On 8/30/2015 11:56 AM, Uncle Monster wrote:
On Saturday, August 29, 2015 at 9:47:04 PM UTC-5, Don Y wrote:

It's a bit harder to do now with "scanners" and the lack of "price tags".
But, I can sort it out *as* I am putting items in the basket. Still don't
have the taxable/nontaxable thing sorted out so I'm always within a few
percent (lower) than the actual bill. Helpful if the total announced by
the cashier is *more* than that few percent off! ("We'd best check the
receipt carefully...")

Isn't there an app for smartphones that can read barcodes? If the seller
would allow customer smartphones to access a database of barcodes and
prices, the customer would know how much money they'll be spending in
realtime. I could see the smartphone accessing the Internet to get coupons
for the items just scanned. The future is here. ^_^

I've not found an "authoritative" UPC database anywhere that's
publicly accessible (i.e., "free"). And, that would just give you a
(terribly crude) description of the product. The store would still
have to maintain a publicly accessible mapping of those descriptions
or UPC codes to their *current* pricing.

I have a device (portable barcode scanner with speech synthesizer and
integrated database) that is used for blind folks to identify items
that they've purchased, etc. (get home, unload bags... all the cans
FEEL the same! :-/ )

I'm not sure this would be a wise move; competitors could *easily*
see how your current prices were structured -- instead of having to
"acquire" that information through other "public" means.

Also, I don't think the seller would want you to realize that your basket
NOW has $263 worth of stuff in it -- you'd be inclined to stop ADDING
to it or, perhaps, "unselect" the last item that you added. It's rare
that someone will look at their total and think, "Gee, I need to *add*
one more item... (to reach that $100 mark)"