Photo: TDM
The surveillance expands further.
NEW SMART GATES
Shoppers have been left stunned by a new addition to the self-serve checkout dystopia at Coles.
The image, shared to Reddit, showed two black gates at the exit point of a Coles self serve section.
“What’s with the new ominous scanners at Coles,” the photograph was captioned.
The gates are not scanners, but ‘Smart Gates’, and they are the latest addition in a long line of ‘security measures’ that have been introduced across the country ‘in response to rising theft rates’.
Security cameras above the checkout machines track all items being scanned and placed into bags, and if discrepancies are found, the gates will shut while an alarm rings out, keeping the customer in the store:
Photo: AUO
If that fails to keep a suspected thief from leaving the store, the wheels on new high-tech trolleys will completely lock up the moment they leave the store.
This new system has already caused dramas with shoppers in-store.
One person is claiming they were “falsely imprisoned” by the gates and is suing Coles:
“While most of our customers do the right thing, unfortunately a small number don’t,” a Coles spokesperson said.
The entire store now contains technology that keeps track of customers from the moment they enter the store, recording the time taken to shop through each aisle, and when they reach the self checkout.
A few months ago, Woolworths did a similar move, with alarms coming from the checkout itself, using their new technology as a way to also reduce ‘human costs’ (staff) and keep a closer ‘eye on things’.
Big Brother is Watching.
In just a few years, our supermarkets will look like they have come out of a science fiction novel.
SUPERMARKET TRANSFORMATION
Coles has been one of the major companies leading the transformation of our supermarkets.
We recently reported on how the chain is pushing ahead with new ‘hybrid’ self-serve checkouts, where customers will use an unmanned conveyor belt as the ‘alternative’ option to the current ones.
And this is just one small element of a larger, sophisticated system. According to Coles:
“Coles has a range of security measures in place to reduce theft from our stores including CCTV, electronic article surveillance (EAS), and in some stores new smart gate technology that automatically opens as customers make payment for their products.”
In 2019, we first reported on the push by Coles and Woolworths to begin their shift to automated workforces as part of a massive long-term ‘cost-cutting’ initiative.
The vision for the future is ‘checkout free’ supermarkets that will use facial recognition and digital identity to introduce a ‘seamless’ process for shoppers where all items are automatically calculated and paid for.
Under this system, shoppers walking into a store would scan their phone on a train-station-like turnstile, connecting their presence in the store (as well as fellow shoppers) with their profile.
Shortly after, artificial intelligence, sensors and data are used to detect what customers pick up and put in their bags, before being charged to their accounts on exit from the store.
Amazon Go was the first service to do this, and its the exact Orwellian ‘shopping experience’ that stores want to transition Australia towards over the next decade.
Now, we have automatic gates that shut and alarms that ring out, accusing everyone of being ‘up to something’ in true Orwellian fashion.
But have faith, it’s not completely there just yet, and alternative options still exist.
Let’s not forget that Coles have completely blown out their budgets for automated warehouses, and hopefully their idea for ‘checkout free’ stores will also face delays and backlash.
Never underestimate the power of people, as we have seen by recent changes to Booths stores in the U.K, in which the chain will remove self-serve checkouts based on local feedback.
Coles and Woolworths have said they will not be following these plans, but if enough people speak up and refuse to use their stores/complain about it, they won’t ignore massive shifts to their businesses.
It’s time to let these chains know exactly how we feel, either by walking away and choosing non-invasive local shoppers, connecting with community groups, or protesting the moves themselves.
Sometimes walking away isn’t the best idea, and a fight is what they deserve.
But either way, you the consumer have the power to completely shape the market.
Tell Big Brother to ‘get stuffed’!
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Head this BullShit off at the Pass = Organise to source your gear elsewhere – AND, let the CorePoorRats Know it, But NOT @ Staff level! Email head offices in your State. If this doesn’t work = GREAT! With the Swindle RBA interest rates FREE Grifting the Banks, & Domestic Budgets tight – AGAIN, Try forming Local Co-Ops. Barter & Exchange.
With Primary Producers, apparently Not worth their ‘Keep’, & the Population @ Large ‘Slackers’ ( RBA looking @ ‘Productivity Drops’ as ANOTHER way to grift EVEN MORE ‘LOOT’ to The FOREIGN ‘Australian’, [Oxymoron] Banks – NO MATTER the ‘Cause’ of said Productivity Drop BEING THE SOLE, PURPOSEFUL, Govt Infliction on the Masses), IT IS TIME For even the ‘Asleep’, to get their Collective Crap together, & BYPASS the Corporates – Real Estate & ‘Supply’ Inclusive. YOU only get out, What you’re ‘Willing to Put IN!’
Back to the Primary Producers. The Cyclic CONtinuous Loop, of TOO MANY ‘Intermediaries’ of Supply, pushing up prices from ‘Farm To Supermarket’ shelves, AND, the ‘Dictates’ of Supply by the Corporates ( who appear to gain the Lions share of Profitability), WHY haven’t said Primary Producers NOT enabled their OWN Commercial outlet Systems, ‘Independent of’ The Few Corporate Oligarchy Chains? ( ‘Chains’ – Apt!). And, it’s Not as if The Producers Don’t have the ‘Clout/ Intelligence/ Connections’!
Less ‘Middle Men’, More Profitability & Sustainability for Primary Producers, & Probably at a Slightly lower rate Than the Current ‘NON’ Competition Supermarkets!
Wellness
So when we shop there we are giving consent? Best to avoid these supermarkets as much as possible, if not shop online, might as well get them to do the work for you. Try farmers markets, organic shops, and buying in bulk online. I buy oats and lentils direct from biodynamic grower, they love the business. Check out Burrum Burrum.
Good idea Lin
Time to boycott Moles and Bullies
Karratha has them one at fast check out just put trolley to block sensor it will stay open