| Application 2 : Supermarket | ||
| All goods in a supermarket have barcodes
printed on them.
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When a customer pays for the goods, each item's barcode is passed over a laser
scanner built into the POS
(Point-of-Sale) terminal. This reads the bar code and
sends it to the main computer.
The computer stores a database containing information about all the products the supermarket sells. The computer sends the price and the description of the item back to the POS terminal. The price is added to the customer's bill. The price and the description are displayed on a small monitor. They also get printed onto the customer's receipt. The computer will also note that one of this item has been sold and will reduce the stock level on file. The computer always knows exactly how many of each item is in the supermarket. This is called automatic stock-taking. At the end of each day, the computer sends out requests for more of those items which are running low.
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This POS terminal has a hand-held wand, but most supermarkets use laser scanners ....
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| The customer can pay the bill using EFTPOS
(Electronic Fund Transfer at Point of Sale). A credit card (or debit
card) is swiped through a card reader to
read the customer's bank account details. These details and the amount
of the bill are sent through the telephone system to the bank's computer
system.
The correct amount of money is transferred by the computer system from the customer's account to the supermarket's account.
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| Some supermarkets offer a loyalty scheme. Each customer
has a Loyalty card which has a magnetic strip.
The card is swiped each time the customer
buys goods and 'points' are awarded. The customer can use these points
for discounts or vouchers.
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Loyalty schemes allow the supermarkets to analyse shopping trends etc | |
