You can expect these at your local Wally World in 3…2…1…
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New shopping carts will eliminate cashier jobs in America
With these shopping carts you scan all your items as you shop and put them into the cart. It even has a scale for fruits and vegetables Once done you complete payment on the cart, he shows it even accepts EBT Food Stamps
NOT coming soon to a ghetto near you!
I can see it now, shopping carts by the dozens jacked up and sitting on cinder blocks…
I’m guessing that the dindu’s that walk out the door with loaded carts won’t be deterred, just lie they’re not deterred now.
I’m waiting for the EBT cards to stop working a week from Monday, THAT’s gonna be fun. The dindu’s have already started making noise about looting and burning on a scale unseen in the past.
That’s assuming one side or the other doesn’t cave on the shut down this coming week. I’m hoping not. I’m pretty sure Trump is NOT gonna cave. I think that’s why he’s out of the country. He’s letting the Demonrats stew in their own juice. Fetterman has been pretty vocal about what asses the Demonrats are being and has promised to vote with the R’s on next vote. His one vote is not enough to end it though.
Be honest. Did you ever think Fetterman was going to be the Voice of Reason?
He was funny when he couldn’t talk, but now the Master-Blaster growth has gained consciousness and craves self-preservation.
Well no, but he is entertaining watch when he’s sounding off against his own party. I’m guessing the Demonrats are going to try to primary him when he’s next up for election.
Welcome to the cashless, digital democracy. No thanks.
This is a shit idea, mostly because it will be plagued with reliability problems. Dead batteries, broken hardware, miscalibrated scales.Wierd network issues that cause certain terminals not to communicate with the back end. I used to work in retail IT, point of sale systems and the like. Barely anybody knew how to do shit outside of the most basic maintenance and component swapping (because these stores won’t pay for competence) and so weird problems would go unaddressed for months on end.
I remember a situation we’re one port on a managed switch that served all the check lane terminals in a particular store was misconfigured, and so that register wouldn’t process any requests for credit card authorization, they always failed 100% of the time. After almost 2 years, and probably half a dozen other techs before me who couldn’t figure out why, I identified the issue and fixed it. After I jumped through hoops with corporate IT security to grant me access to the configuration on the switch, which was no small accomplishment in itself.
My point being there is no budget or staff committed by these outfits to keep gee whiz shit like this going, and it’ll probably quietly go away after they realize they are bleeding money on it.
It was even tried once before, a pilot program called VideoKart, which had a clunky monochrome LCD touch display and built in telemetry tracking system attached to shopping carts at some grocery stores, probably going on 40 years ago now. It was a slick idea, but not ready for prime time. It lasted maybe a year, and then was unceremoniously dumped, and the company that tried to get it off the ground went bankrupt.
> bleeding money on it
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I don’t know… Walgreens keeps ramming their “video display cases” down to stores. That’s where common items are behind “doors” that are actually computer monotors – with cameras. Some stores, you have to stand and wait through ads before the door will unlatch.
From what I’ve read their customers hate it, but WG doesn’t care.
The difference with that versus the self-scanning shopping carts, is that the ad laden freezer doors are just a large format color flat panel hardwired to a power source and an embedded system style micro PC that feeds the video signal to the flat panels. It also remains inside a climate-controlled building at all times, with a constant power source.
The shopping cart, meanwhile, relies on more complicated portable hardware that requires regular upkeep. The onboard battery needs to be charged, the carts get left outside in rain, snow, and intense heat, and are always getting knocked around and intentionally abused by stupid customers and garden variety shit heads. The scales will require regular recalibration that likely will be neglected until someone calls the state weights and measures department and stirs some shit that gets the store fined.
I expect these to be a constant source of aggravation and maintenance at the store level – where they are already chronically short staffed – even if they have a third party service provider under contract to handle the inevitable repairs and replacements that have to be done. How many of these will be marked “out of order” at any given time?
Look how well conventional fixed location self checkout lanes have done for most retailers. Many are now actively removing them. Admittedly, that due more to the rampant theft they enable, but they are also a constant source of breakdowns (especially as regards cash handling) due to the hardware just not being robust enough. When you factor in all the cost of downtime and repairs, suddenly they aren’t saying much if anything. And over reliance on self checkout also pisses off a lot of customers. Not that most most big retailers still actually care about customer satisfaction in any real sense
Shit. Sam’s club already has scan and go. Pay online before checkout on your Sam’s card. Pass thru the arches at exit and system verifies your purchases. Pretty slick system. The problem I see now is keeping the local damn grocery store stocked properly because people don’t want to work. Wife talked to local KROGER store manager yesterday and 16, that’s 16, people called in saying they wouldn’t be in to work their shift
Albertson’s was working on this in 2005. The effort stopped when the company was sold to SuperValu. “We’re not a technology company” they said. Is SuperValu still in existence?
Supervalu is still around as a grocery industry wholesaler and distributor. They sold off their retail grocery operation (Shop N Save) to Schnucks Markets several years ago, at least in my part of the country. No idea if they still own Albertson’s
So, will the carts steal the food for you if the EBT card is disabled???
Asking for a “friend”
These won’t last long. They’ll either be stolen, stripped for wiring or simply vandalized to nonfunctionality.
I;m assuming it won’t take cash or checks. I always get $20.00 back. I use that option as my pocket savings account. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.