Big Brother Comes To Wal-mart - Page 2

The Templar · June 22, 2003, 18:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Ted Striker
Wal-Mart hates us because of our freedom.

That is why soon all stores will be WalMart, comrade!

Lancer · June 22, 2003, 19:31

At the mega store I work nights at, a store employee can no longer stop a thief that they witnessed ripping the place off. A store employeee can't strip off the sweater of the rip off artist, that's not fair to the poor thief. Only the 2 security personel can stop a thief. Why? Because they are trained in the myriad stupid assed laws that protect the criminal from us honest folk. If these 2 people don't happen to be working, the thief has to be permitted to leave the store and keep the ill gotten gains! Even the 2 security people are almost powerless unless they caught the theft on camera.

Well well.

So Wal Mart is getting smart about it. If the product is emiting a signal to any store employee within 5 feet, then the store employee can detain the thief with the signal as proof of the theft...

Damn good idea, and if you're going to have stupid assed liberals making the laws, science has to come up with the answer! ...and Lancer might just be permitted to detain

a thief or two.

That's right folks, stand back and bare witness to the new, powerful, Mega Store Action Hero! (tm)

JohnT · June 22, 2003, 19:34

Lancer, you just wanna bust some heads.

Poogas · June 22, 2003, 19:36

I kinda like the idea, If I buy batteries from Wal-mart, a month later, and Forget where I put them, I could call up Wal-mart, they'd know.

Lancer · June 22, 2003, 19:36

"Lancer, you just wanna bust some heads."

Ooo, talk dirty to me baby...

edit: Poogas:

Elok · June 22, 2003, 19:46

Dammit, I was making fun of this post first. Get your own whipping boys, guys!

Poogas · June 22, 2003, 20:03

Quote:

Originally posted by Elok
Dammit, I was making fun of this post first. Get your own whipping boys, guys!

Lol, don't think your gonna like this than

I've come up with what Wal-marts ad compagne should be like.

"Can you track me now?"
"Good" (procedes to give Westcost sign signifying Walmart

"

Simple, and Effective

Nubclear · June 22, 2003, 21:39

Anyone wanna know the best way to combat this?

"OMG OMG OMG, WAL MART IS SO UNPATRIOTIC. SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW IMMEDIATELY, SO WE CAN KEEP OUR FREE, DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY!!!!

< article here >

REMEMBER, SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!"

It would spread like wildfire

Q Classic · June 22, 2003, 22:14

except, see, walmart is extremely patriotic... it's linked with so many conservative things that...

ah, well.

rmsharpe · June 22, 2003, 22:31

Instead of wasting millions of dollars on goofy projects like this, why don't they just see what sells the most and what people ask for the most? Put it this way and see if it makes any sense to you:

"The way to boost sales for next month is putting little computers in shaving cream cans."

Lancer · June 22, 2003, 23:02

Because...they want the money from what they are already selling. Read this post, forgot who made it, but very perceptive individual no doubt.

"At the mega store I work nights at, a store employee can no longer stop a thief that they witnessed ripping the place off. A store employeee can't strip off the sweater of the rip off artist, that's not fair to the poor thief. Only the 2 security personel can stop a thief. Why? Because they are trained in the myriad stupid assed laws that protect the criminal from us honest folk. If these 2 people don't happen to be working, the thief has to be permitted to leave the store and keep the ill gotten gains! Even the 2 security people are almost powerless unless they caught the theft on camera.

Well well.

So Wal Mart is getting smart about it. If the product is emiting a signal to any store employee within 5 feet, then the store employee can detain the thief with the signal as proof of the theft...

Damn good idea, and if you're going to have stupid assed liberals making the laws, science has to come up with the answer! ...and Lancer might just be permitted to detain a thief or two.

That's right folks, stand back and bare witness to the new, powerful, Mega Store Action Hero! (tm)"

Urban Ranger · June 22, 2003, 23:11

Quote:

Originally posted by JohnT
Here's a link to a factual article, as opposed to some fear-mongering opinion piece.

Factual?

Quote:

Originally posted by JohnT
Dayum! A 101 terabyte inventory/sales database?

Betcha they don't run that on Linux.

You can't run that on Windows

OTOH, Do you know that you can run Linux on an IBM S39?

Talking about shooting your own ~~foot~~feet, John.

Ben Kenobi · June 23, 2003, 01:11

Quote:

Read this post, forgot who made it, but very perceptive individual no doubt.

How would you know?

Asher · June 23, 2003, 01:15

Quote:

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
You can't run that on Windows

Windows Storage Server 2003 could do it.

Lancer · June 23, 2003, 01:18

"How would you know?"

I just happen to be a very perceptive individual...

Promethus · June 23, 2003, 02:02

Never buy a first year Storage Server.

Kidicious · June 23, 2003, 02:27

Wal-Mart isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I wouldn't be suprised if even if this became a big deal with the American public that it didn't hurt their business at all.

Urban Ranger · June 23, 2003, 03:17

Quote:

Originally posted by Asher
Windows Storage Server 2003 could do it.

No, the hardware underneath is just not up to snuff.

Ben Kenobi · June 23, 2003, 03:29

[Quote]
I just happen to be a very perceptive individual...
[Quote]

Quote:

forgot who made it,

With a memory like that?

We're approaching sig material.

ixnay · June 23, 2003, 04:14

Hey, what do you know, a Snopes article on this!

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/rfid.asp

You're welcome.

Lancer · June 23, 2003, 04:23

What? A person with a lousy memory can't be very perceptive? He just wouldn't recall his insights.

Gotcha there Obiwan...

Hurricane · June 23, 2003, 08:46

I really don't see what's the big deal about this. The RFID tags are not meant to track individual customers, but to track the individual packages. As we all know, Wal-Mart has been a forerunner in logistics, so it's just natural that they are looking for new ways to improve their processes even more.

JohnT · June 23, 2003, 08:58

Snopes linked to the same crap article that lead this thread. Good job being objective, guys!

UR: Glad that my Linux troll bagged me a fish. Too bad - it's so small and puny that there is no need to keep it.

And, compared to the puffery that lead this thread, my linked article is as factual as something out of Nature.

JohnT · June 23, 2003, 09:00

Oh, and thankx Ixnay.

JohnT · June 23, 2003, 09:04

Quote:

Originally posted by rmsharpe
Instead of wasting millions of dollars on goofy projects like this, why don't they just see what sells the most and what people ask for the most? Put it this way and see if it makes any sense to you:

"The way to boost sales for next month is putting little computers in shaving cream cans."

If you had read any articles other than the Starret piece, you'll find that the real reason for these tags are for real-time inventory management and control.

"Supply-chain specialists see RFID as the backbone of an infrastructure designed to identify and track billions of individual objects all over the world, all in real time."

It's not a goofy project: these things have been in use since 1988 and are used in such diverse venues as the Boston Marathon, tollbooths, and even security at the Oscars.

rah · June 23, 2003, 09:18

When you total up all the money lost in poor inventory management and shoplifting, these chips could be a big money saver. If that allows them to sell things for even less, more power to them. I predict we'll see almost all medium/high priced easy to shoplift items being equiped with these in the next 10 years. As stores verify the cost savings, you'll be uncompetitive not to use them.

RAH

And people that are worried about privacy just don't realize just how much is already available on you.

That was lost years ago.

CerberusIV · June 23, 2003, 09:19

Maybe I don't get the point as to why this is a problem as most high value items in stores in the UK are already tagged. They take the tag off at the checkout, otherwise the alarm goes off at the door. This is potentially extending it to virtually all products and might seriously reduce shoplifting losses (especially if they put detectors on the staff exits). If they can do that it would outweigh the cost of chipping everything.

The chips are transponders (no batteries) and are picked up within a few feet of a detection device only. AFAIK they are permanently disabled by being passed through a strong electromagnetic field

As for information on customers, they already have it unless you pay cash. I get the bulk of my supermarket shopping delivered once a month from Tesco. I order on line, pay using their store debit card, and when I log on to the website there is a list of what I have bought previously. They even send me personalised money off coupons based on what I already buy. It is convenient and I really don't get excited about anyone else knowing what shower gel I am using this month.

Incidentally, Wal-Mart bought the Asda chain here in the UK and, despite fears of them dominating the sector, they are consistently getting their butts kicked by the other supermarkets, particularly Tesco.

rah · June 23, 2003, 10:51

Quote:

Originally posted by CerberusIV
Maybe I don't get the point as to why this is a problem as most high value items in stores in the UK are already tagged. They take the tag off at the checkout, otherwise the alarm goes off at the door. This is potentially extending it to virtually all products and might seriously reduce shoplifting losses (especially if they put detectors on the staff exits). If they can do that it would outweigh the cost of chipping everything.

But employees know how to take those tags off.

These will help to see if some employee is stashing stuff in their lockers or other locations. A few employees have already been caught using these chips. One of my buds is a manager there, and he had some hilarious stories about employee/shopper theft.

Kidicious · June 23, 2003, 11:25

Empolyees can be the worst theives. My wife worked at K-Mart shortly before they went bankrupt. They were really getting ripped off bad by their employees at the store where she worked at. They ended up closing that one down.

Spiffor · June 23, 2003, 11:43

Are products that easy to shoplift in your supermarkets ? In France, all prducts are marked with a magnetic stamp, which serves both to give the price/reference when the cashier yields it, and to ring the alarm if it passes through the gates without having been demagnetized.

However, I've seen in Germany that this technology isn't universal. My buddies have no rpoblem shoplifting when they want to.