System for reducing waiting time

A method of reducing wait time of a customer in store with a plurality of queues, the method comprising:

• calculating a number of items in a shopping cart of a customer, wherein calculating the number of items in the shopping cart comprises operating an item counting device comprising a weigh sensor and a counter, wherein the counter increments by 1 in response to the weigh sensor detecting an increase in weight as an item is placed within the shopping cart to determine a real time number of items in the shopping cart, wherein calculating the number of items in the shopping cart comprises predicting a number of items in the cart in response operating a counting processor, wherein the counting processor receives real time data from the item counting device and receives historical cart size data stored in a memory of the system and outputs a number of items within the shopping cart, wherein the counting processor predicts the number of items in a cart using a linear regression model to account for the real time data and the historical cart size data, the historical cart size data formed by previously recorded data of scanned items in a plurality of carts at a plurality of checkout queues and stored in a database, wherein the prediction of the number of items in the cart minimizes error in the real time count of items;
• operating an efficiency analyzer to determine an efficiency of employees operating checkout queues;
• determining the customer's proximity to the plurality of queues;
• calculating a wait time for each of the operating checkout queues of the plurality of checkout queues, wherein calculating the wait time of each of the operating checkout queues comprises calculating a serving time that is a function of a number of carts in each operating checkout queue, a number of items in each cart in each operating checkout queue determined by the counting processor and the historical efficiency of the employee operating each operating checkout queue;
• and
• notifying the customer of the shortest wait time of a checkout queue of the operating checkout queues by sending the notice to a mobile computing device of the customer, wherein the shortest wait time is the operating checkout queue with the least serving time.

A method of reducing wait time of a customer in store with a plurality of queues, the method comprising:

• calculating a number of items in a shopping cart of a customer, wherein calculating the number of items in the shopping cart comprises operating an item counting device comprising a weigh sensor and a counter, wherein the counter increments by 1 in response to the weigh sensor detecting an increase in weight as an item is placed within the shopping cart to determine a real time number of items in the shopping cart, wherein calculating the number of items in the shopping cart comprises predicting a number of items in the cart in response operating a counting processor, wherein the counting processor receives real time data from the item counting device and receives historical cart size data stored in a memory of the system and outputs a number of items within the shopping cart, wherein the counting processor predicts the number of items in a cart using a linear regression model to account for the real time data and the historical cart size data, the historical cart size data formed by previously recorded data of scanned items in a plurality of carts at a plurality of checkout queues and stored in a database, wherein the prediction of the number of items in the cart minimizes error in the real time count of items;
• operating an efficiency analyzer to determine an efficiency of employees operating checkout queues;
• determining a number of carts in each operating queue of the plurality of queues;
• determining a total number of items in each cart of the number of carts in each operating queue by operating an item counting device;
• determining the customer's proximity to the plurality of queues by operating a proximity processor;
• calculating a wait time for each of the operating checkout queues of the plurality of checkout queues by operating a wait time processor, wherein the wait time includes a calculation based on the number of items in the customer's cart, the total number of items in the number of carts in each operating checkout queue determined by the counting processor, and the efficiency of the employees operating the checkout queues;
• and
• notifying the customer of a predetermined number wait times of a predetermined number of closest checkout queues of the operating checkout queues by sending the notice to a mobile computing device of the customer.