I might be a little behind on these new-fangled digital price tags. When we got engaged, I put Whole Foods, aka Whole Paycheck, on a ban while we saved money for our wedding. We got engaged in November 2009 and we got married in February 2011, so that was quite a long time to not step foot in the store.
Since we’ve been back from our wedding trip I’ve been to Whole Foods two times. I noticed that sometime during the ban they implemented digital price tags. So instead of printing up the paper sticker tags, they have these small computer readouts. When I first spotted these I was SO impressed. Saving ink! Saving paper! Saving trees! Cutting costs! Adjusting prices remotely, saving on manpower! All good things. But as I walked through the store on that first visit and one subsequent visit, I got to see the digital price tags in all their states and I’ve got to say…. I don’t like them!
I really do think this is the future and someday another generation wont remember when we actually used paper and ink for this…. BUT… these Whole Foods digital price tags are not quite there yet. The plastic screen on the readout is very reflective of light and they are so hard to read at angles. Imagine looking down at shelves of products with price tags, looking up above you, looking left and right trying to scan products. Terrible.
The actual price is in black on a dark green background. This sort of dated, digital readout (think of the calculator you used growing up) also makes it hard to read. And sometimes parts of numbers are missing, so you can’t figure out how much something is. On top of that, the digital price tags seem to be easily damaged. I’ve seen a few of these that just display blank. I don’t know if this is a data problem or a hardware problem, but when this happens, you just have no idea how much something costs.
Also, the one that says “out?” What does that mean? The shelf was full of product, so it can’t mean that the product was sold out. Finally, I assume that the electronic price tag prices can be changed on the fly, at the touch of a computer behind the scenes somewhere. But in practice, Whole Foods is still manually printing out sale prices and sticking them to the digital displays. Is this because the new price tags can only fit in maybe 4-5 character plus a decimal point? So a sale like 4 for $5 doesn’t fit? In any case, it kind of defeats the purpose a little.
I commend Whole Foods for being an early adapter of this technology, but I don’t think it’s working to the level that they need it to be. When shoppers can’t figure out how much your product is you have a system that simply is not working. I think this is probably technology in its infancy. Display black letters on a lighter screen background, use a screen that doesn’t reflect light (Kindle!), make sure your displays aren’t broken, allow for sales to be broadcast electronically…. then you’re talkin’!
