Shopping Carts Go Wi-Fi

agentk writes "The Boston Globe reports today that area supermarket Stop & Shop is adding computers with Bluetooth barcode scanners, 802.11 networking and infrared positional sensors to shopping carts in one of its stores. 'The Shopping Buddy automatically displays which aisle you're in, what's on sale there, and what you bought the last time you strolled through.' Most Stop & Shop stores already have automated self-checkout lanes. Is this the future of shopping? What will the impact be on privacy, the cash economy, and the experience of shopping in general?"

Comments

Tried in the 80s

[demaria]

This was tried in the late 80s. A chain on long island (Pathmark) installed a grayscale LCD screen on every cart. It communicated wirelessly as well. You could see a store map, your location on the map, search for an item's location, and see aisle specials of the week.

Didn't last more than a few months. I'm guessing it didn't benefit frequent shoppers too much. Maybe it'll work better today.

Re:stop the unions, please

[jcoy42]

I want to scan my items as I shop so I can leave quickly.

You must have much better luck than I have. Items that don't scan take 3x as long when you have to wait for the self-service aid to clear the screen and do a hand entry of the price.. the joy of waiting on the two old twats who just can't seem to figure out how to scan their items.. and don't get me started on the frequently malconfigured "weight checking" bagging section, that stupid "incorrect item in basket area" line reminds me of clippy.

If you didn't guess, I think those stupid things are a pain in the ass.

Besides, if you're going to function as an employee (cashier), shouldn't there be an employee discount or something?

Yeah, it's great when it works, but that seems to be the exception.

My local supermarket beta tested this years ago.

[Gldm]

It failed miserably. The system was called smart cart or smart shop or something lame like that. They had little 9" black and white LCD screens on the carts and heavy ass lead acid batteries in the bottom. The screens had infrared sensors and there were transmitters hanging above the isles that'd beam updated data as you walked down then. Lots of blurry little animations and stuff. I never found it useful.

The reason the program failed is because the local kids smashed them all for the fun of it. It doesn't matter that the hardware won't run anything useful, people like to break stuff. A steel shopping cart in itself isn't that fun, but if it's got electronics on it to smash, it's alot more appealing to the bored and destructive.

Re:The real "danger"

[Lord_Dweomer]

They already do something similar now. A friend of mine who's hispanic was at Rainbow Foods in Minneapolis and noticed in the Hispanic foods isle that a container of Nestle Quik chocolate powder (labeled in spanish) cost a whole dollar more than the english version (which was exactly the same except with an english label) which was located a few isles down. Obviously they never intended someone to notice, or be able to do anything about it (as the people who would most likely buy the spanish version probably didn't speak english).

She spoke to the on-duty manager (who was roughly 17) who obviously didn't give a shit, and nothing has been changed.

Funny Colored Money Problems

[telstar]

"I wonder, in the future, will I be able to buy anything with our new funny colored cash dollars?"

• Nope