to hurry up slow check-out staff or possibly when there is no-one in the store and they are bored silly with fluffing up a pile of carrier bags - link up pairs of scanners so that the staff can play the classic Pong game.
one cashier scans a loaf of bread and ping! his colleague scans a roll-on deodorant and pong! first cashier counters with a bottle of wine - ping! second cashier misses the scan with a tin of peas and GAME OVER!-- po, Dec 16 2003 Supermarket Tetris http://www.halfbake...upermarket_20TetrisSo saith the Fish. [waugsqueke, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] (?) more check-out games http://www.boreders...le.php?article=game [po, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] bing bing bing bing "Barbara, button mushrooms won't scan .... BABS!"-- jonthegeologist, Dec 16 2003 As an automaton in the checkout I view this as cruel and unusual punishment.-- k_sra, Dec 16 2003 have you never played Pong?-- po, Dec 16 2003 were do they watch the screen to time their scans?-- luecke, Dec 16 2003 the pong game is visible on the scanner screen. they get a bit of a rhythm going. ping, pong, ping, pong, ping pong...the customer will have to keep up with their packing though. I envisage some check-out rage with cashiers yelling at customers who are slow!-- po, Dec 16 2003 What if you get a customer who’s buying a lot of vegetables and other non-scannable items?-- AO, Dec 16 2003 you go to a non-playing check-out - 100 yards thatta way >>>>>
actually, non-scanning items would add to the angst - I like it! this idea is growing on me!-- po, Dec 16 2003 This is something great, [po] ... add this scene in a movie or something ... or have dragraces ... start with a carts with an equal amount of groceries and the first one to finnish advances to the next round ... then becomes employee of the month-- Letsbuildafort, Dec 16 2003 How do you miss?-- waugsqueke, Dec 16 2003 By letting an item through unscanned.-- Letsbuildafort, Dec 16 2003 I don't get it either, half. You're as dense as I am.
Then again I don't get a lot of po's stuff lately, so who knows what's up with that.
I do think that tetris remains the supermarket game of choice, however.-- waugsqueke, Dec 16 2003 tetris is for the shopper organising his/her shopping. pong is for the check-out person.
each check-out person sees the entire game on the scanner screen and is playing against his/her colleague on the next till. each scan is a swipe of the bat. if the item scanned fails for whatever reason then its a miss. whats so hard to understand?
waugs, you are certainly not dense just a bit slow these days :)
although to be fair, I had this very clear visual of the game and failed to explain it thoroughly, sorry!-- po, Dec 17 2003 waugs knows a miss when he sees one.-- po, Dec 17 2003 And he sees one often...-- k_sra, Dec 17 2003 How can anyone vote against PONG?-- The Kat, Dec 18 2003 Supermarket scanners do collect data on how fast their users use them, allowing the supemarket to weed out the slow check-out staff in the first place. Theoretically, at least.
Besides, supermarket pong ought to involve shopping carts in some way.-- DrCurry, Dec 18 2003 i have actually baked this idea with some friends i worked with. the idea was to keep up with the person next to you, having to scan an item right after them and to not miss your turn, if they got two scans before you got one, then you lost, and they got a point. I am not sure if that is what pong is, but that is what we played. it was quite fun. i had a good laugh thinking back, thanks [po]!!-- babyhawk, Dec 18 2003 Unexpected item in the bagging area !-- popbottle, Aug 10 2015 I like this idea! I would help my checkout lass or lad by lining up my messages in easy-to grab order and correct orientation!-- pocmloc, Aug 11 2015 5p for a flimsy bag!?-- po, Oct 16 2015 [po]1-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 16 2015 [po] original.-- po, Oct 16 2015 random, halfbakery