Super Gimmicks

In a glass and marble building just outside Philadelphia last week, the Baltimore Markets chain (25 stores) opened what it called "the world's largest supermarket." Inside the $1,000,000 air-conditioned building were such customer come-ons as a television lounge, haberdashery, glass-enclosed bakery, luncheonette and a fancy "cosmetics bar."

But it was at the check-out counters that customers got their pleasantest surprise. As they filed past the bank of 18 cash registers, their purchases were put on a soo-ft. conveyor belt leading underground to the five-acre parking lot outside. Car owners simply drove to the belt unloading point, presented their numbered sales slips, and had their purchases loaded into their cars. The new supermarket's first four-day total: 170,000 customers, more than $200,000 in sales.

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Other supermerchants were trying out new tricks:

>In Houston, the newest Weingarten supermarket had a miniature corral well stocked with comic books to entertain moppets while their mothers shopped.

>In Eugene, Ore., the Big Y store installed four "Rest-a-Checks" at the checkout stations so that customers could take it easy while waiting to pay bills. The Rest-a-Check is a circular turntable divided into three sections, each with a foam-rubber seat big enough to hold three people. When the check-out clerk is ready, he presses a lever which rotates the seats in merry-go-round fashion; the customer pays sitting down.

>In Chicago suburbs, the Jewel Food Stores were speeding customers past the check-out counters with teams of five girls: the first girl calls out the price of each item into a microphone as she places it on a conveyor belt; the second picks up the information on earphones and tots up the total order; the third makes change; the other two pick up the goods at the end of the conveyor belt and pack them.

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