Journal
Field notes, not essays about ‘the future of retail’.
Each piece starts from a counter or a live cart we were paid to look at. Names of chains are withheld unless the owner asked us to write them in.
The tap logo that faced the cashier, not the queue
In a Shah Alam fashion floor, shoppers kept rotating the PIN pad because the contactless mark sat on the operator’s side. A two-minute turn of the cradle shortened the tender more than a new terminal would have.
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Receipt printers that keep the next shopper in the aisle
A pharmacy till in Petaling Jaya finished the card tap quickly, then waited on a printer that chewed the first centimetre of paper. The queue did not care that the payment had already cleared.
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When DuitNow QR and card share one crowded last screen
An apparel app we reviewed listed seven tenders on a single scroll, with DuitNow QR above a card form that still asked for the same billing postcode. Shoppers in Kajang told the floor they ‘gave up at pay’.
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Saturday notes from a grocer queue in Shah Alam
Between eleven and one, most of the wait sat before the first scan, not in the PIN. The line folded into the rice bay, which made the till look emptier than it was from the door.
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