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Could ghosts put an end to checkout queue hell?

As supermarkets push ahead with payment apps, self-service checkout tills, and scan-and-go tech, the need for good, uninterrupted connectivity has never been more important. When signal dies, transactions stall, mobile payments collapse, and digital tills lock up – it results in frustrating queues at the checkout.

But when and how do you rectify it? How do you correct an issue in a place that rarely shuts?

Things that go ‘bump’ in the night
Supermarkets are busy, high-traffic places that are open for extended periods of time. Business continuity is essential, and even a little disruption can create a ripple effect, affecting payment processing, stock levels, and customer service. Supermarkets lack the natural ‘off’ switch that office complexes benefit from. Imagine this: It’s in the middle of the night. The supermarket is quiet, just the hum of refrigerators and the gentle rustle of stock being replenished. No customers, no ring of tills. This is where Pan RF comes in – slipping in unseen, putting in place the basic infrastructure that enables customers to be able to access their loyalty apps, pay without a hitch, and get through the checkout without a problem. No one will even know we were there.

The real-life challenge: checkout bottlenecks

When one of the world’s largest global supermarket chains discovered that checkout queues were being delayed – not by slow tills, but slow mobile signal – Pan RF was brought in to fix it, led by our Business Development Manager, Nick Hawke.

“Customers want seamless connectivity,” says Nick. “They don’t care how it’s done –they just want their phone to work without the inconvenience of a shut shop. When they can’t load their loyalty app or payment QR codes, it brings everything to a standstill. That’s where we come in.”

The solution? A four-month national deployment of 100 mobile phone signal solutions, installed within tight deadlines and limited operating conditions – without a single customer even realising it.
Working in the shadows: how the project was delivered
Supermarkets are never truly empty. Once all the shoppers are gone then the night shift comes in – restocking shelves, mopping floors, preparing to open come morning. Installing mobile signal solutions in this environment is a matter of ghost-work: unobtrusively going in, unseen behind-the-scenes effort, and out before first light.

“Our work had to be invisible,” says Nick. “We can’t disrupt trading, and we can’t interfere with the night shift.We have to leave everything spotless, like we’ve never been there.”

The project revealed a few critical challenges:

  1. Planning – Every step had to be carefully timed so that there would not be a disruption to store functions.
  2. Procurement – With thousands of meters of cabling and hundreds of appliances needed, supplies had to be delivered precisely when and where they were needed.
  3. Access – Every store was different, with its own architectural characteristics that had to be carefully planned.
  4. Deliverables & KPIs – The project was required to deliver very high-performance levels without being detected by customers.
Festive freeze
When the roll out was well underway we faced a significant setback in the form of the Christmas holiday. With the festive season nearing, a Business as Usual (BAU) freeze was imposed by most large retailers, our client included – a requisite measure to prevent any alteration to IT systems or infrastructure during the period of high-volume trading.  

“Christmas retailers don’t take a chance. Any break in trading is a total no-no. It’s like Scrooge locking up the counting house – everything grinds to a halt until the holiday rush is over. That meant we had to be strategic with our rostering so that we didn’t hit the freeze point."

Nick Hawke, Pan RF
For the retailers, their busiest quarter is not a time that can be interrupted – there is no space for downtime, no matter how critical the work being performed. Consequently, the Pan RF staff had to work with tight deadlines, getting all of the improvements done before the start of the holiday restrictions.
The art of ghostly precision
Stealth planning
120+ store surveys were performed by Pan RF engineers before a single cable was installed, to find out signal strength, layout of the building, and access limitations. Every plan was customised to the store, with optimum efficiency and the least disruption.
Silent deployments

Night-time installations were executed during the night, in back-of-house and front-of-house workstreams. This translated to:

✔️ Daytime external work to minimise night-time disturbance.

✔️ Front-of-house operations were minimised, cutting down on downtime and security expenses.

✔️ The instant change in mobile signal was evident to the store staff.

Vanishing without a trace
Timing was crucial. Before the morning customers had arrived, Pan RF’s teams had vanished into thin air, leaving behind only immaculate connectivity.

“Good connectivity is like a ghost – it should be felt, not seen,” Nick says. “If we’ve done our job right, no one notices. They just stay connected.”

Nick Hawke, Pan RF
The invisible success

While customers moved through their daily routines, blissfully unaware of the work behind the scenes, Pan RF’s teams delivered a game-changing solution that kept checkouts moving and improved the customer experience.

Project Highlights:

✔️ 155+ store surveys completed

✔️ 14,000 meters of coaxial cable installed

✔️ 4,600 holes drilled

✔️ Over 50+ hours of Health & Safety paperwork

✔️ *More than 540 sausage rolls eaten *Allegedly

“In a way, we’re the ghosts of mobile connectivity,” Nick says. “We move unseen, working at night, ensuring everything runs smoothly by morning. If no one notices us, we’ve done our job properly.”

Nick Hawke, Pan RF

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