Scanning at St Helens Co‐op: The first Hugin NSC Datachecker system in Europe

Abstract

St Helens Co‐operative Society has an annual turnover of more than £21m, although its geographical base consists of a relatively small area of 20 sq miles extending from St Helens at the hub to the western edge of Liverpool and north to include the new town of Skelmersdale and the market town of Ormskirk. The society includes 20 food shops, two supermarkets, and a department store in St Helens town centre with around 80,000 sq ft of selling area. More importantly, from the point of view of this paper, the society also runs two superstores — one at Boundary Road (opened late 1979), and the other at Newton (opened autumn 1983). It is the Boundary Road unit which forms the theme of this paper, first delivered by Ron Wilson at EPoS 83 in September. It has the unique distinction of being the site of the first Hugin NSC Datachecker installation in Europe — to be closely followed by the Newton superstore (not discussed here). The Boundary Road unit is around 40,000 sq ft of which 28,000 is sales area; of this some 18,000 sq ft is food, and the remaining non‐food merchandise includes clothing, hardware, footwear and ERT. Ron Wilson's paper is of particular interest since his society's decision to “go scanning” arose from what he heard as a delegate at EPoS 82. He was already interested in scanning and trying to decide whether the alleged benefits were attainable in reality, and if so when would be the right time to take the plunge. It was as a result of what he saw, heard, and discussed with other reatailers at EPoS 82 that convinced him of the Tightness of the decision. Above all else it was a remarkably speedy operation; the idea was conceived in September 1982; in May the society went live with scanning. This paper outlines the problems that had to be considered, describes the search for the most appropriate system, and lists the benefits so far realised.

Citation

Wilson, R. (1984), "Scanning at St Helens Co‐op: The first Hugin NSC Datachecker system in Europe", Retail and Distribution Management, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 31-35. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb018215