Whether you're perusing the produce section at your local Food Lion or standing in the aisle mulling which of the ever-expanding array of Cheerios to pick up, there's a chance someone will be tracking your every move: The Salisbury-based grocer is casting an especially watchful eye on its shoppers in a consumer research pilot program now up and running at two Food Lion locations, Supermarket News reports. Using 120 overlapping video cameras, the company is following individual shoppers around the store from the moment they enter, tracking their behavior and decision-making to - the chain says - gain deeper insight into what drives customers.
Stores have long used video cameras to prevent shoplifting and monitor hot spots around the building. But now some are taking it far beyond the security realm, raising privacy concerns, as a recent New York Times article made clear:
Such clips, retailers say, can help them find solutions to problems in their stores — by installing seating and activity areas to mollify children, for instance, or by lowering shelves so merchandise is within easy reach.
Privacy advocates, though, are troubled by the array of video cameras, motion detectors and other sensors monitoring the nation’s shopping aisles.
Many stores and the consultants they hire are using the gear not to catch shoplifters but to analyze and to manipulate consumer behavior. And while taping shoppers is legal, critics say it is unethical to observe people as if they were lab rats. They are concerned that the practices will lead to an even greater invasion of privacy, particularly facial recognition technology, which is already in the early stages of deployment.
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21 comments:
Im certain people will take issue with this, but research hopefully will make shopping a more positive experience for us all.
Gee, that first comment sounds suspiciously like either a FL staffer or PR agent for the company that has the contract to crunch the data.
Having to endure more targeted advertising, which is what the ultimate goal of this is, seldom results in a "more positive shopping experience"; it's simply another way to invade our privacy further by trying to make us buy more things we neither need nor want. Everybody already knows how to shop in a grocery store.
But why should we be surprised? Food Lion is the company that was caught bleaching their expired meats and when busted, sued the investigators. And won. They claimed "unlawful serveillance" as I recall. Now they're doing the same thing to their customers. Ah, what a world we live in...
Well at least Food Lion has upgraded technology! lol....I worked for a marketing research firm a couple of years back and we had to follow people around with a tablet pc and watch them shop...but not make it obvious that we were following them. talk about "How to be a stalker training" haha.
The goal of this research is often pointless, maybe change a shelf around, or make them shorter, or place a more expensive item on top of the shelves.
I guess they'll be seeing me sneaking to eat all those grapes in the fresh fruits aisle.
Are people seriously going to complain about being videotaped while they shop? You do realize we're effectively being strip searched when we get on an airplane now, right?
Several times I've been in Food Lion, at least 4 different employees ask me how I'm doing. I've even had the same employee ask me how I was doing 3 different times at different places in the store. Several of their stores this happens to me. I'm sure it's just common courtesey to the customers but it gets annoying--leave me alone so I can do my shopping.
Why don't they just ask us?
I'd love to tell HT over at Morrocroft that it is a dumb idea for the canned vegetables to be on the same isle as the soup. That one isle is always packed.
As for the privacy issue, yea like 12:34 said we agree to fly nekked, tweet our whereabouts, and put pictures of boils on our behinds up on facebook so clearly no one really cares about privacy.
This is really gonna bug... some of the Entiteled feeling folks
But why should we be surprised? Food Lion is the company that was caught bleaching their expired meats and when busted, sued the investigators. And won. They claimed "unlawful serveillance" as I recall. Now they're doing the same thing to their customers. Ah, what a world we live in...
Excellent point. It's okay as long as it fits their agenda.
Wow are people really upset about this? When you go out in public, what you do is public. That is why it is called "public" right? Bunch of paranoid people. This is marketing, not stalking. When the camera's follow people home to see where their customers are from, then that's a little too much.
Big retail banks have used similar technology for years, so I don't think it's that big of a deal. The cost of installing and maintaining these systems restricts them to just a few locations.
Good for Food Lion..unless you have something to hide when you R in FULL public mode anyway..shut up and let a good company try something that might make your shopping experience better.Do you just have to bitch about everything?
This practice has been going on for over 35 years.
When I was a dairy manager at A&P in 1974, all dairy managers went to a seminar to learn how we could more effectively merchandise the dairy case using shopping patterns. We were asked to observe and plot where a certain number of customers went within the aisle and what they put in their cart. Without going into further details of how the gata was used, you get the point.
Today, chains can track you within the store WITHOUT using cameras or visually looking at you. This is done by RFID tags. While the technology has been around for awhile, the use is sparse but what it does is put a radio frequency generating tag or UPC where sensors in the store can read that unique item. It can also be used to control inventory and monitor waste.
I believe I would be more concerned about the Federal Government intruding into our lives than Food Lion wanting to know what kinds of beans you buy, which they know anyway everytime you use your MVP card.
If you aren’t doing anything wrong, then why worry who is watching while you are in a public place? Also, if the program helps to figure out what aisles need to be reworked or where attention is needed and it helps the shopping experience, why fuss?
To the poster at 11:32 AM if you did some research before posting you would know that FL was cleared because the whole thing was a scandal that the union helped make. The union had tried for years and never got into Food Lions. Food Lion was rewarded damages because upon further investigation all of the bad claims against Food Lion were things that the ABC and union employees (which gained employment using falsified resumes) actually did themselves. Not Food Lion employees. Thousands lost their jobs before Food Lion was cleared and the majority of the employees at the time lost their profit sharing dollars for retirement to a rigged news story. Bad and false statements do not just affect the company but they affect the people that work for them. Remember that before not doing research.
Before anyone asks, I am a Food Lion employee. I do not work at the corp office. I am just a peon in a local grocery store that survives paycheck to paycheck and goes to work every day knowing I am doing right by the thousands we serve every week. Sorry to get on my soapbox about this, but not many people can say they believe in their company and since I do - I am going to correct false statements.
I personally work for Food Lion and the news story from Primetime about bleaching meat was made up. I never seen or heard of anyone bleaching meat. That would be absord to think that the consumer would not tell this was going on. I am proud of working for a company that takes the high road when it comes to Food Safety.
Food Lion is making a concerted effort to become more 'customer-focused'; ensuring their customers are greeted when entering the store, etc. It's uncommon to have a sales or store associate be attentive these days, so it does weird me out a bit, but I have to give it to them - it makes me feel a bit better going in there and knowing I can get some help if I need it. There's been a significant increase in quality in both the produce and meat departments - I've actually bought meats there recently and they've been fresh, good cuts and much more reasonably priced than other chains in the area.
We shopped at the old "Food Town" original store growing up; it was hard to see them struggling for years to recover their image - but I'm willing to give them the chance if it saves me money.
Not wild about the camera ideas, tho - too "big brother".
And yet another reason to not shop Food Lion.
For you folks blaming a union, the Food Lion meat manager caught on video telling an undercover reporter how to bleach fish was not in a union.
I worked for Food Dog, as we affectionately called it, from 1979-1989 - the stories about bleaching fish were accurate, but it all depended on the location, and the supervisors over the location, They have different management now, and have cleaned up their act considerably, as has most of the grocery industry. Major chains do not sell outdates, grind up outdates in the hamburger, or repackage distressed product any more, although all of this used to be common.
That said, Food Dog's prices are still higher than Aldi and Walmart ;)
TO ALL THOSE POSTERS THAT ARE ALL: who cares/big deal/ and especially... "If it makes shopping easier..."
You SHOULD at the very least care, and it is a big deal, and it ESPECIALLY isn't there to make your shopping easier!
My hasn't it gotten so much easier for every single one of us to pick up a gal. of milk since supermarkets found out that if they put our milk in the furthest back corner of the store they'll literally force us to walk through several unnecessary aisles of their merchandise and thus might perhaps spend some money we don't need to spend?
Oh and where's that bread??? Why how THOUGHTFUL OF THEM to place all of it on the EXACT OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE STORE!
Yes it's just so much nicer now that it takes and additional 15 minutes to pick up a basic staple and come home with my pockets so much lighter too...especially if you bring the kids.
I adore how they've figured out how to manipulate and exploit the children with their crappy unhealthy expensive cereal boxes right their at a child's eye level, don't you?
Oh and I'm sure they're only thinking solely of our health and THAT'S why they place THEIR most perishable and most profit eating expense known as fresh produce directly inside the front door or off to the right where most people naturally navigate, ensuring that THEIR produce is the first thing we see, all prettily lit and freshly waxed...hmmm...yet the minute we remove it from their refrigerated produce shelf it begins to rot...and we still have the whooooole store to walk through to get our milk...gee, I'm confused...do they really care about our health or not?
Oh my, these supermarkets are ever so thoughtful and dreamy!
Thanks for making my shopping sooo much easier FL! Lol!
Time is money people, and the longer they can drain you of your time by keeping you in their store the easier it is for them to separate you from your money.
Plain and simple.
So by all means, let them video tape how you shop and then figure out how to screw you up even further by wasting your time to separate you from your money by manipulating you and your kids.
And as far as being a "big deal we're all always in public.." I'll tell you that it's not like they use the public viewing cams in London, England, the most videotaped population of all.
Scotland yard isn't trying to send you in a specific direction when you stand on a street corner, they don't care where you go, only that you behave lawfully. That's good for everyone.
FL's intent is to specifically USE YOU TO HELP YOU SCREW YOU.
Security Cams in stores are stationary and fixed, they don't usually follow you. Again, this help keeps costs down & is thus for the greater good.
The idea of a camera not being fixed or stationary and it's sole intent is to be FOCUSED ON and FOLLOWING ME???!!!
Specifically to see what I am doing the entire time???
Er,yeah...
NO THANKS.
An individual who's stalking me I can make the choice to elude, seek help, or confront in order to deduce intent.
Being knowingly video taped you have ZERO CHOICES, No idea WHO are even HOW MANY individuals will be or are watching you, what their true intent will be or is not only during filming but AFTER this video is made, much less how long that video of you will be in existence.
Being video taped in public is nothing like just being in public people.
Regardless, Make no mistake, FL's focused camera is there for ONE REASON AND ONE REASON ONLY, to separate you from your money... not to help you out in any way, and whether you're aware of it or not, it will in fact be detrimental to you.
Whether it's your time.
Your money.
Or your basic human right to what's known as "a usual and customary assumption" of privacy.
I won't be shopping at Food Lion...
Kit u sound as if you have major issues. You have the right to choose to buy something or not. If u r weak minded enough for them to manipulate u, well good for them. Maybe if u don't want to be seen in public, you should produce your own groceries and not leave your home. Problem solved
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