And the security curitain gets a little thinner
From the New York Times
Ann Marie Diogo has been a waitress for 18 years. So she was skeptical when her boss at the Royal Mile Pub in Wheaton, Md., recently replaced her paper order pad with a Toshiba palm computer that can wirelessly send her customers' orders directly to the kitchen.

"I was panicking," Ms. Diogo said. "I'm not that computer savvy." But when her faster service resulted in larger tips, she was won over. "There's no way I'd like to go back to pen and paper," she said.

Better still, said the pub's owner, Ray Morrison, who can monitor all the tables and even send complimentary drinks remotely from his Toshiba, errors in the kitchen are down and profits are up about 15 percent since the Royal Mile converted early this year to its wireless system, which is based on the increasingly popular Wi-Fi format.

The pub is hardly alone in bringing Wi-Fi to the sales floor. Wi-Fi may be more celebrated as a means of logging into the Internet without cables. But the fast-dropping price of Wi-Fi, technically known as the 802.11 format, and its ability to convey a large volume of digital data wirelessly over short distances have made it possible for various businesses to improve sales and profits, while better serving customers face to face.

The business world, of course, has long used wireless technology to track inventory and speed shipping. But often, such networks used proprietary technology that could be expensive and only sometimes reliable. Compared with many older systems, standardized Wi-Fi technology, which can broadcast data about 500 times faster than a cellphone, is exceedingly stable, if only because as it becomes more common, feedback from its many users has led to continual improvements.

And the high volume of production, driven by popular demand, has pushed the price down to less than $100 for the local network routers at the heart of the systems and less than $100 for the wireless circuit card that connects a device, like a palm or laptop computer, to the network.

"Last year under 20 percent of the laptops had Wi-Fi built in; this year it's 40 percent," said Brian Grimm, a spokesman for the Wi-Fi Alliance, a trade association.

Operators of stadiums, casinos, groceries, hospitals and department stores are among those who have recognized the value of bringing wireless technology out of the storeroom and into the store.

Stop & Shop, the 336-store grocery chain based in Boston, had used specialized wireless hand-held devices to track inventory for more than a decade. But in April the company put an 802.11 network in shoppers' carts through a portable device called the Shopping Buddy. The device lets customers perform feats like order a pound of pastrami from the deli counter while wheeling through the canned-goods aisle, and then alerts them when the order is ready.

Shopping Buddy also has a location device to guide customers to hard-to-find items, and a bar code scanner that keeps tabs on purchases for budgeting and to let shoppers zoom through a self-checkout lane. Using a Shopping Buddy involves running the customer's Stop & Shop loyalty card through the built-in magnetic stripe reader.

"It knows who you are. It knows what you buy when you are usually there," said Mira Genser, a spokeswoman for Cuesol of Quincy, Mass., which designed the Shopping Buddy's software.

Nordstrom, an avatar of customer service, is installing a wireless network and stationary terminals that can replace the sales staff's "personal books," notepads that sales associates use to write down personal information about regular customers, like clothing sizes and favorite brands. "If there is a Donna Karan trunk show, we can suggest the top 10 clients for the sales associate to call," said Al Falcione, the senior product marketing manager for Blue Martini Software, which designed the Nordstrom system. Although Nordstrom is not initially giving its staff hand-held devices that are tied to the system, the system can accommodate them, Mr. Falcione said. The devices would allow the staff to locate an orange polo shirt in size XXL in any Nordstrom store, right from the sales floor.

The casino and hotel operator Harrah's Entertainment of Las Vegas has tested several uses of Wi-Fi at its properties. Curbside check-in lets high rollers bypass the hotel registration desk and shortens lines for all guests. The hand-held terminal can also direct a host to dole out perks on the spot, checking information on specific guests to see if their past business warrants a free meal or show or even a free room, said Tim Stanley, Harrah's chief information officer.

Harrah's has also experimented with using roving cashiers, who tote hand-held terminals to verify player winnings and make payments on the casino floor, so the customers can keep gambling when they would otherwise be standing in line at the payout window. A small portable printer even spits out federal tax forms at tableside. "It keeps them in the action longer, frankly," Mr. Stanley said.

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