High Tech Shopping Carts Offer Discounts, Ads

An anonymous reader writes "'Imagine walking down a supermarket aisle and hearing a chime as you pass the peanut butter letting you know it's on sale. Or picture reading the local five-day weather forecast, checking the Dow Jones industrial average and finding a new chicken and rice recipe, all from your shopping basket. Souped up with a computer attachment, your shopping cart could become a know-it-all that gives you special discounts based on what you buy or provides news and information as you sail through grocery aisles.' Full story here, and the Cart manufacturer's site here. I might just have to warshop in Moraga today..."

Comments

Grr.....

[GeckoFood]

The first time a shopping cart tells me that SPAM is on sale, I'm going to bludgeon a manager!

Re:Grr.....

[dalassa]

I don't know if this is better worse than what a Kroger's in Durham, NC has. When you go near the vegatables a speaker plays rain noises. When you are near the eggs another speaker clucks and when you are near the meat a speaker moos. How is that supposed to make me buy stuff?

Nagging shopping carts

[tomhudson]

More stupid applications of hi-tech. I can see it now. The earplugs are chiming "buy me, and you wopn't have to listen to the stupid peanut butter anymore".

Re:Nagging shopping carts

[Midwedge]

Yeah I can see that this has the potential of being a pain (advertisements constantly playing, like the TV's at Walmart)... Yet I can see some really useful applications.

How about a built in scanner so you can see how much something costs or keep track of how much you are spending?

Or a guide function showing you where a product is.

Re:Nagging shopping carts

[aridhol]

How about a built in scanner so you can see how much something costs or keep track of how much you are spending?

Now there's a useful idea. Thing is, it won't happen. If you are shopping and you keep seeing this number counting up in front of you every time you put something in your basket, you'll subconsciously want to keep that number low. So you'll probably buy less than you would if the cost hits you all at once at the register.

Re:Nagging shopping carts

[Eros]

Here in Phoenix AZ at least this is in full effect at the local Costcos and Price Clubs (mass warehouse food, and various products companies).

I can go inside. Insert my membership card into a display case and remove a portable electronic scanner to scan my own items. It gives me the last item's price and a total including tax. I can add and remove items easily. Once I'm done I return the scanner to the case and it prints a ticket with the total and a barcode. I go through an express checkout where my cart is weighed and ticket scanned. If the cart's weight is off they take the time to check the items. Otherwise I pay and go.

Not to mention the local markets also have lanes where I can walk up to a scan station and scan everything myself. This allows one employee to monitor 4 scanning stations(that sit in the same space as 2) and allows me to not have my bread sitting under my milk.

The only harm one could possibly see is that it reduces jobs.

the real reason

[dirvish]

The real purpose is customer tracking. The only reason stores are going to spend money on this kind of stuff is to better seperate customers from their money. If they can profile customers they can better market towards them.

Re:the real reason

[sjlutz]

And profiling customers is a bad thing? Here's my take on it:
1) Advertising isn't going away, it's increasing, we are getting bombarded everywhere, now even in video game.

2) Why not give enough information to the sellers so that they can give me offers that I might actually like?

Example, if everytime I passed the Diaper isle, I was told about the sale on Pampers, I would ignore because I don't need diapers. Worse, it would become annoying. But if everytime I walked down the soda isle and was told Mountain Dew was on sale, I would buy it, even if I didn't need it, because we all know you can never have too much Dew.. For those privacy advocates out there, do you REALLY care that the managers of a supermarket know you buy a pack of pringles every shopping trip? Yes, I do care if the government wants to know, but not some store managers .

Re:the real reason

[stratjakt]

You don't care until the you get the wrong shopping cart, and it shrieks, at the top of it's digital lungs "HEY, BACKISSUES OF PLAYGIRL ARE ON SALE 2 FOR A DOLLAR WITH PURCHASE OF LARGE DRUM OF VASELINE"

Re:the real reason

[The Visiting Priest]

Yes, profiling customers is a bad thing (for the customer).

You think that if you buy mountain dew frequently that they're going to give you a discount? Dream on. You'll more likely find out that mountain dew is the one beverage that you NEVER get a discount on.

(But their competitors might start offering discounts on stuff you'd never drink in a million years)

Re:the real reason

[TheWickedKingJeremy]

There is no reason why buying preferences need to be stored indefinitely and associated with an individual.

A better way of accomplishing this - if you are putting Gerber baby food in your cart, the computer will tell you that diapers are also on sale because the two items are linked in the store's database. Or, if you are buying the latest issue of Wired, the computer would automatically assume it would be pointless to tell this customer that condoms are on sale in aisle 12. ;)

My point is that advertising can be better focused without having a huge, all-knowing database.

Re:the real reason

[5KVGhost]

That's true, of course. But it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Once upon a time, for example, everyone's shopping habits were "tracked" by the grocer behind the counter. He could easily gauge the buying habits of all his regular customers and make appropriate recommendations. The anonymity of the modern shopping experience is more of an accident than an expectation.

Re:the real reason

[ChaosDiscord]

For those privacy advocates out there, do you REALLY care that the managers of a supermarket know you buy a pack of pringles every shopping trip?

The problem isn't that the manager knows. The problem is that any number of "trusted" employees will know. One or more of employees may be willing to resell (or just give away) your information. Heck, for the right amount of money I'm sure the store will happily sell the information. I for one purchase personal hygiene and pharmacy products at my local supermarket. If I'm a politician trying to appease a rigid Catholic demographic, I might prefer that my political opponents not be able to prove that I purchase of condoms or birth control pills. I'd rather my health insurance didn't have the opportunity to analyze my buying habits of aspirin and antacids to decide if I've become too risky. Or even if my health insurance decides I buy too much junk food, my auto insurance decides that I buy too much alcohol. Or perhaps my opponent for a county board seat will get the information and claim, "Bob sure buys alot of alcohol, are you sure you want someone who buys that much alcohol on the board?" A potential employer might make collecting such information part of their check on me before hiring me.

The probably isn't that the store knows. To the store I'm only interesting as a relatively anonymous consumer. The problem is that once the information is collected that it will become available to other people who may be interested in me personally. There is a serious risk of abuse. If government agents who have been specifically screened for security purposes occasionally decide to abuse the information (like Robert Hanseen, a few Michigan police, amoung other cases), why should I trust the night shift manager at my local supermarket who hates his job at my local supermarket?

Shoppings carts with computers..

[MongooseCN]

This gives the side benefit of getting homeless people online.

Re:Shoppings carts with computers..

[_ph1ux_]

back in '99 when all the VC money was flying to anyone with a pulse I tried to start eHobo.com

This was where you could go and get accessories for your carts, get corporate sponsored cardboard housing etc...

We would sell luxury collapsable cardboard condos, a tow strap for your shopping cart that you wore like a backpack (which allowed for hands free mobility!)

for some reason - I couldnt get funding.

Re:Practical use!!!

[tomhudson]

So, since they're wireless, what's to keep somebody from "war-shopping", skimming the info, and generating their own 100% discount coupons?

I've already figured out how the bar codes worked at the local store, and, if I wasn't honest, I could alter the tickets that bottle refund machines give me to give back $10.00 on a 5 cent bottle.

And no, the cashier would be none the wiser - she just would scan in the altered bar-code, in either scenario.

How aware of their surroundings will they be?

[teamhasnoi]

When I smash my big rusty shit-van into one at 52 miles an hour will it croak, "Body Work on sale at Dave's this week...helleep meeelee..."

'Cause it's going to be open season on carts that try to sell me shit.

Die, Squeek-Wheel, DIE!

The biggest improvement in shopping carts...

[jea6]

...in the past 100 years is not in making them computerized...it's been making them fun for kids. My local supermarkets have this kind of kid-friendly cart. They are really great. If only more innovations addressed actual needs....

No wonder they call us "consumers".

[seanadams.com]

I just don't understand. There's all this bullshit in the grocery stores now to collect our personal information and track what we buy, and I don't hear ANYONE complaining.

I used to shop at Albertson's because they were the one store in my area which didn't use the friggin savings cards. They actually advertised this. Now everyone's using the cards, and they're marketing it on TV like it's a good thing for us.

Every time I go to the store, the clerk asks me if I have the card, and I politely say "no, can I use yours?" Sometimes they have a card sitting there, but more often than not, he'll interrogate me as to why I don't want a card. If forced to get a card, I'll either fill out phony information, or I'll check the box that says I don't want to give my info (if there is one). Then I conspicuously forget the card on the counter when I leave.

One time, the clerk was being especially pushy about getting me to sign up for the card. The customer behind me overhead our conversation and butted in "personally, I like the savings." Meanwhile, people in the aisles on either side of me obediently furnished their cards, one after another, from their overstuffed purses and massive keychains. What the hell is wrong with you people?

Re:No wonder they call us "consumers".

[n-baxley]

Here's an idea. Tell the clerk you left it at home and they'll leave you alone. No one is forcing you to get one of these cards. It's not like their going to change the price just for you, and they can already tell what items are popular. I think there are too many /.ers getting really bent out of shape over this. Where's the harm?!

This could be a great thing!

[Ethanol]

As a friend of mine suggested, if we port linux to run on these things, and work out some kind of wireless net access, shopping carts could become an even more versatile tool for homeless people than they already were.

Checking your stocks...

[Jippy_]

Actually, it might help with your shopping decisions...

"My tech stocks are doing great! I need some chips."
[check stocks]
"Ohh! Gourmet Potato Crips!"
[check stocks]
"Hmm.. Maybe Ruffles instead"
[check stocks]
"Oh.. This no name brand looks good.. "
[check stocks]
"On second thought, that opened bag in the discount bin might be best..."
[check stocks]
"Dang... Anyone wanna buy a shopping cart?"

Re:Practical use!!!

[beebware]

Proper barcodes shouldn't allow you to do that. The barcode "number" should only relate to a database entry which then should give information such as price/discount details. Barcodes do not (or should not) contain any pricing information of any sort (see how barcodes work)

In your scenerio, you should need to alter the barcode to reflect another database entry corresponding to the discount you are after (and I'm sure/hope the store doesn't sequentially allocate discount codes) AND get it past any fail safe systems the EPOS has in place ($0.05-$10.00: reject) AND hit on a discount code which at least slightly reflects the product description (say the discount voucher was for a bottle of shampoo and you just happen to hit on a $30.00 off champagne voucher - then the till-operator should spot the difference). Oh: don't forget the checksum at the end of the barcode as well.

If you can get away with this as easily as you make out - well, that store is just about asking to be ripped off: so name it here so they can be Slashdotted in a physical sense (imagine loads of geeks hitting the same store chain with faked vouchers :) )

Oops, pardon me, my bad, excuse me, coming through

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

At the Kroger grocery store nearest to my home, when they opened, they had LCD panels attached to the grocery carts with a roughly 11" diagonal screen.

There were some sort of sensors on the top of the panel (IR maybe?) that would receive information from transmitters suspended from the ceiling in each aisle.

The carts would let you know which items were on sale in that aisle, could provide a map of the store or direct you to specific items that you were searching for.

The big problem was that everyone who brought their kids shopping let their kids push the carts so they could play with the displays, and the kids wouldn't watch where they were going (some of the adults didn't, either!) and so they would constantly be running into each other, knocking into displays in the aisles, etc.

After about 3 months, they gave up and removed all the displays from the carts and I've been able to shop safely without worrying about someone ramming a cart into my achilles tendons every few minutes...

I personally don't miss them and I'm glad to see them gone.

Killer App: Shopping list display on cart:

[mekkab]

let me beam my shopping list from my PDA/cell phone to the cart. Its annoying running around a store with a Visor in 1 hand and the cart in the other.

Let me look at the list and check items off.
If you want to get crafty- tell me what aisles my products are in and tell me what sales you are having.
To make it even craftier- add that UPC scanner, and let me scan in my cupons- THEN have the cart tell me which one is cheaper.

All I react to are "sales" and the sales associated with the club card. If Diet Pepsi is on sale I'll buy that instead of diet coke, and vice versa. I have relatively little brand loyalty so gear your advertisements in a way that works.

Re:Killer App: Shopping list display on cart:

[dcavanaugh]

Beaming your shopping list from a PDA is a cool idea, but the stores really don't want you thinking too much about your list. They would prefer you spend the time walking past as much stuff as possible. The brands with the best margins are positioned at eye-level, with the hope of you going off-list and buying stuff impulsively.

I consistently spend less when I shop than when my wife does, even though she prepares the list either way. If it's not on the list, it's not in the cart. I also do the math, so that coupons for expensive brands are used only when the actual price beats the store brand.

The grocery store is filled with opportunities to make sub-optimal buying decisions -- two of my favorites:

1. "Decoy" items that look exactly like the items on sale, to be sold at high prices when the "real" sale items run out.
2. "Sales" where the price is just the regular price (except advertised prominently, so as to look like a bargain).
3. Scanner "errors" that consistently favor the store -- this happens ALOT, and the pattern of error is PREDICTABLE

You will never see the stores provide any technology that helps you evaluate prices. If they had their way, the only price you would get is a total for the entire cart!

Re:Just what we need

[Angry White Guy]

Shopping used to be so easy, go out - kill something - bring it home and eat it. Now we're faced with people yapping on phones, tight aisles, screaming kids and my favorite - those damn discount cards that I need one of for each store (I have none) so I get screwed on my discount. Now I get beeping carts and weather.

Go out and kill the people yapping on phones, bring them home and eat them. Not feeling too hungry, just take a screaming kid. The stigma that goes with being a cannibal will quickly dissipate when the regular shoppers can shop phone yapping, kid screamin', aisle blocking scum free and we just have to put up with the discount cards.

Yeah, that's a nice idea but...

[bigmouth_strikes]

...howabout they figure out how to make it virtual ? We need online grocery shopping with deliveries so that we don't have to spend our time doing the neverending shopping ourselves.

There has got to be a way to arrange it so that the customers can share the delivery costs and still save money compared to driving their own vehicle to the supermarket.

I can't believe WebVan blew a billion dollars on this.

How about a map?

[n-baxley]

If I could type in what I'm looking for, and it would blink on the map both where I am and where the item is, I would buy my own personal one and bring it to the store with me. :)

Checking the Dow Jones Industrial Average?

[ChaosDiscord]

Great! "Hmmm, I wonder if I can afford the nice steaks or it's ground chuck tonight... oh my, my stocks just went through the floor, I guess it's ground chuck tonight."

No, wait, that's a stupid idea.

Some people seems to have forgotten that you first identify a problem, then you provide a solution. Providing a solution, then looking for a problem is usually doomed to failure. I fail to see a realistic case where getting stock quotes in the supermarket solves anyones problem.

Re:Are they serious?

[krinsh]

Since its double coupon day, I'd say that this is my $0.04.

It is always double coupon day at my local Martin's.

Seriously, I suspect - and I'm making a HUGE generalization here about /.ers - that we embrace the tech itself - wi-fi/802.11b tablets connected to shopping carts are a cool idea. In fact; haven't there been tiny video screens or something like those "shifting picture" ads been attached to carts before?

I believe the negative reaction is the commericialism - the feeding of ads to you - and the data collection this sort of device may provide to 'corporate overlords'. There is a strong anti-capitalism trend (did I say that?) - and that is ONLY my opinion - and it manifests itself against anything that could remotely be seen as government or corporate meddling in privacy or personal data.

I can't fault anyone for that at all.

BUT -- I want coupons for my favorite foods and I elect to have these things provided to me - just like I tell the clerk in the electronics section that I'll come get them when I'm ready to ask questions; pester me before then and I'll leave. If I don't want to be bothered; I don't use the card or I don't click to get the free sample. If you can elect to use the device or not; then I see no problem with it - if you must use it to shop then I see the store adopting them closing down very quickly because even people that want such 'amenties' don't often want them shoved down their throats.

I hope I got all that right and no one sanctimoniously corrects me this time.

Re:Practical use!!!

[program21]

I used to work at a supermarket where it was all too easy to get away with something like that.
There were coupons codes (4 digit, the bar code was 00000 0xxxx) for things like a BOGO shrimp ($12.99), free 1st birthday cake ($18), and so on. Plus there were lots of little ones, nothing as significant as that though, but they were sequential. One could make a night out of trying groups of codes, and in fact a few of us did.
The funny part was that the system never checked to see if you actually had bought (rather, were buying) the item that the coupon was good for, and would take off the amount anyway.

After I left, the store replaced it's backend system as part of a routine upgrade, and there were stricter controls over that, and also ways to be alerted when something odd was going on, so while it worked then, it's much harder to get away with now, at least for employees. I'm sure that any of us, as customers, could work something like that at another store where the cashiers have no idea.

For those who don't know, BOGO = Buy One Get One, as in by one, get one free.

This is a bit dated...

[bjorky]

While I was studying in Germany ('99-'00) the local supermarket had shopping carts like this, with and LCD display at the front of the cart with an IR sensor on top... when you passed under hanging IR transmitters it would beep and tell you specials for what aisle you were in. Seemed a perfectly reasonable and simple solution..

LCDs weren't too fond of cold and wet weather, but since the carts were kept under cover in the parking lot, and since you had to put in a DM1,0 deposit in it (like the quarter keeper at american Aldi groceries) there was also little cart loss/misplacement.

Re:Practical use!!!

[tomhudson]

The system they use is that, for some bar codes, the first digits identify it as a bottle refund, and the last 4 digits are the amount of the refund. Really brain-dead system - not even a checksum.

And, no, I'm not going to identify the stores involved. Hint: They're located in Canada.

Robot Cashiers...

[ronfar]

Yesterday, I had an unsettling experience. I was in Kash and Karry shopping, buying eggnog etc. (Only a few noggy weeks before the government takes it away again.) Finally, I got to the Kash register, only to note that even though the sign said it was open, there was nobody there. I figured out that it was a robot cashier. I took my eggnog, and ran it past the scanner. A cheery female voice anounced the price, and told me to put the item on the belt, which had started moving. I did the same thing with the rest of my purchases. The I pushed the red box on the touchscreen, selected cash and put my $20.00 in the slot. The machine, then cheerily dispensed my change "Don't forget to look below the scanner for bills." I bagged up my groceries and went on my merry way without having to speak to another living soul.

Now, I'm not sure why this was unsettling. Maybe because I used to do cashier work, or maybe because the store was so deserted at the time I went. I'm sure I'll get used to it in time. I guess I've experienced my very first taste of "Future Shock." (Which in itself was unsettling for someone who would normally identify themselves as belonging to the Paranoia Pro-Tech secret society.)

I, Neo-Luddite

[limekiller4]

Over the years I've read a good number of neo-luddite vs. the technopop set. I never could identify with the luddites much less imagine I'd side with them. Well I'm starting to.

"There's the TV. It's all right there. Commercials. We are not productive anymore, they don't need us to make things anymore, it's all automated. What are we for then? We're consumers. Okay, buy a lot of stuff, you're a good citizen. But if you don't buy a lot of stuff, you know what? You're mentally ill! That's a fact! If you don't buy things...toilet paper, new cars, computerized blenders, electrically operated sexual devices... SCREWDRIVERS WITH MINIATURE BUILT-IN RADAR DEVICES, STEREO SYSTEMS WITH BRAIN IMPLANTED HEADPHONES, VOICE- ACTIVATED COMPUTERS, ..." - Jeffrey, 12 Monkeys

I'm sick of all this crap. I want to walk through my !@#$ing local grocery store, unmolested, and enjoy the process. Is this so hard to understand?

Blue Light Special

[docbrown42]

Pr0n on sale, Aisle 2!

Nice Web Site!

[Lizard_King]

The KleverKart web site just gave my team's graphic designer a heart attack.

Low tech method

[Servo]

I use one of those barcodes when I purchase my groceries. My grocery chain (Shope Rite) then sends me mailers that are targeted to what I buy. At the checkout, they also print coupons based on what I buy. Say, I buy a package of Gardenburger veggie burgers.. I usually get a coupon for my next trip on that same item.

Something else I've noticed, I was buying Silk soymilk for a long time, and then I switched to 8th Continent soymilk. Every time I buy 8th Continent, I get a coupon for Silk! So I buy the Silk the next week, no coupon, and then I go buy 8th again, and yep, coupon for Silk again.

There's no way in hell this'll work

[Metalhead01]

I used to work at a very busy grocery store when I was in high school, and I've seen first-hand the abuse shpooing carts go through. They're routinely kicked, smashed, knocked over, ran into walls, ran into people, broken and battered. Shopping carts at grocery stores don't last that long, either because the fucking idiotic customers beat them to shit or the homeless bums take them away.

Why would these super-nifty carts be immune to this? Why would they not suffer the same fate? It's damn near impossible to keep people from being stupid and smashing into stuff, or taking the carts home with them.

Another thing to consider is the fact that these are going to be very expensive. Most grocery stores aren't raking in the cash, and if they have to but a few thousand carts every few weeks to replace stolen or damaged ones, they're either going to go belly-up or forget about the whole thing.