The other day at the supermarket I was pleasantly surprised by the cash register at the local Niseko supermarket. I’m not sure if it’s new or not but it was definitely new to me. It was a combination of a vending machine and cash register at the same time.
Basically, you scan the items and the machine tallies up the bill. Usually you’d hand cash to the cashier and she’d open up the cash tray to give you your change right? Nope. At the supermarket the lady inserts the banknotes into the machine and it spits out exact change.
Fascinating and simple at the same time but not commonly seen (not in Thailand anyways). Here are some good things about it that I can quickly think of. First of all, this saves time. You don’t need to wait for the cashier to count your change. Secondly, it also prevents any mismatches at the end of the day. No human error. Thirdly, it’s safer. I’m not completely sure but I suspect the cash draw can’t be opened that easily so it would be harder to get cash stollen from. And lastly, I wonder if the machine scans for fake banknotes. If so it would be an all in one machine removing any possible problems that could have been caused by human error.
Although cash is being used less elsewhere in Japan it still prevails. Isn’t this cash register an awesome idea? Japanese inventions.
Having "Me" Time 