NU 12#3 - Shopper's Assistant by Rhea G. Jardin

                Having a big family of four kids, it has been part of my routine to visit the grocery store at least thrice a month. I normally explore in different grocery stores in order to get the best value for my money and to eventually save more. Although I'm already quite familiar with the location of most of the products that I usually buy, I still get lost at the store sometimes. Another thing that I find it hard in the grocery store is the long queue in the counter particularly during paydays.

                With these scenarios, a shopper's assistant could be useful for consumers especially the busy working mothers like me. The shopper's assistant is a device that will be attached to every grocery cart. It is a scanner device with a GPS that serves as a locator of the products that you need to buy and at the same time the exact location of the customer in the grocery store.  

                What the customer needs to do is to scan every item that she buys using the device. The device will not only show the price of the product but will also include the item in the customer's shopping list. The customer could check her running bill or balance anytime during the course of her shopping. This would help the customer in budgeting their grocery needs. The device is connected to the main frame of the store and all information is stored on the memory for easy validation during checkout. A huge scanner is situated at the checkout in order to do a final scanning of all the grocery items simultaneously to detect if there are items that are left unscanned by the customer. This procedure could lessen the long queue in the counter since all data are already stored in the system and the only thing to do is to pay the final bill.

                Another function of the shopper's assistant would be to help the customer know the exact location of a particular product that she needs. This would be very useful for people who are always in hurry and needs to do the shopping at a lesser time.  Additionally, this would avoid unnecessary items that could be bought by the customers while roaming around the whole grocery area.

                The shopper's assistant will also tell the customer her exact location in the grocery store. This would be very useful in the event that the customer decides to checkout and would want to know the easiest route to the counter. It is also helpful in finding your way out in emergency situations like fire or commotion. 3