| Title |
RFID Makes Ordering and Paying for Pizza Easy As Pie |
| Date |
2007-05-22
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hit |
4,312 |
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A Florida pizzeria is using RFID so customers can pay for their pies at a self-service kiosk, and the restaurant can keep better tabs on orders.
By Claire Swedberg
May 16, 2007—Diners at City Pizza in West Palm Beach, Fla., no longer need to linger until the wait staff drops off the check once they've finished eating. Instead, they can wave an RFID-enabled card at a self-service kiosk, then pay with a credit card. The technology is also helping the restaurant monitor orders by requiring employees to log into the point-of-sale (POS) system using RFID-enabled wristbands.
The RFID system, made by SoftTouch, was installed a month ago and has already proven its benefits, according to City Pizza owner Larry Jacobi. Not only has it reduced internal theft, but it also enables customers to leave whenever they choose. Employees cannot input an order until they log into the system with their assigned wristbands, each of which has an RFID tag encoded with a unique ID number associated with that specific worker's name. Thus, they can no longer give away free food, and customers don't have to hand over their credit cards to strangers to pay for meals. Instead, they can pay themselves at the kiosk.
SoftTouch's RFID module adds RFID capability to the software company's SoftTouch POS system already in use at 1,000 retail locations, says SoftTouch president Mike Paycher. The new module has been deployed at City Pizza and other locations, and includes the self-service kiosk and an RFID interrogator that can be connected to the existing SoftTouch POS system. The module also includes RFID-enabled cards, key fobs and wristbands containing passive 125 kHz tags compliant with the ISO 11784 standard. The key fob system is designed for loyalty programs that document what customers order over time, allowing them to accumulate credits they later can redeem for free merchandise. City Pizza is not yet using the loyalty key fob, Jacobi says, but may consider it sometime in the future.
Full Story:
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/3317/1/1/ |
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