▲ 121 ▼ A supermarket trip may soon look different, thanks to electronic shelf labels (www.npr.org) submitted 2 years ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world 82 comments fedilink hide all child comments
[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 31 points 2 years ago (2 children) No way this benefits the consumer. permalink fedilink source hideshow 4 child comments replies: [–] Etterra@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago (3 children) Of course not. It lets their office or even corporate computers change the prices in real time whenever they feel like it. Hypothetically, you could pick something off a shelf where the digital signset $3, and by the time you walked it up to a register, it cost $4. It's like changing the price of something in a shop simulation video game after the customer has picked it up, and now they have to pay $9,999.99 for a bag of potato chips. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 6 child comments replies: [–] chaospatterns@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (1 child) That would be illegal. I worked on the software deployment of these devices in a store. If we increased the price, we'd automatically give the customer the lowest price in the last several hours. The other problem was they were extremely low powered and low bandwidth and it would have killed the battery to update more than a few times a day. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] Monument@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 years ago So you’re saying there’s going to be a big influx of cash into small battery research and improving efficiency for tiny screens/low power WiFi? permalink fedilink source parent [–] ThePrivacyPolicy@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 years ago And my country has price laws where tagged prices have to be honoured (I forget all the technicalities of the policy) - so if something scans up wrong, what stops the employee at service from changing the shelf price to reflect the wrong one while another employee walks over to verify with me? It would need a nefarious intent, which most minimum wage shop employees could care less about, but it's a theoretical that could happen, especially on higher price items. permalink fedilink source parent [–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago Surge pricing on Surge. permalink fedilink source parent [–] lowleveldata@programming.dev -1 points 2 years ago It makes you feel cool? permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago (3 children) Of course not. It lets their office or even corporate computers change the prices in real time whenever they feel like it. Hypothetically, you could pick something off a shelf where the digital signset $3, and by the time you walked it up to a register, it cost $4. It's like changing the price of something in a shop simulation video game after the customer has picked it up, and now they have to pay $9,999.99 for a bag of potato chips. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 6 child comments replies: [–] chaospatterns@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (1 child) That would be illegal. I worked on the software deployment of these devices in a store. If we increased the price, we'd automatically give the customer the lowest price in the last several hours. The other problem was they were extremely low powered and low bandwidth and it would have killed the battery to update more than a few times a day. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] Monument@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 years ago So you’re saying there’s going to be a big influx of cash into small battery research and improving efficiency for tiny screens/low power WiFi? permalink fedilink source parent [–] ThePrivacyPolicy@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 years ago And my country has price laws where tagged prices have to be honoured (I forget all the technicalities of the policy) - so if something scans up wrong, what stops the employee at service from changing the shelf price to reflect the wrong one while another employee walks over to verify with me? It would need a nefarious intent, which most minimum wage shop employees could care less about, but it's a theoretical that could happen, especially on higher price items. permalink fedilink source parent [–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago Surge pricing on Surge. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] chaospatterns@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (1 child) That would be illegal. I worked on the software deployment of these devices in a store. If we increased the price, we'd automatically give the customer the lowest price in the last several hours. The other problem was they were extremely low powered and low bandwidth and it would have killed the battery to update more than a few times a day. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] Monument@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 years ago So you’re saying there’s going to be a big influx of cash into small battery research and improving efficiency for tiny screens/low power WiFi? permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Monument@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 years ago So you’re saying there’s going to be a big influx of cash into small battery research and improving efficiency for tiny screens/low power WiFi? permalink fedilink source parent
[–] ThePrivacyPolicy@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 years ago And my country has price laws where tagged prices have to be honoured (I forget all the technicalities of the policy) - so if something scans up wrong, what stops the employee at service from changing the shelf price to reflect the wrong one while another employee walks over to verify with me? It would need a nefarious intent, which most minimum wage shop employees could care less about, but it's a theoretical that could happen, especially on higher price items. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago Surge pricing on Surge. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] lowleveldata@programming.dev -1 points 2 years ago It makes you feel cool? permalink fedilink source parent