I've worked in a number of retail stores, and the amount of "shrinkage" (retail theft), is increasing by the year. As both an hourly worker and a manager, I've had the heartbreaking experience of catching both friends and co-workers stealing from the company and having to take action in response.
Today I read an article about a serial thief who was caught stealing and has now been banned at ALL 4,600 Walmart stores in America.
This "winner" used a barcode trick to scan more expensive items for $1 at the self-checkout, and then wander on out of the store after having "paid" for them. Thankfully, her five-finger-discount adventure is over, and now she sits behind bars awaiting some long overdue justice.
The surprising revelation in the article is the mention of 'invisible barcodes' which were designed to make self-checkout easier for purchases of Walmart's in-house Great Value brand products. This information was new to me but makes perfect sense with the expansion of the self-checkout system.
The company behind this new system Digimarc, creates novel packaging with not only the visible traditional barcode, but also prints a pattern of invisible watermark copies of said barcode all over the package itself. Take a look:
Been Caught Stealing
This not only makes self-checkout easier, but also has the effect of helping to "shrink" shrink when you're stopped by the Walmart employee at the exits who checks your receipt as you leave the store.
My area sees a ton of theft at our local Walmarts, and I've *often" seen people trying on sneakers for themselves and their kids, then walking out of the store without paying.
At Sears before they closed, our 'LP' (loss prevention) was kept busy running after suburban teens who kept stealing cosmetics on an almost daily basis. Turns out retail theft isn't confined to the "usual suspects" as I've seen people of all races, ages and genders pilfering (a word we need to use more) products then attempting to scram (another old word we need to bring back) with the goods.
I like to use self-checkout as a way of avoiding having the cashier touch my produce after picking their nose, of pulling their underwear from between their butt-cheeks with their fingers, then touching my stuff.
After shopping at our local Super Walmart for so long, (and spending so much money BTW), they now wave me past the checkout employee at the exit. No doubt, I'm in their facial recognition system as an actual shopper as opposed to the criminals that prey on the retail stores in the area.
I expect the invisible barcode system to expand to all products and all stores. Walmart now uses RFID in select products for "inventory control" and I see that being rolled out with the new barcode system for future insight and control.
Imagine all of the different ways this could be combined with a Chinese-style social credit system to um, track sales, lower shrink, and influence the "behavior" of the masses. It turns out that big brother isn't on the way, he's already here.
There you are! Glad to see you, been wondering where you were.
I find getting stopped at the doors so irritating. It drives me nuts. Dropping a couple of these punks with a severe beat down a few times would stop this shit from happening so much.
I'm catching up on my writing elsewhere and won't be publishing on Hive as often as before as it's not worth my time .
I was shocked at the theft we saw at Sears. It was like every couple of hours we'd see someone from LP (Loss Prevention) go running out of the video station to collar some shoplifter, and shockingly, most of it was cosmetics. As for the woman in the linked story, you've gotta be pretty bad to get banned at ALL Walmart's. Glad she's behind bars where she belongs! :)
Man I hate to hear you won’t be around as much. That stinks. Where else do you hang your hat?
One place that I'm trying to get going is on Medium. I actually paid for a membership a couple of years ago and am trying some things out to see how I want to present over there. I haven't done anything there as of yet, as Medium is a whole different nut to crack from Hive. I'm doing practice pieces offline as I haven't nailed down which niche I want to target yet. I made just one comment on someone elses article and was surprised at the responses it got. You really have to bone up on things and prep first if you want to be successful over there. The nonsense low-effort "doing pullups in the park" posts and posting "delicious recipes" pics that receive huge upvotes here, won't fly over there. That's a place where long-form authors can really shine. I publish on other platforms as well, so Hive is just one of the places that I create on, but it will always be home to me. :)
Well I hope you do come around some because I enjoy your posts.
That's interesting. Never knew they could do that. For me self-checkout is kind of offensive because I was a cashier/packer (not getting paid or discount for doing it) but I do see your point. That is one job I wouldn't mind having a robot to do for me. I hope to see that one day. I think more options the better.
I did overnight stocking at Walmart and Target, so I get it. I like being waved through now by the exit-checker. I guess they used AI and realized how much I spend at Walmart and decided to stop bothering me and just let me spend. :)
BTW, your main blog page gives an error page when I try to visit it (but your transfers page shows).
Which frontend are you using? So I can investigate. Thanks for letting me know. Also which browser?
The regular hive.blog. I tested coinjoes page and his shows up while yours gives an error (shows the robot graphic, then a blank page). It might just be something on my end if no one else is reporting it.
No I think there may be an issue. Somewhere in the code. I am having the same problem with hive.blog. When I try other frontends I have no problem accessing the whole profile. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
Question: what's the origin of nastyforce? My moniker was birthed as I'm known locally here for noticing things that others miss, hence: EverNoticeThat. I know a little bit about a lot of things. I joke that my knowledge-base is a mile wide and an inch deep. :)
Plus, I see you're Canadian, and since Americans love Canada and Canadians in general, they're not often tagged as nasty.
I also wonder how you guys feel about Trump lusting after your territory. I think he's deadly serious about Greenland, but can't tell if he's just trolling about aqcuiring 'The Great White North.' He can be hard to read at times.
RuneScape suggested it to me over a decade ago. They didn't like the one I picked, since someone already had sabs. Thought it was cool, so it's been my gamer tag ever since.
I think Trump is just trying to start shit with Canada. I don't think we will become the 51st state. A lot of the Country is boycotting US brands in protest to the tarrifs. Some of the western provinces may entertain the idea but there is no plans to do so any time soon. All depends on how much the Federal government tries to control the western provinces. Right now we are putting laws to prevent the Federal government from taking full control (reinforce the laws that already exist) but that my soon lead to us to splitting if the Federal government doesn't respect our laws. If that happens we will determine if we are becoming our own government/country or joining the US to become the 51st state. Only time will tell, who is going to win the pissing contest.
Got the blog problem fixed. You should be able to view it now. My reblogs triggerd a glitch.