East Earl Township is in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, popular with tourists for its rural charm, Amish crafts and nostalgia of a simpler time. It's also home to Shady Maple Farm Market, a family-owned independent grocer, where the recent addition of self-checkout lanes may be a sign that self-service technology is becoming as natural to Americans as baseball, apple pie and the ATM.
In its 40 years, Shady Maple has grown from a roadside produce stand to a super-sized grocery store/restaurant that prides itself on a high level of customer service. In a small market where there is another successful independent, as well as a Wal-Mart, Shady Maple continues to grow and is often crowded, with long checkout lines.
"You can't hardly find a place to park in there," said Charles Kelly, a 76-year-old weekly patron of the store. "From the time the door opens, people are there. It's really a tremendous business in there."
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Shady Maple was two years away from a planned expansion, which was to include four self-checkout lanes. But Kevin Porsche, the store's director of IT, said they were so impressed with the proposal made by software company Retalix, they decided to move ahead with self-checkout more quickly.
Porsche went to Philadelphia to see the product in action and liked what he saw. Aggressive pricing and a projected 10 to 15 month return on investment convinced him and his management team to speed up deployment of the units, Fujitsu's U-Scan Version 5, and by late August, four lanes were up and running.
Prior to the installation, there was fear that self-checkout might undermine Shady Maple's customer service orientation, but with the launch behind them, those fears have been largely allayed.
Initially, the four units were targeted to handle 20 percent of the store's volume, a goal that came with interesting challenges. Thirty-two percent of the local population is more than 45 years old, a demographic that is often resistant to new technologies. In addition, nearly 25 percent of Shady Maple's business comes from the Amish community, noted for their resistance to using modern technology.
Shady Maple promoted the new lanes vigorously, with brochures, bag stuffers, billboards, and a giant LED sign in their parking lot. They also added additional attendants during the launch to offer friendly guidance.
The launch had its wrinkles, but the problems were minor, and Porsche said some of the best feedback has come from older shoppers, many of whom come from larger east cost cities and are used to self-checkout. One older gentleman from Long Island told Porsche, "I don't like the ones up there. I love the way you guys are set up down here. You've got enough space. They're easy to use. You've got a good thing in there."
Locals were mixed on the new lanes.
Charles Kelly said that he thought self-checkout was a good idea. He hadn't used the lanes but planned on it. "I think I will because it'll go a lot faster once people get used to it."
Elizabeth Miller, who gave her age as "older than 55," was aware of the self-checkout lanes, but didn't plan on using them. "That would make me too nervous," she said. "I like somebody to check it out."
Richard Adams, who didn't give his age, said that he thought the lines were a good idea as long as there is an alternative. He prefers human interaction and said that he and his wife "always go through where the people are because generally there's a bagger and, you know, you can talk to the person. It's more of a personal thing. It's not all computerized."
As for the Amish, Porsche wasn't too worried about their adoption of the self-checkout lanes because there was an alternative. But many in the Amish community have adopted the speedier self-checkout lanes of their own accord. "They'll go ahead and hit ‘start' and start scanning the stuff," Porsche said. "It's surprising how many of them have used them that I've seen coming through here."
Porsche said that it takes about six transactions for customers to become comfortable with the equipment, and during the next few months, the store will have additional staff available to help customers who appear to be struggling.
"We're hoping we can make the transition smooth for the customer, so when they come back, they'll continue to use it over and over again," Porsche said.
