scanner. For example, it can do up to 100 Scans Per Second - I'm not sure if it's operator could cope with that, but I guess that in some business that might be useful.
It can be dropped at least five feet onto concrete and survive. (Which is possibly more than I could.) It reads standard 1D and RSS symbologies - which again is more than I can do. I'm not even sure what a symbology is. (Wikipedia says it's the study of symbols - okay, we have a scanner that studies symbols....hmmm.)
It has a 17" reading range. That's handy: the operator could just casually swipe past a code and the scanner could read at a distance...without glasses.
Obviously this is the model to go for if (a) I ever go back to retail; (b) I find the need for a scanner in another market.
Regrettably neither of these are likely possibilities.
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