The shopper begins by choosing a "special requirements" option on the start screen. They are then presented with a list of popular options such as "halal", "kosher", "nut allergy", "gluten intolerance", "vegan", "fair trade" or the option simply to exclude certain characteristics or ingredients from the items they are attempting to buy. Then they scan the items as normal. If an item is, for example, non-veggie or may contain nuts, the display flashes a prominent warning and sounds a distinctive alarm, and the customer is invited to slide the item down a chute into a sealed box, which is later removed by the staff and returned to the shelves. The other items can be purchased as normal.
-- nineteenthly, May 09 2015

Not bad, but presumably the shopper would want to go back to the shelves and find vegetarian/alcohol- free/nut-free version of the same product?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 09 2015


There's an app called BuyCott that kinda does that. You tell it what you don't like (GMO, specific companies, etc.), and it offers a barcode scanning option telling you who's behind the product, alerting you to problems wrt your prefs, etc.
-- slater, May 09 2015


I like this. It would help me on my never ending journey to exclude things from my diet. +, gluten free of course
-- blissmiss, May 09 2015


My understanding is that most of the gluten used by supermarkets in the UK is free-range.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 09 2015


On the right track, but really to be halfbaked, do it with augmented reality. Your preferences are coded on your loyalty card that you swipe on arrival, don your bluetooth Oculus Rift device and wander the store, confident that items in the store will be obscured from view, or highlighted, perhaps by talking animals, in accordance with your "special needs".
-- tatterdemalion, May 09 2015


Can someone direct me to the breatharian aisle?
-- RayfordSteele, May 10 2015



random, halfbakery