A technology that helps shorten lines at the grocery store, invented in Omaha, is catching fire and expanding across state lines.
It could forever change a routine visit to the grocery store.
The technology was tested at the Papillion Hy-Vee and has been so successful the company wants to install equipment in two Omaha stores, one in Council Bluffs and one in West Des Moines.
The founder's goal is to expand to 150 grocery stores nationwide.
"What you see here is the world's first smart indicator and what it's doing is detecting how many people, how many carts and how many items are in each line,” said Jacob Richards, founder of IndaFlow.
From an idea in 2013, to a big investment by a grocery store chain, IndaFlow Founder and Inventor Jacob Richards says it's been quite a ride.
"People didn't think that this would be something that would come to fruition,” Richards said. “What we really did was just stuck our heads down and said 'we're going to do this, if it works, great. If it doesn't, we know we tried."
The technology, Richards calls "Feloh," is a sensor system that helps shorten lines by using colors, green means that there are one or less customers in line, orange means there are three or more.
These subtle features are making big returns at the Papillion Hy-Vee, where Feloh has been tested since may.
"It's had an immense positive effect on managing traffic on the front lines,” said Assistant Manager Josh Brown. “It's helped out our front-end managers and has really sped up the process for our customers." 4
The technology is assembled from scratch at Richard's office where his crew is getting everything ready to install across four stores.
While the technology has had a big impact on the Papillion Hy-Vee, these customers say it's much more subtle to them.
"Maybe a little bit, but the easiness of it is nice,” said Shopper Brett Anders, Bellevue. “You don't have to do that you can kind of just ballpark like, yeah that line looks shorter."
“That would be super beneficial just so you know which line you can be in and out quicker and just on your way better,” said Shopper Samantha Johnson, Omaha."
Some of the changes being made from the technology you can see at the Papillion Hy-Vee, are sensors installed underneath registers that let cashiers know what's in the bottom of a cart to make sure items aren't missed.
