Unless you live in Boston, MA or its surrounding areas, you’ve likely never heard of Magic Beans toy store. After all, I do live here, and must admit that until a candid conversation at a technology conference I recently attended, I’d never heard of it either. Magic Beans is a four store chain, founded in 2004 by husband and wife Eli and Sheri Gurock when Sheri was expecting their second child. In their own words, the goal was to provide “a retail experience designed for kids and optimized for parents… that would balance the fresh and new with the tried and true. ” From day one, customer service has been at the “center of (the store’s) universe. Everything we do revolves around how to make life easier for parents. ” Today, that includes checkout.

I heard the chain was providing a self-scanning mobile application for smartphones, so this morning I headed over to their Brookline location to give it a test run. A few laps around the (surprisingly busy) store revealed very little information, until I noticed two (one on each side of the door) 8X10 computer printouts hung by the exit asking me to download the Magic Beans app, promising it would be “magical “. I did, and off I went.

I’ve seen lots of demos where the camera in a smartphone (in my case, an iPhone) is used to scan barcodes, and very few of them have gone smoothly. This, however, was a completely different story. Not only does the scanner work, but it works quickly and effortlessly – seriously – scanning a can of SpaghettiOs with dedicated scanning hardware at your local grocery store is more of a hassle and takes more time than this. Cross-hair style box targets let you know exactly where your phone needs to be in relation to the barcode, and you can somehow “feel ” the exact moment it locks in. I was very impressed.

Every item in store had its barcode label facing forward, and I went around scanning everything – Legos, Candyland, Battleship, Bionicle – not one false scan, not one unrecognized item. And while most of the items I scanned were missing much in the way of product info, all were available to add to my list, ship (one feature I didn’t get a chance to test out), or add to my cart. What was even cooler was the special related offers being shown to me at the bottom of my phone’s screen. For example, when I scanned the $29.00 Stackadoos Bristle Blocks, I was also shown the Magna-Tiles 32 piece set for 49.99 as a “special offer. ” At this time I was approached by a store associate, Jake, and I had questions for him – for all of which he had answers.

The system has been in this store, the company’s flagship, for over a year. And while Jake estimates that somewhere between 10 and 20% of customers use it, he explained that this is very much the brand’s “community store ” – a lot of shoppers come here weekly, if not daily. Nannies and young parents come here to meet as part of a social routine, and may not be just trying to get out of the store as quickly as possible. However, he informed me that Magic Beans will be opening its fifth store later this week in the uber-busy Prudential Shopping Center in downtown Boston – very much a hustle and bustle environment. The company expects that these different, time-starved consumers will be much more likely to use the app, particularly during the holiday season.

I asked him about the lack of signage, and he informed me that because this location features the only public restroom in the urban neighborhood, the most logical place for signage was the restroom: “Most customers come in here and head directly to the bathroom, either for themselves or to use the changing tables. We get the majority of people learning about the app from that one sign. ” Clever.

At this point Jake helped me around the store to find a Christmas gift for any one of my 6 nieces and nephews. They certainly won’t be reading this article, so I feel comfortable revealing that after showing me a vast selection of science-project style toys, I settled on the Fun Mechanics “Tin Can Robot. ” I scanned it, (one of the only items I scanned to feature full product information), was shown similar recommendations that Jake and I had already ruled out, and added it to my cart. Here’s where it got glitchy.

After entering my payment data, I was unable to complete the transaction. I was shown a “Communication Error ” that my phone needed either better 3G reception or a connection to the store’s WiFi. I had full service, but elected to connect to the store’s network anyhow. Jake helped me find it, but when I was asked for the password to connect, neither he – nor any of the other helpful associates working – knew what it was. He offered to make a call, but I chose to simply make the purchase at the register “the old-fashioned way. ” It was then that Jake informed be that even had I been able to successfully complete the purchase via the phone application, I would have had to wait in line to verify the receipt before leaving the store anyhow.

The app is powered by AisleBuyer, and the vendor was in-store just earlier this week to determine ways to overcome this obstacle, contemplating exit-door verification to generate a truly line-busting solution for the upcoming holiday rush. But even with the fairly major snafu of not being able to complete the transaction, I must admit I was very impressed with this Main Street Retailer’s bleeding-edge thinking, all made entirely possible by its knowledge of its customer base and how it fits their lifestyle.

Perhaps the most impressive part? Signs on the door let me know that the store would be closing 2 hours early tonight. I asked Jake the reason, and it explains in a nutshell how he – and his colleagues – all had such a deep-set knowledge of the products in store. “The new holiday toys have just come in, and the owners want every associate to play with them in advance so we’re informed about them when talking to customers. ” THAT – is a winning retail practice.