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Details on Apple Retail's New In-Store Pick Up and Self Check Out Process

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Somehow I think that shoplifting will become easy. Someone could pretend to scan something with their phone, pretend to pay for it, then walk out. How will they know?
 
gcastillo said:
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Somehow I think that shoplifting will become easy. Someone could pretend to scan something with their phone, pretend to pay for it, then walk out. How will they know?
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They're watching you, if you look suspicious, they ask to see the invoice on your phone.
 
Saving money?

If you have people checking out by themselves, you don't have the need for a store employee. The employees can spend their time focusing on customers making large purchases. In the long run, this could mean less employees necessary per store so Apple could save money on salaries.

I do like the order online and pick up in store option though. If you won't be home to wait for a delivery, you can just go pick it up. (Assuming you are close enough to an Apple Store)
 
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Lukeyy19 said:
gcastillo said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Somehow I think that shoplifting will become easy. Someone could pretend to scan something with their phone, pretend to pay for it, then walk out. How will they know?
Click to expand...

They're watching you, if you look suspicious, they ask to see the invoice on your phone.
Click to expand...

I bet you I could fake it and look not suspicious at all. It's not too hard. It would be hard to know someone is shoplifting just by looking at them. Plus apple employees are already busy enough.
 
I guess I am getting too old, but I like to think there are more honest people out there than idiots who are looking to scam anything and everything. And this coming from a very different kind of teenager who would go on "shopping sprees" at the local mall. My God I think I might have just grown up a bit. I better go find some alcohol to quell that feeling...
 
xsemperidem5 said:
If you have people checking out by themselves, you don't have the need for a store employee. The employees can spend their time focusing on customers making large purchases. In the long run, this could mean less employees necessary per store so Apple could save money on salaries.

I do like the order online and pick up in store option though. If you won't be home to wait for a delivery, you can just go pick it up. (Assuming you are close enough to an Apple Store)
Click to expand...

In my Apple Store experiences, they had zero people dedicated to checking people out. Buying small ticket items has been a nightmare for years and I welcome the change.
 
The article says that this will be launching 'worldwide' on November 3rd. Does that mean that Canadians will finally be able to download the Apple Store app? So far it hasn't been available to download on the Canadian app store.
 
Maybe they will have a system in the store that they will be able to monitor that alerts them when a person makes a self check out...that way they would know if someone did or not.

Im thinking like you purchase on your phone...then a receipt automatically prints somewhere in the store. you go tear it off and walk out with your products
 
Why not do like some music artists who make their album freely available and people pay what they think it's worth? Let us pick up accessories and pay what we think they're worth!
 
Xtal said:
Easy. Each item has a unique RFID tag. When you make the purchase your phone sends a message to the store notifying the systems to let that RFID tag through the detectors.
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This is what I was thinking as well

They would just need unique barcodes linked to unique RFIDs for every item, which is doable, and an in store security system linked to their purchasing system

Trauma1 said:
There are no RF tags, or even a system to support that.
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huh? Are you claiming to have inside info on Apples plans imparticular or are you just very uninformed when it comes to the capabilities of current technology
 
I imagine the shelf checkout won't be as much looting as you all expect. Probably got some people watching it. I mean self checkout is everywhere such as grocery stores. Only downside for Apple is the sheer amount of traffic that makes most stores look like a mosh pit.
 
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Well at my store you pay and then walk out with an Apple bag. It's obvious if you go back to the shelves to stuff something else in. Or just walk out with a product and no bag.
 
bake7907 said:
Im thinking like you purchase on your phone...then a receipt automatically prints somewhere in the store. you go tear it off and walk out with your products
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Someone else could just stand by the receipt printer, rip it off themselves, and then go collect their prize.

Not to mention the fact paperless receipts have been offered for years now, so there are already plenty of people walking out of the store sans paper receipt, and quite possibly bagless.

----------
AmpSkillz said:
huh? Are you claiming to have inside info on Apples plans imparticular or are you just very uninformed when it comes to the capabilities of current technology
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It's not inside information.
 
There will be less employees dealing with people's small purchases, so specialists can be there for people's needs when purchasing computers. The additional big ticket items will probably make up for any idiots who choose to game the system and shoplift.
 
AmpSkillz said:
huh? Are you claiming to have inside info on Apples plans imparticular or are you just very uninformed when it comes to the capabilities of current technology
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Apple Stores don't have scanners/detectors at the entrance, and there is no way to put an alarm inside each and every retail box. I worked in Apple Retail for three years. We had minimal security in place. You seem to be the one uninformed on this front Slick.
 
!

foidulus said:
by limiting the price of the items that can be self-checked out, they are limiting the amount that one person can reasonably steal in one trip. To prevent "repeat business" they will probably will have ways to guarantee that the same people aren't constantly coming in and taking stuff out....

My guess is they probably ran some models and figured that they still come out ahead, even if there is a little bit of extra "shrinkage".

Plus most shoplifters probably aren't really smart enough to realize this system exists and will instead focus on ripping off the more expensive merchandise.
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Exactly. Lots of research goes in to every idea in retail. Apple wasn't just like "herr durr let's do self-checkout!"

It's likely a process that they've probably been researching and running numbers on for years. They won't half-ass something as critical as how their retail stores operate.

Do you guys really think Apple didn't consider the shoplifting possibilities?
 
This would have been even better had Apple implemented NFC and proximity sensors in the iPhone4s. It would give the iPhone4s users a unique experience.
 
TMar said:
So how is your plainclothes security, cameras and force attuned employees going to tell that someone isn't just holding their phone up like they are buying an item in-app when they're not?
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When someone in the store has checked themselves out, maybe the security person in the back could get a little ping showing it's happened. If someone's pantomiming and it doesn't go through, they'd know.
 
"Apple will not be manually verifying purchases."

Hahaha, we'll see how long this lasts.

It will probably turn out like the exit strategy at Costco.
 
addison1203 said:
How will Apple employees know if someone is shoplifting?
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Schtumple said:
Honestly, this seems far too trusting. I can see shoplifting becoming rife with "oh my phone must've messed up" being the excuse if caught.
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j-a-x said:
Sounds awesome and very convenient. I will be interested to see the shoplifting stats though.
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Even if they keep an eye on people in general someone could easily mess with their iPhone and pretend to scan something but just rip it off and walk out.

Guess we will see how it goes lol.

rickdollar said:
It will probably turn out like the exit strategy at Costco.
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I HATE that about Costco! First you get annoyed about your card going in even though you couldn't purchase anything without one, and then harassed further when leaving. ANNOYING!
 
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