Friday, December 30, 2005
EasyPay a "Big Success" at Apple Retail Stores
Posted by Jeremy Charette in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 01:00 PM
"After running a pilot program at its retail stores this past holiday shopping season, Apple Computer has deemed its EasyPay checkout systems a "big success" and plans to further integrate the devices into its retail experience, according to an online report. The iPod maker began deploying the wireless, paperless credit card scanners at its retail stores earlier this year as part of its iPod Express checkout experience. Apple Geniuses equipped with an EasyPay system can process purchases from customers anywhere on the showroom floor -- effectively bringing the checkout counter to the customer rather than the other way around. EasyPay is a paperless process, where customers provide a credit card and an email address to an Apple store Genius or employee when checking out. The customer's card is swiped through a scanner -- attached to a Symbol Technologies PPT8800 wireless handheld device (photo) -- and an email receipt is dispatched and delivered "within an hour.""
I was shopping at the Apple store in SoHo the Sunday before Christmas, and was saved by this brilliant idea. The lines were unbelievable, 50-100 people deep at each register. The store was so packed it was hard to move. As visions of the hour hand on the clock spinning past darted across my brain, a Genius in a red shirt taps me on the shoulder. "What are you buying?" Next he pulls me out of line and off to the corner, scans all my items, zips my credit card, asks for my email address, and tells me the receipt should be in my inbox. Like Santa Claus, he disappeared back to the checkout line faster than I could say "Thank you!", laughing "ho ho ho, a Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!". (Okay, so I made that last part up.)
I was shopping at the Apple store in SoHo the Sunday before Christmas, and was saved by this brilliant idea. The lines were unbelievable, 50-100 people deep at each register. The store was so packed it was hard to move. As visions of the hour hand on the clock spinning past darted across my brain, a Genius in a red shirt taps me on the shoulder. "What are you buying?" Next he pulls me out of line and off to the corner, scans all my items, zips my credit card, asks for my email address, and tells me the receipt should be in my inbox. Like Santa Claus, he disappeared back to the checkout line faster than I could say "Thank you!", laughing "ho ho ho, a Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!". (Okay, so I made that last part up.)
