Author Topic: Retail products (food, consumables) qty shrinking, price THE SAME! (no surprise)  (Read 7640 times)

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Online ataradov

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If there is no power, then the store is closed. Registers won't work either.

Eink for tags is one of the better uses of "IoT".
Alex
 
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Offline etiTopic starter

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If there is no power, then the store is closed. Registers won't work either.

Eink for tags is one of the better uses of "IoT".

How can anyone predict which systems lose power? I am talking about any arbitrary link in the chain going down, not JUST the store power, and within the store there's going to be fused/RCD's zones. There is NOTHING simpler than paper slips; it's irreducible complexity, so they should leave it alone. If this WAS that good, everyone would use it... but not everyone feels a need to "fix" something that was working perfectly for centuries, and which NO ONE thought about "fixing" until our ridiculous smart "revolution" came along (which is not AT ALL a "revolution", it's just an army of myriad hammers, thinking everything is a nail.)

This is all one GIANT egotistical daydream from the sci-fi obsessed fanatical fantasists, "Buck Rogers" on a Saturday morning, and are fixated on FORCING it "to become so" just because. The luxury afforded to fictional futures is that they're DEVOID of flaws, deployment errors and lack of forethought - the sci-fi version is all "magic and perfect".

Look at "AI" (LOL!) and how utterly SHIT that is... and the same protagonists think this garbage is "a revolution" also. Urrrrrm, yeah, and a BIG, sarcastic, chortling no.
« Last Edit: November 23, 2019, 04:40:19 am by eti »
 

Offline james_s

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I don't think the e-ink tags are anything revolutionary but it doesn't sound like a big problem either. It's the sort of thing that can be built with cheap and proven commodity hardware, it will be reliable and offer some unique features, the day to day operation will be automated, integrated into the existing systems. So what if power is lost? You do realize that e-ink holds its state without power right?

I'm not really sure why anyone would have such a strong opinion on this one way or another. I'm sure it will be a reality soon and it's not really going to matter.

Have you been drinking? That's quite the angry rant about some silly price tags.
« Last Edit: November 23, 2019, 07:32:33 am by james_s »
 

Offline Halcyon

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Ah that's fantastic; finally a solution to the age-old problem of... erm, oh, hang on... QUICK - someome find a water-tight, provable justification for it - QUICK! :)
They can be updated automatically from a central database. You can change prices in real time. Just like Amazon does.

And when all this "smart" junk goes wrong, then what? A shelf-stacker could remove a paper slip and replace it in around 2-5 seconds, and no servers needed. Yet another example of making a simple, age-old system over complicated "just because"; just because you CAN do something, doesn't make the fact that you saw it through to execution, "better".

Power cut = no e-ink update = problems. People are stupid.

I'm not normally one to support "smart" technologies (especially crap you see stuffed in people's homes these days) but e-ink tags is one example of a great use of a solid and well understood technology.

There is very little to go wrong and if the tag is faulty, simply remove and provision another one. If there is an issue with the infrastructure, the tag is stuck displaying the previous price. No big deal. I can guarantee large supermarkets have some pretty tight SLAs in place when it comes to their IT and core infrastructure.

The 2-5 seconds spent replacing shelf tags, applying special pricing etc... is such a wasteful use of staff (then there is all the back-of-house maintenance such as updating databases). Multiply those few seconds by hundreds or thousands of items in a single store that need updating and straight away that time adds up. I would rather staff focus on things like keeping shelves stocked, customer service and store cleanliness than spending days changing paper tags.

Amazon, Microsoft and Google all use e-ink displays on their "sneaker-net" data transfer solutions like the AWS Snowball. Why? Because it works!

Even small local supermarkets have back-end servers and databases powering their point of sales systems. If anything was to fail, it would be due to the lack of redundancy and backups. When you go to your local store and a barcode is scanned, there are networks and systems in place right there. I honestly can't remember the last time someone manually keyed in the price of an item. An e-ink shelf tag failing is the least of their concerns (and one which is quickly, easily and cheaply resolved).
« Last Edit: November 23, 2019, 08:49:06 am by Halcyon »
 

Offline SilverSolder

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[...] I honestly can't remember the last time someone manually keyed in the price of an item.  [...]

I can!

When Aldi started up in the UK many years ago, I went to one of their supermarkets to check it out.  I went to the checkout with a large trolley, filled to the brim.   At the checkout, the queue was moving so fast I barely had time to load the goods onto the conveyor belt before it was my turn, and pulled the empty trolley forward to the end of the checkout.  I swear, I was barely able to throw the goods into the empty trolley as fast as the lady was able to punch prices into the register...   I was using both hands, literally shovelling stuff into the trolley at max speed.

"Jesus, you're fast!  How can you even read the prices that fast?", I asked.  She smiled:  "We have to memorize the prices of every single product in the store.  And we only accept cash!"

No checkout I have ever seen since - manned or computerised - has been as fast.  Of course, eventually Aldi "upgraded" to the same slow processes as everyone else.

Moral of the story:  Humans are awesome!
 

Offline james_s

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Moral of the story:  Humans are awesome!

Well, some of them are. I always seem to end up in the line with the slowest and most incompetent cashier in the store. The self checkout things are a mixed bag but generally I'll choose them when available to avoid having to make smalltalk with a stranger. The only real exception to that is when I'm buying something that contains alcohol and they need to check my ID anyway.
 

Offline kuriisenbo

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Yeah, I also don't like when the producer deceives the buyer and makes a double bottom on the package. I think it sucks. And the fact that our usual products have decreased in size is also true. Therefore, I prefer to buy products by weight without packaging. Also, products in packages are often intended for long-term storage, which means that they contain preservatives and other harmful substances. And I recently took a food intolerance test and found out that I am allergic to food dyes and preservatives. Products that contain these substances cause me an allergic reaction and destroy my health. Therefore, I try not to buy everything that is sold in packages and contains harmful substances. So I became a supporter of eco products.
« Last Edit: May 04, 2020, 07:29:44 am by kuriisenbo »
 

Offline LaserSteve

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What scares me more is that there is a act-a-like / talk-a-like UK Clone of  the Regis and Kathy Lee Show, , or Regis and Kathy Lee are a clone of those folks... |O

Ouch!

Well aware of the downsized packages, and Pringles Potato Chip cans are no longer a good waveguide at 2.4 Ghz because of the smaller chip size. That and they have little or no metal in them now...

A few years ago here in Ohio, I noted that Hershey bars had a much lower melting point.  I needed to keep them refrigerated on the way home in the summer.  Seems they abandoned the tropical mix / summer mix  for something cheaper.  After it melts you find out you have been buying much more whipped chocolate and air  then solid chocolate , too.

Steve


Steve
« Last Edit: May 02, 2020, 05:10:27 am by LaserSteve »
"When in doubt, check the Byte order of the Communications Protocol, By Hand, On an Oscilloscope"

Quote from a co-inventor of the PLC, whom i had the honor of working with recently.
 

Online I wanted a rude username

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Sorry, did you say "chocolate"? I thought you were talking about Hershey bars, isn't their primary ingredient butyric acid.  ;D
 

Offline rhodges

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I propose that any time a manufacturer makes a material difference in the packaging, it must have a significant notice in the packaging that it has changed from the last time. Change what you want, but you MUST LEGALLY inform the buyers.
Currently developing embedded RISC-V. Recently STM32 and STM8. All are excellent choices. Past includes 6809, Z80, 8086, PIC, MIPS, PNX1302, and some 8748 and 6805. Check out my public code on github. https://github.com/unfrozen
 

Offline Circlotron

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I found the Toblerone weight change the most devious. They kept the package dimensions the same but made the peaks further apart.
Somewhat similar with 7Ah SLA batteries. All the same size but the weight varies somewhat from one brand to the next.
Edit -> I suppose if they are all actually 7Ah despite the weight difference then maybe they could justify it.   I expect the heavier ones with more of that expensive lead might last longer maybe.
« Last Edit: May 03, 2020, 01:07:38 am by Circlotron »
 

Online themadhippy

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Next step have  the e ink pricing  strip to talk to your loyalty card and set the price accordingly ,far fetched? nope ,its  just taken several years  to get here get since i heard the idea at  one of the uk's  supermarkets chains  annual conference.
« Last Edit: May 03, 2020, 01:35:21 am by themadhippy »
 

Offline LaserSteve

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Quote:  Sorry, did you say "chocolate"? I thought you were talking about Hershey bars, isn't their primary ingredient butyric acid.  "

Rude Username,  I just nearly barfed when I read that...….  Thanks for dashing the image of a childhood favorite.   May your young  children accidently pull Santa's beard off at the mall...  Just kidding.... :-)

No, the taste has been going down hill too... It just doesn't taste like I remember it...  We also have so called Beer in the US, that has the distinct, subtle,  flavor of Diesel Fuel from the combustion based Nitrogen Generators used in processing it, as I'm sure it never even gets fermented.   Which is why microbrewery now dominates the industry in urban areas.  We have a horrible Federal law that defines pizza sauce, cheese, and even ensures that there is excessive salt in canned food, so I know what you mean...  |O

Fortunately local drug stores and confectionary stores have the real stuff, often made in Europe,  or will once Covid is over. You just pay a lot more for it.

Steve
« Last Edit: May 03, 2020, 09:46:25 pm by LaserSteve »
"When in doubt, check the Byte order of the Communications Protocol, By Hand, On an Oscilloscope"

Quote from a co-inventor of the PLC, whom i had the honor of working with recently.
 


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