CS major Domenic Polidoro has remodeled an application that helps managers at ShopRite stores better resolve override issues at checkout. If you’ve ever been stuck in a checkout lane while the cashier calls for a manager to resolve an issue, you’ve experienced the process that Polidoro’s application is meant to streamline.
Polidoro (Class of 2017) has been employed at Wakefern Food Corporation, the company that manages ShopRite stores, for the past 10 months. In January, Domenic learned of the existing manager override system’s functionalities and began remodeling it. This system utilized graphical user interfaces (GUIs) on each checkout lane’s register, an application on the Android mobile platform, and a central server that all clients connected to.
The project had originally been outsourced to a third party company but Wakefern decided to pursue an in-house remodel of the program this year. This gave Polidoro and the design team more opportunities to take the users’ input (front-end managers) and design a system to their specifications.
Polidoro’s application, which is installed on an Android-based mobile device, enables managers to perform remote overrides and allows for more immediate and discrete communication between cashiers and managers, thus reducing customer wait time. The application also includes a logging component that collects data on the store’s day-to-day operations. This data can later be analyzed to find daily trends.
Polidoro gave a presentation to Wakefern executives in early October and his application was met with considerable interest. He will present the application a second time to additional departments and the President of Wakefern in February 2017. The application is currently being piloted in four New Jersey ShopRite locations and is expected to be deployed in stores in neighboring states in the near future.
Congratulations to Domenic on this achievement!