Bear with me on this one, it is technology related, but first some details.

I fairly regularly grocery shop at Walmart, mostly because it averages at least $50.00 a week less than Shaws. For that added savings I put up with some annoyances. Mostly the fact that Walmart's fruits and veggies suck. Recently my local Amherst Walmart has undergone a makeover. Gone is the blue and grey exterior and instead it is a tan. Inside they've been busy moving things around. One of the things they moved is the diapers. As a father of a 2 1/2 year old who is starting potty training I'm still interested in where the diapers are. Apparently my Walmart has decided that pullup type diapers are no longer necessary to stock. I have no idea what their reasoning is, but it's done. Now I have a choice: either use something they have or go somewhere else.

The thing is, going somewhere else is going to cost me a lot of time and time is so very precious these days. I'd easily pay more than $50/week in order to save that hour extra spent doing something I hate, but is necessary. Add into that the fact that I have to go to Shaws (or my wife does) a lot anyway because Walmart is out of whatever fruit / veggie I want and that $50 savings is looking less and less attractive.

Here's the technology part of this rant. As part of the change Walmart installed new checkout lanes. The lanes are larger than the others and so it is almost impossible to pass two carts between the checkout isles. This is an issue because they have staggered the islands. If you've ever been to Walmart you know what I mean about staggered islands. Other changes include a new "lazy susan" that they bag your groceries into. They took away the rectangular area groceries were bagged in and replaced it with a triangular spinning platform that has 2 bag holders on each side. I'm not sure exactly but I believe that before they had 2 maybe 3 bag holders, now they have six so it is faster right?

I can hear some C level executive telling the board how much better this is. This exec probably never actually shops at Walmart, has never stood in line and been told "it will be a few minutes I don't have any bags" [ All holders had bags, but apparently not enough ], and is pleased with the new more efficient layout [It took longer to checkout with the new system by the way]. Whoever tested this never bought anything larger than a jug of milk. If they had they would have noticed that the cashier no longer has a place to put large items. Instead they go on the triangle, where if they spin it too fast, the item falls off.

The other side effect is that the customer is now responsible for pulling the groceries off the bag holders and putting them into the cart. I'm guessing that is just an added "benefit" for Walmart and not really planned. Looking around the store every single person I could see was doing their own moving of groceries so it wasn't as if I was the only person who came to the same conclusion.

Now in addition to all this they replaced the digital printout screens, which were maybe 4" x 6", that shows the item and price with a single cardswipe and display. You know those tiny little debit card readers they have everywhere these days. Well at my Walmart as items are rung up they are displayed in a list of about 4 items in the reader. That means if you wanted to watch the prices you would have to stand directly in front of the thing and (provided you have good enough vision) watch it closely; no watching your kids and glancing over. I see all kinds of benefits for Walmart here. What about that old price thing where if the price is wrong you get it free [do they still do that?]. It certainly is hard to verify an incorrect price if you can't even see the price isn't it? What kind of usability study went on for these things? How come they keep making the card readers "better" instead of getting a better cash register so that it doesn't take the cashier 4 minutes to look up the code for Yellow Bell Peppers?

The end result is that Walmart exceeded my annoyance threshold. You can annoy me, you can delay me, but you can't do both. Now Walmart has done both and for that I'm done. I'll pay more at Shaw's but at least I can read the damn prices as they ring them up and I don't have to fight to get out of checkout isle once I'm done. I can get my kids diapers, some decent fruit and veggies and still have time left to play a little ball in the yard with my son.