A cyber-pal of mine sent me a story today about grocery stores that use scanning technology to help customers speed up their shopping trip. This technology is more common in Europe, but its use is taking hold here too.
Basically, you point a personal scanner at each item and then place the item in a bag. So by the time you are done, you have a tally of what you’ve bought and your groceries are already bagged. Just pay at a terminal and you’re out of the store.
Wow! That sounds great. Who wouldn’t like to spend less time in line and more time…well, not in line?
But wait. My luddite tendencies are fighting to get to the surface. Isn’t this just one more place for technology to try to force it’s way into the daily routine of my life? I who still don’t own a cell phone actually like shopping for food partly because it’s so low-tech. Do I really want to be bombarded by scanners and intelligent carts in one of my last untouched sanctuaries of humanity?
OK. OK. The checkout is already using scanners and it’s a lot faster than the old days when you had to wait for a price check or worry about dyslexic entries. But at least now I don’t have to do the work.
And speaking of doing the work…while they say employee jobs aren’t threatened since they’re deployed elsewhere, it’s so hard for me to believe that the cost of this technology won’t eventually be off-set by fewer employees – or higher prices.
But what worries me most is the idea of ads. “Plano, Texas-based Media Cart Holdings Inc. also offers a ‘kiosk on wheels’ system that includes a cart-attached screen that flashes relevant ads as users walk through the aisles.” UGH! I know there are point-of-sale ads all over, but does it have to flash on my cart??? What’s next? Contact lenses that flash ads? (Oh lord…I hope no advertiser is reading this.)
Wow. Where to begin? You raise so many issues…my first thought was it is one more tool or mechanism to help Corporate America to track our every thought, and yes, I do mean thought, we reach for Campell’s scan it, decide against it, delete it (ha!) and then scan and keep Progresso.
Maybe if allowing and participating in having Corporate track our habits and spending history created more jobs, I wouldn’t mind. But in this day and age, with more and more jobs disappearing, people who spent decades getting and scratching from places of semi-poverty to the top of their fields and then being eradicated….I just don’t know.
I never thought about the idea of scan and delete making its way to Corporate America. As you say…almost literally watching my every move. Wonder if they’ll add video hook-ups one day to see my face as it looks at various products?
I agree the job issue is a mixed bag. I guess there would be tech-related jobs created…although not sure they’d stay in our country. And then there are the extra marketing and data analysis jobs that would crop up – hopefully some here. But I would be sad to see any grocery jobs disappear since they are local jobs filled by people who might not have too many other options.
Iris Tracking…the wave of the future.
I seem to recall seeing these ad monitors on carts a few years back. Cheer up! Because I also recall that they survived a scant few weeks before they became wrecked beyond salvation. I can imagine why: children acting out their annoyance that the TV screen is only blabbing advertising; carts being left out in the rain and snow; and probably shoppers, um, expressing themselves.
Hey…I like that! If these devices come to my neighborhood and my cart scanner suddenly isn’t working due to…um…self-expression, I can say some kid did it. You always have a hopeful – and useful – way of looking at things, Marion. (-;