I'm a good little homescanner

As reported in this post back in April, I am an ACNielsen Consumer Panelist in a program known as homescan. You can go back and read my original post if you like but the idea is that they provided me with a bar code scanner, I scan all of my household purchases and transmit results to them weekly along with the occasional survey. In return they provide me with points that I can redeem for gifts. Yesterday I was informed that my diligence over the past 6 months has paid off and my membership status has been changed to 'Silver'. This means more points! and this handy shopping bag. I love it when a plan comes together!

Personal scanners coming to grocery stores

Available in Europe for some time now, personal scanners are making their way into North American grocery stores. The devices allow the shopper to scan bar codes as they shop, keeps a running total of how much is in the cart and allowing for a quicker departure from the store, as there is no need to wait in line to be checked out. Depending on the systems manufacturer, the shopper either scans, pays, and is randomly audited upon departure, or in the more sophisticated systems the items are accounted for as they enter the cart. The stores who have employed the systems say that they are not taking the place of human cashiers but rather the systems allow them to put the employees in other areas of the store to provide better customer service. I like the idea of the technology and the time savings that it offers. I'm sure that most people will find the running total idea handy as well, but that little feature will take all the fun out of grocery shopping for my sons and I... we try to guess our total within the nearest dollar. This is a little game that I established with them when they were young in an attempt to keep them busy and, I hope, gives them some appreciation for what food costs the family. CNN has the story here.

Barcodes everywhere!

A few years ago I was enticed into joining a program by AC Nielsen called Homescan, it's basically a big brother kinda thing where you provide them with details of your household purchases in return for points which can be redeemed for rewards. Their website states "Once we receive your household information, you will be placed on a Reserve Status Waiting List. Homescan will then randomly select households to join the panel. This ensures that the panel truly reflects the country's diverse population." Along time passed, must have been 18 months, but I finally was accepted into the fold. I'm all about reward programs and really could care less about who knows how much peanut butter I buy or what kind of magazines I read, besides they give you a bar code scanner! Apparently ours is one of 270,000 homes in 27 countries around the world that is participating.

The rechargeable scanner connects to your PC via USB or serial connection. You download a list of retailers for your area and scan each purchase you make. Some retailers provide AC Nielsen with price data so you are not required to enter prices while others do not which makes the scanning process a little slow and tedious. Thankfully the grocery store that I shop at does and that's where the bulk of my purchases are anyway. The scanning is a bit time consuming and I sometimes forget but once you get used to it and get in the habit it's not that difficult. From time to time they send surveys in the mail and I must say that scanning surveys is much easier and I definitely respond better to these than those annoying phone surveys. I've not yet earned enough points to get any of the interesting rewards but I'll continue to scan until I have. If you are a coupon clipper or participate in rewards programs Homescan might just be for you. Check them out, but be patient...