Merchandise Pre-Scanner Assigned to Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart stands to benefit from this week’s INOV8 Arkansas Patent of the Week. Some Arkansas innovation will fuel Arkansas’ own retail giant once Wal-Mart begins implementing the device that will pre-scan customers’ merchandise in their shopping cart while they wait in the check-out line.

The device was patented on August 18 by Dung Nguyen and Aime Rodriguez, both of Rogers. Wal-Mart is the assignee.

Patent No. 7575161:

1. A mobile pre-scanning station, comprising:

a frame;

a bag support mounted to the frame for holding an open bag for receiving pre-scanned items; and

a platform mounted to the frame and positioned under the bag support for providing a supporting surface under items contained in the open bag held by the bag support,

the frame further providing a mount for mounting an electronic article surveillance tag deactivator proximate to the open bag, the deactivator being used to deactivate electronic article surveillance tags on pre-scanned items before the items are placed in the open bag,

the mobile pre-scanning station having wheels and a footprint of approximately 13 inches by 16 inches or smaller, the wheels and the footprint of the station allowing the station to be readily rolled among customer shopping carts in a retail checkout line by a store employee performing a pre-scanning function.

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