Big Brother Comes To Wal-mart - Page 3

rah · June 23, 2003, 12:05

Employees know how to get around those. The last study I saw, (sorry no link) showed that employees accounted for more merchandise ripped off then customers.

RAH

mrmitchell · June 23, 2003, 14:48

Damnit, no longer will I be able to walk through Wal-Mart switching barcodes on products.

(Another favorite was to mark over all the code with a black magic marker, or if you felt crafty, fill in certain areas.)

Really, there aren't any privacy woes yet. Besides, the worst thing Wal-Mart would want to do with this is learn that I buy outrageous amounts of Dr. Pepper and thus try to suggestive-sell a bottle when I'm at the check-out counter. However, I don't want that bottle costing more just because of their "anti-theft" measures. Hopefully they won't add it to the price, in the assumption that the better inventory control pays off for the sixty or so cents per product.

rah · June 23, 2003, 15:07

The guy I talked too about it last night, claimed it was closer to 10 cents a chip once the proper quantities are considered. So they should generate savings that can be partially passed on to the customer.

Those coupons on the back of your reciepts in some stores are generated based on what you buy. e.g. you buy a large Dr. Pepper and are given a coupon on your next purchase of a case. But they are not based on your buying history since your purchase history is not on-line in those stores, just in the marketing companies dB. When I worked there, I was tasked with quality control over that dB. Man was it a mess.

Hurricane · June 24, 2003, 07:43

The point is that individual tracking of units is no better than bar-code (i.e. only on product level) tracking, if you want to monitor customer behaviour. It makes no difference to the store's profile of you if they know

(A) Bar code: you bought a Dr.Pepper at June 24 at 20:06, which that day was sold at reduced price

(B) RFID: you bought a Dr.Pepper on June 24 at 20:06, manufactured on May 1 at factory X at 08:25, transported to the main warehouse on May 2, transported to the store on May 3, and put on the shelf on June 20. That day Dr.Pepper was sold at reduced price.

However, what they do know is that the store bought a far too big stock of Dr.Pepper at the beginning of May.

Panag · June 25, 2003, 05:11

Quote:

Originally posted by Hurricane
The point is that individual tracking of units is no better than bar-code (i.e. only on product level) tracking, if you want to monitor customer behaviour. It makes no difference to the store's profile of you if they know

(A) Bar code: you bought a Dr.Pepper at June 24 at 20:06, which that day was sold at reduced price

(B) RFID: you bought a Dr.Pepper on June 24 at 20:06, manufactured on May 1 at factory X at 08:25, transported to the main warehouse on May 2, transported to the store on May 3, and put on the shelf on June 20. That day Dr.Pepper was sold at reduced price.

However, what they do know is that the store bought a far too big stock of Dr.Pepper at the beginning of May.

hi ,

see , one positive thing from it , .....

an economy shall have way more efficiency with it and shall be able to work way better on the old supply versus demand , ........

btw , several of them tags shall have the writting " made in Israel " , ......

have a nice day