i hate it when i go to buy something and find that the shelf is empty, then ask and find that they have an overabundance of the product out back, but have not restocked. So my idea is shelves that alert the stock-room as soon as a product is sold out. this would work by having just a few light sensors on the shelf which can detect when they are uncovered, meaning that there are no products left to cover them. this could be relatively inexpensive as far as the electronic components, the real cost is in replacing or installing the system in an existing store, but could be easily done in a new store. this would allow the stock-room to instantly see if an item is out of stock, and re-stock in less than 15 minutes. the store will never lose sales simply because the product is not on the floor, customers will not have to ask associates to chek the back room, which frees up the associats needed for the constant restocking, everyone benefits.
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I imagine a coordinated bar code reader system would register when shelves need restocking as the item passes the cash register.
Good point, Sand.
All of the stores I shop at have bar code readers. I'm certain reordering occurs when the supply runs down to a certain point. The store probably leaves the old stock on the shelves until gone so any time sensitive items are rotated out before restocking fresh items. (That's probably why there is an "overabundance of stock out back" to begin with. . . )
A sensor on the shelves would be too easily fooled by gremlins moving stuff from nearby to cover the sensor or moving items off the sensor to get the stockboy to run around the store trying to restock full shelves.