Every retailer's worst nightmare is making top billing on "20/20" or "60 Minutes" in an expose about incorrect prices. The TV image of a horrified customer discovering at the checkout that the half-off sale wasn't really a sale at all is enough to keep store managers awake through the night.

But now Macy's is aiming to halt pricing errors with SmartPaper technology. The electronic, reusable paper is embedded with millions of tiny balls, each smaller than a grain of sand. The top half of the paper is white, the bottom half black. The paper is placed between two layers of plastic, and can be hung from store shelves, ceilings or shelf edges.

The balls are instructed to display various fonts, characters and numbers when they're electrically charged.
That means the prices on goods can be changed electronically, so retailers can update the prices on their shelves to reflect the time of day, to flash a special sale or ensure that prices are the same in a certain area of the store.

The technology is among an array of retail innovations being demonstrated at GlobalShop, a store design and in-store marketing show being held through Saturday at McCormick Place.
Gladson Interactive, based in Lisle, makes the product images for the signs.

The paper works with software that integrates the prices with a store's pricing database and checkout computer systems.

Macy's is testing the technology in its redesigned children's department. The store hopes to connect the sign's messages with the checkout counter in February 2002, said Ben Diss, director of information systems for Macy's East.