On Oct 11, 2013, at 16:39 , John Robinson <[email protected]> wrote:
> I read an article several months ago of using bluetooth packaging for items > at the grocery. Every product would have built into the bottle, box, sack > etc a wafer thin bluetooth device, so a few or hundreds of items in carts > would be pushed through the checkout readers and instantly the cost would be > generated. Not emptying of the cart, no employees to pay for the labor. Is this a good thing? > This would also simplify the pricing for the grocer, no more labeling each > item, changing a price would be very simple with those on the shelf as well > as those in storage and would be reflected at checkout The advantage to the checkout is that it is possible to watch for items which ring up for the wrong price. With instant checkouts, it'll be impossible to see if this is happening, which would allow the shenanigans of non-constant pricing to be quite easy to implement. > It was being experimented with at the time. The cost would be about 1 cent > per package, the saving in employees and their benefits was more than gong to > offset this cost and the speed of checkout for the consumer was going to be > awesome..... How will it weigh the veggies, or will this then lead to prepackaged veggies of specific sizes? I'm not sure this is as big a gain as it looks to be on the surface. As for finding little kids immediately, this strikes me as a tradeoff for invasiveness for security. My guess is that the value of the added security is smaller than the price for the added invasiveness. [I'm not belittling people losing kids in big places---I wandered away from my parents in multistory store in Boston as a little kid, so I know it firsthand.] Bill
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