I was in a Publix, or maybe it was a Harris Teeter grocery store a few months ago. If it was Publix, I was looking for some Roadrunner Raspberry ice cream and I found a store manager who was busy changing out product labels. My search for ice cream was briefly interrupted by a discussion of how much time, and effort was spent by store clerks in changing out these pricing labels. I think I have a picture of one of these electronic labels that I saw somewhere (not necessarily a grocery store). Now that I look at the label, and the boxes of “Matzo Ball & Soup Mix” that it represents, I was in some grocery store.
I was in LIDL today and finally noticed all their Electronic Shelf Labels. There was an electronic label laying on a display for Mrs. Field’s cookies. I flipped it over and took a picture of the label so that I could try to determine the company and what the name for this specific label might be. (Solum and Newton).
I thought they were just putting these out, but when I asked the check out girl, she said they had had these labels for about 4 months. How did I not “see” these labels? I took several photos of their labels and later did a google search and the company (industry leader) is probably Solum. Oh my! You can use up to 7 different primary colors, and even display things like QR codes, or make these labels interactive. Apparently, the customer can place an order and pay at the label. (I think I got that right.)
Apparently the Newton System requires at least one Gateway (at about $300 per gateway) which uses 2.4 GHz proprietary wireless protocol to communicate with the ESL. The ESL’s in bulk cost from $5 – $10 per ESL, but you can buy a 20 pack of ESLs for about $17 each. There is also a $500 annual fee for setup and software maintenance.
There are less expensive alternatives, which do not use wireless connections. The gateway-free, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth e-ink display options that you can use without expensive infrastructure or recurring fees. LilyGo, Waveshare, Inkplate and M5Paper are possible options.
If I’ve already suggested this elsewhere, sorry. You can actually display a bar code or QR code on one of the ESLs and that would allow someone to scan the QR code and possibly go to a web site with further info.
NOTE: What if the wireless connection is blocked by hackers? Or, the connection is lost and all the labels go blank? What would a grocery like Publix do if all 25K labels suddenly went blank? Is that possible? I think I saw that the batteries for these labels will last two years. How much time would it take to change out the batteries in 25K worth of labels? [end NOTE]
Several years ago I had the idea of using QR codes to label storage boxes for home goods. One box might contain dental care products such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss, dental pics, etc. Another box might be hair care products including combs & brushes.
I printed out several large QR codes and placed them on the ends of these plastic storage “shoeboxes.” But shortly, I came to realize that the QR code means nothing to a human being who is looking for an item, and doesn’t want to have to pull out their phone to scan a QR code on each box to reference a web page with the info about what is stored in that specific box.
It would be productive to have both a QR code pointing to a specific web page that could be updated with copious amounts of info regarding the inventory of each box, but you also need to put the words on that same label: [ DENTAL HYGIENE: toothpaste – toothbrushes – floss – dental picks ].
I just had a mental image of some photos I took of these storage boxes with the various items in each box. I possibly could use an AI to look at each picture of the contents and then list those items for me, so that I could print a label with those items & QR code.
Not sure why I’ve been doing this with my phone and AI, but I’ve taken multiple photos of items in grocery stores, and then had the AI generate a text list of those items with their assigned prices. It works pretty well and quickly give a fairly accurate list (if the photo is not blurry or the items are not too far away from the camera. I’ve done the cheeses at a local IGA, and wines at the Publix, and I think I did spices at a Walmart across town. *And I seem to recall showing a librarian at the Library near Lillington that I could quickly take a photo of a row of books on a shelf and then it would generate a list with book titles and their Dewey Decimal Number (they use a different identifier now).
If you are taking pictures of a great many items, then you might take two pictures at slightly different angles. That way the AI can more accurately guess at things that aren’t completely clear, or may not be unviewable from one angle, or in shadow. AI does not handle blurry well. And it often can’t zoom in a detailed photo, even though we can. You have to make sure the text is clear and viewable for the AI to read it.
If I were wanting to track pricing for many store goods, this would be an easy way to take a photo of the shelves, and let the AI quickly generate a text list of the items and their prices, that could be pulled into a database easily. You could then have one person for each of the major groceries in your area walk through photographing the current inventory and then post to a single site with everything up to date for that day and maybe only a few hours old.
I uploaded the image of the cheese section to the AI and here is what it quickly generated:
Okay, this image is very clear! It’s a cheese aisle, predominantly shredded and block cheese. I can read most of the product names and prices.
Here’s the breakdown of the items and their prices:
Top Shelf (Partial View):
- Kraft Shredded Cheese (Various): Prices are $2.98 each.
- Borden Shredded Cheese: Price is $2.98.
Second Shelf from Top:
- Kraft Cream Cheese (Looks like Creamy Melt): Price is $2.58.
- Kraft Shredded Mild Cheddar: Price is $2.98.
- Kraft Shredded Colby Jack: Price is $2.98.
- Kraft Shredded Mozzarella: Price is $2.98.
- Signature Shredded Mozzarella & Monterey Jack Blend: Price is $2.58 (or 2 for $5.00).
- Signature Shredded Italian Blend: Price is $2.58 (or 2 for $5.00).
- Borden Thick Cut Ultimate Pizza Blend: Price is $2.98.
- Borden Mild Cheddar (Shredded, bottom right): Price $2.98.
Third Shelf from Top:
- Kraft Shredded Mozzarella: Price is $2.58.
- Kraft Shredded Mexican Blend: Price is $2.58.
- Kraft Shredded Mild Cheddar: Price is $2.58.
- Kraft Shredded Colby Jack: Price is $2.58.
- Signature Shredded Mozzarella & Monterey Jack Blend: Price is $2.58 (or 2 for $5.00).
- Signature Shredded Italian Blend: Price is $2.58 (or 2 for $5.00).
- Borden Thick Cut Ultimate Pizza Blend: Price is $2.98.
- Borden Mild Cheddar (Shredded, bottom right): Price $2.98.
Fourth Shelf from Top:
- Kraft Shredded Mozzarella: Price is $2.58.
- Kraft Shredded Sharp Cheddar: Price is $2.58.
- Kraft Shredded Mexican Style (looks like) or Triple Cheddar: Price is $2.58.
- Kraft Shredded Colby Jack: Price is $2.58.
- Signature Shredded American Blend: Price is $2.58 (or 2 for $5.00).
- Borden Shredded (Orange bag, likely Cheddar or Mexican): Price is $2.98.
- Borden Shredded (Yellow bag, likely Cheddar): Price is $2.98.
Bottom Shelf:
- Kraft Shredded Pizza Cheese: Price is $2.58.
- Kraft Shredded Sharp Cheddar: Price is $2.58.
- Kraft Shredded Cheddar Jack: Price is $2.58.
- Kraft Shredded Mild Cheddar: Price is $2.58.
- Signature Shredded Cheddar Blend: Price is $2.98.
- Borden Shredded Cheddar & Monterey Jack (2 for $6.00): Individual price is $3.35.
- Borden Shredded (Various): Prices are $2.98 or $3.35.
It appears many of the Kraft and Signature brand shredded cheeses are on sale for $2.58 each, or 2 for $5.00. The Borden products are generally priced at $2.98 or $3.35 (or 2 for $6.00).
Unfortunately for this test, I didn’t realize that ALL the cheese was basically on sale for the same price.
Bill Gibson, II 