Retail Solutions - Co-op to test fingerprint strategy

Multi-format grocer, Oxford, Swindon and Gloucester Co-op, will kick off a fingerprint scanning trial at one of its convenience stores in Oxford next month.

The fingerprint scanning facility is part of the retailer's self-checking out strategy, and will be used to verify that customers attempting to buy controlled products - such as cigarettes or alcohol - are old enough to do so.

Oxford, Swindon and Glou-cester Co-op group general manager for retail Bill Laird has stressed that the scheme will be voluntary, and that customers of the store - at Summertown, Oxford - will be invited to register their fingerprint.

Laird expects the service to improve transaction times at the store. 'Summertown is an affluent suburb with a high student population, in a town that has more self-scanning tills than any other in the UK. This scheme will speed up the transaction process at the till, making it even more convenient for customers and taking an unnecessary pressure off staff to demand age verification.'

Laird believes the age verification scheme will be useful on manned tills too.

'Age verification has a huge implication in retail, not just in self-scanning. Any retailer can easily fall foul of unauthorised sale of products with age restrictions, and this is a neat way of fixing it.'

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