This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Is anybody acting like this is new? Shops relabel stuff with price changes regularly, this just makes it quicker and easier - staff don't have to run around for a hour with a price gun and a bunch of shelf labels any more.
Improving how we display prices isn't the issue, that's a good move, it's how prices are decided that are the problem.
I agree that the technology isn't the problem here. It's the corporate mentality of trying to squeeze customers for all they are worth on a personal basis that is the big issue. That and surge pricing should be made illegal. Having to pay more for a thing just because a flock of other people decide to get it at the same time you do is absurd.
Well but r/n you can't adjust the price of butter 3x a day.
(maybe you can but it's stuff u don't see. With this tech, I'd be worried they'll change the price multiple times a day to minimize my wallet)
I've already sent feedback to Walmart about my refusal to buy anything with a digital price tag. The thing is, I believe them when they say that prices are only updated between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. The problem is that that policy could change literally any time.
Walmart has every inch of their store covered in cameras. They have facial recognition systems so they know who I am the moment I walk in the store. They know I buy graham crackers. They know I've put up with price increases in the past. What is preventing them from adding $0.10 to those graham crackers' price tag the moment I walk down the crackers aisle? Literally nothing. They could, and that's reason enough for me to boycott
Personally I have been boycotting Walmart for over 15 years because they refuse to hire most of their employees full time so as to dodge having to provide mandated health insurance and they have a long history of completely screwing the lives of people who use their automated check out system.
Couldn't pay me to shop at their horrible stores. FUCK Walmart and FUCK the Walton family who've become billionaires off the back of poor people in America.
If they want to do dynamic pricing, maybe we'll just have to start dynamic shopping.
It's weird, the higher the prices get, the worse my memory and aptitude with self service checkouts gets.
these gonna get hacked...
Hacking a pricetag would do fk all, just leads to more people scanning it and getting a shock at the higher actual price.
I will buy that for a dollar. (no really lettuce for a $1 is worth the hack)
My local store can not even get a reliable source of staple foods (the distributor often shorts them milk, meat or whatever), there is no way this:
A) Works
B) Is adopted by any non large store
C) Is accepted as anything but a hated cash grab
I've already seen them in several stores near me, including Walmart. The entire store was switched over to them.
If this happens, I will absolutely try to figure out how to game it
Bring items to self checkout. Scans as fast as possible. Walks out with a 20% dynamic discount.
What's the common way for updating these? I have some similar devices that use Wi-Fi but local stores seem to use some sort of nearby transmitter pointex towards the shelves, maybe infrared/optical
It will probably be wifi and mqtt. You don't need a whole OS to get mqtt, just a TCP/IP stack.
Possibly it will use BTLE or BT5. If the store is large enough it might make sense for staff to go around with android app and manually update some prices, in which case BT5 in SPP mode might make sense.
probably they set certain times of day where there will be surge pricing, like around 12-1pm where more people come in for lunch, and around 4-5pmish where people off work.
Or they could charge a customer more if they know the customer always buys the same product.
How so they propose changing an e-ink shelf label per customer??
Probably more timed towards certain times and demographics, but yeah it just takes a couple seconds to update and there are plenty of customers running "loyalty points apps"
remember if you see someone shoplifting food no the fuck you didnt
Especially if you work there.
honestly the best part about working at a supermarket was delivery day when i could weave through the maze of pallets and sleep on the paper towels behind everything like a fort. i sure as fuck aren't going to report anyone shoplifting food.
Thank you for your service in working minimum effort at a giant corpo
Great, I have a very bad feeling about this, given the possible crisis of 2026.
It is morally correct to shoplift from stores that do this.
It might not be legal, but it's already morally acceptable to shoplift from Coles and Woolworths
I just don't because it would be a massive pain if I were to be caught
I'm going to start dynamic payments. "Oh, between 6-9pm I pay 10% less."
Portland banned it for housing. Time to ban it for everything else!
Free epaper displays!
Dynamic pricing Price gouging. FTFY.
Start pushing your state gov to ban this.
Already here in Canada.
Man would really suck if internet cuts out to get updates when its at the lowest prices...
I'm going to start haggling with the cashiers.
Back when I worked on a till, there was no option to haggle. But, I didn't give a fuck if you robbed off with half the store. So maybe do that instead 👌
Dynamic mass theft.
Innovative exploitation.
Next-Generation sculduggery.
