Welcome to the future of shopping, where you pay for your products with not just money, but your behavioral data. Kroger is pushing new tech to try and beat Amazon out in the grocery field, tech that will start to implement population conditioning and mind control. Sound ludicrous? Let's go over the facts.
https://www.businessinsider.com/kroger-microsoft-store-tech-2019-1
>Digital shelves. This system — which originally debuted in the fall and is currently present at the ends of aisles in 92 Kroger stores — eschews paper price tags in favor of digital displays, enabling shelves to dynamically update prices and display other information like ads, promotions, and nutritional details. Additionally, if a customer uses Kroger's self-checkout app, the shelves can recognize when they enter an aisle and display a personalized icon to guide them to products on their shopping list.
Now, with the touch of a button, you can be guided to the item you so desire. But, what if you don't even know what you want? Don't worry, the system has you covered.
>A network of in-store sensors. These include ceiling-mounted sensors that collect data on shoppers' habits
>Additionally, Microsoft's artificial intelligence (AI) can estimate data about customers, such as age and gender, enabling Kroger to serve targeted ads to shoppers on digital shelves' displays while they're in the store. These ads could serve as a new source of supplemental revenue for the grocer.
With the power of AI and spying on you 24/7, we know you better than you know yourself. Having trouble shopping? We will guide you to what you really want. The isle will light up for you, playing targeted ads, convincing you of what you need. And with dynamic price shifting, think of all the things we can do in the future! We can add diversity taxes for the culturally impaired people, discounts for (((members))), and fix the gender bias in product pricing! And it's all just the beginning. What if we take it a step further, and built what you want before you even knew you desired it? What if we guided what you wanted? What if we guided what you think? What if we guided humanity to a better future?
https://youtu.be/QDVVo14A_fo
But it's ok. You are fine with this outcome. If you weren't, why would you have agreed to go along with it? This is for your own good. Now download the app, click agree, and join us in the future! Your first suggestion is waiting for you to accept. Don't be left behind.
In all seriousness, this will have huge ramifications. They are talking about having the technology automatically add items you take from the shelf to a digital cart and you pay as you leave, removing checkouts, and the jobs they come with. The data collected will be sold to other companies as they continue to try and predict people. The masses will simply let the device tell them what to buy. The device is with us at all times anyway and it saves that precious time by a couple of seconds. The only way you could improve it is if the device was installed into your hand or something. But that will never happen... right?
What do you think? Have I gone mad at a simple tech upgrade?