Big Brother Comes To Wal-mart

[The Templar]

Originally posted by Sprayber


Have you ever worked there? I can say that I have and they are no worse than any other chain to work for. Point number 2 is just plain ingnorant because I dealt with the walmart management structure and trust me when I say there are plenty of women there giving out orders. Don't believe everything you hear.


BTW. I didn't even like it there but you describe is a gulag system or something.

I have never worked at WalMart, but I did work at two grocery stores when I was a kid. One was unionized (Kroger), the other was not (Winn Dixie). The difference in employee dignity and pay scale and benefits (for full time workers) was readily apparent. Winn Dixie was very much like a gulag, Kroger was tolerable.

[David Floyd]

I already refuse to shop at Walmart, except in an emergency, and even then, I'll only go to Walmarts in high income areas.

[Ted Striker]

Wal-Mart hates us because of our freedom.

[mrmitchell]

This is a bad move for Wal-Mart. I like them just fine (partially because they are cheap and they're the only local economy around here anyways ) but this crosses the line. No no, bad Wal-Mart!

What's the worst they could find out with this tracking system? Your address?

I don't care about my ****in address! Did you read that the article said these things cost sixty cents? I don't want to pay for $hit like that! I just want to buy my product and get lost!

[Asher]

Whoever is worked up over this needs to get a reality check.

The tags are deactivated when you leave the store,

[JohnT]

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

http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/print/0,1643,39278,00.html

Dayum! A 101 terabyte inventory/sales database?

Betcha they don't run that on Linux.

[JohnT]

Ted, you win "The Most Bizarre and Inane" comment of the day award!

[mrmitchell]

The tags are deactivated when you leave the store,

I always found that reading the article would be helpful.

Retailers are SUPPOSED to alert their customers to the
tracking chips and offer to "kill" the tags at the
checkout counter.

Don't count on it, because what you don't know won't
hurt you, right? And to PROVE those RFID tags won't be
"killed" at the cash register one of the ways they're
planning on convincing you, the shopper that these
tags are A-OK is by touting how "hassle-free" returns
will be. Huh? If the tags are supposedly turned off at
purchase, how can they be read after the item's
brought back to the store? Just one of the myriad lies
you'll be told about this technology.

Best case, the Wal-Mart employees won't know or won't care about the RFIDs and they will be out of range when you leave the store. Worst case, we will not be told of this at all. :spooky:

[JohnT]

Some other facts about Brockton MA and the surrounding county:

White: 89.0% (for the state as a whole 84.5%)
Percentage of adults with HS degrees: 91.3% (84.8%)
Median Household income: $63,432 ($50,502)
Percentage below poverty level 4.6% (9.3%)

Yup... sounds just like your typical "uneducated, poor, minority" hellhole to me.

[JohnT]

Given that the things have a range of ~5 feet, how do you think they are going track you home to get your address?

[JohnT]

Originally posted by mrmitchell

I always found that reading the article would be helpful.

"Opinion piece", not "article." The beginning of knowledge is the proper definition of terms, mrmitchell.

[Dinner]

I think I've been to Walmart maybe once in the last year.

[mrmitchell]

Given that the things have a range of ~5 feet, how do you think they are going track you home to get your address?

I don't. Yet. Part of the fear in this, I'm assuming, is that one day a grain-sized tracker with a range of, say, a mile will be developed. And then so on. Plus, "slippery slope" applies.

"Opinion piece", not "article." The beginning of knowledge is the proper definition of terms, mrmitchell.

The author apparently brands it as "news with a view". I find all three terms acceptable, although the story did get out of hand toward the end.

[darkgrendel]

Oh. My. God.

This is about the most paranoid article I've ever read. Oh no! Walmart will be able, theoretically, to track what you buy there! As if they'd have the manpower to actually keep profiles on every person who ever shopped there (especially considering that a chunk of those people pay in cash, thus only revealing their identity by way of security cameras- and think how much time and energy would need to go into figuring out who bought what that way!). Moreover, even if they did keep tabs on every Walmart shopper in this way... how does this hurt you, exactly?

And as to the "slippery slope" idea- load of crap, says I. Walmart tracking people's purchases leads to total monitoring of every person at all times, 1984-style? Give me a break.

[Spiffor]

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

Most intelligent onr-liner on 'Poly in a long time