Dead simple screen at Whole Foods that works

April 13, 2007 by Dave Haynes

I was in New York yesterday and walked to the office from Penn Station, dipping into the Whole Foods in Chelsea to grab something to munch on.

Like a lot of things in New York, this store is squeezed into an older commercial building and the store layout is a little weird. Instead of a long side by each row of cash lanes by the front, there was a narrow chute of them at the side. Customers got into a single line, and waited for one of the active cashier stations to open up.

Up above and a little ahead of that line, a wide-screen LCD with three simple food icons. When a cash stand opened up, the screen flashed the number and off the next person went.

Really simple. But really useful.

The one thing I’d maybe do different is use a bigger screen, and use all that staring at the screen time to communicate with customers about the store. At that point it is too late to influence buying, but it could be just the right time to get key messages out to those shoppers.

It may be unique to this location or a handful of downtown stores, but I liked it.