Sensor Shelves Now Following You Around In Grocery Stores
It's fair to say that the general population is always on camera in public, but now big companies are using technology to track your every (consumer) move.
The Washington Post reports that Mondelez International is planning to debut a grocery store shelf that is rigged with sensors to record the age and gender of passing customers.
According to Mondelez chief information officer Mark Dajani, the demographic information (but not the photos of the consumers themselves) will then be stored to help the company market the right products in the right places. Well-timed commercials, coupons, and an "embedded weight sensor" that lets Mondelez know when an item is picked up will reportedly help the company market their products, making impulse buys easier.
The new shelves are expected to debut in 2015, and while we're sure it's probably business-savvy to implement these devices, it's scarily reminiscent of marketing research that targets women when they have particularly low self-esteem. Because, as we all know, we are slaves to our stomach. And Mondelez International? Happens to be behind Chips Ahoy, Nabisco, and Ritz. Not exactly carrot sticks we're talking about here.