In Bid to Sway Sales, Cameras Track Shoppers
At a mall, a father emerged from a store dragging his unruly young son by the scruff of the neck, as if he were the family cat. The man had no idea his parenting skills were being immortalized.
At an office supply store, a mother decided to get an item from a high shelf by balancing her small child on her shoulders, unaware that she, too, was being recorded.
These scenes may seem like random shopping bloopers, but they are meaningful to stores that are striving to engineer a better experience for the consumer, and ultimately, higher sales for themselves. 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.
"Unethical to observe people as if they were lab rats," do ya think?
But when do ethics stop corporations from doing what they want? Paying pennies to a 14 year-old Asian girl who lives in the factory she works in (or in slums, nearby) to make clothes for Americans isn't ethical either. But hey, anything to make more money, right? Exploit whomever, where ever, to get what ever you need to make more money.
Although, to be honest, I like the idea of that brunette in the pic above watching me. ;P (you know, while we're being morally questionable...)
Sorry, I'm feeling VERY heavy handed today....
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