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

[saxman]

Stolen software via bit torrent is nothing like stealing an ipod case. Downloading intellectual property without paying costs apple the opportunity of selling you that item- no actual loss of inventory. Stealing a tangible item like an ipod case or boxed software from a shelf is actual loss of the cost to make that product. Two different things.

Well of course copyright infringement ≠ theft. However, the customer experience is what Apple is about. Security measures on software and security measures to prevent physical theft both often harm the customer experience. That was the parallel I was making

 

[TM WAZZA]

12 minutes seems a bit odd. Why can't it be 10 or 15 minutes?

 

[JAT]

Yes, some grocery stores in the USA have been implementing self-checkout for many years.... although on a recent news report I heard that many stores are phasing out the self-checkout counters because customers don't like them. I can attest to the fact that each time I try to use these counters, the people in front of me take far longer to check themselves out because they can't figure out the system.

They've gotten much better for me. It's been available for several years, now, and people at our grocery stores have mostly figured it out and don't take nearly as long.

Apple is obviously not going to discuss any of their security measures so I can't wait to see how many dummies get arrested.

Why not?

Finally I suspect they believe people who buy 600 smart phones and tablets are not going to steal 30 cases

Well, they would be wrong.

 

[D.T.]

12 minutes seems a bit odd. Why can't it be 10 or 15 minutes?

Probably because it +does+ seem odd. Other retailers will be trying to reverse engineer that magic number for years. I can see the meeting at Apple: "Hey, let's use 12 minutes instead of 15 just to ******* with ..."

They've gotten much better for me. It's been available for several years, now, and people at our grocery stores have mostly figured it out and don't take nearly as long.

I totally dig on self-checkout. Around here, most people are scared by them, so they're generally open. Even got the need-to-be-weighed items pretty streamlined

 

[joepunk]

I hope it doesn't take long for the order online/pickup in-store to arrive in Washington State.

I also hope that if I order by phone I can pick it up in-store too.

 

[divinox]

Like LP does at every retail store in this country, they will profile their customers. If you look like you would steal something, the will ask for your receipt. If you're a mom with 2 small children, they'll let you pass. That's how LP works, unfortunately. I worked for Stop & Shop all through high school/college and the department monitors the entrance door cameras and chooses who to follow throughout their shopping experience. And, I'm nearly positive this technique is in the LP handbook.

Watching everyone is impossible, so they have to watch the people they would consider a theft threat.

If theft really becomes a problem (actual data doesn't reflect their research or projected data), they will either slash the system entirely or install a low cost, individual RFID tag to each self-checkoutable product.

You could also expect prices of self-checkoutable items to rise slightly to compensate for theft. Even by 50 cents. That seems to be a technique that works for companies. They will find out how much to expect to lose and then make cuts elsewhere.

Apple has an idea of what to expect and backup plans for if things turn out worse than expected. Their one of the largest companies in the world, they know what they're doing.

Which is why clever people dress up, or take their baby with them when they go out snatching expensive stuff. Who would suspect them, when there are a bunch of raggedy teenagers to trail?

----------

It is so obvious, guys. If you buy the product legitimately, some sort of RFID receiver on the box will be notified so that you can walk out of the store without tripping an alarm. And if you try to walk out without buying it, as anyone who has even read one Neal Stephenson novel should be able to guess, argon-gas lasers will deploy from the ceiling and vaporize you. Simple.

RFID tag, meet Tim Foil... err.. Tin.

 

[Trauma1]

Right, where have you been, underground ?

my comment to Trauma1 was based on him making a somewhat definitive statement that there are no RF scanners or the technology for such a thing. I was not sure if he meant Apple stores dont have those things, or if he really though the capability was not available since his comment was unspecific.

My fault for assuming that, in this Apple store-related thread, everyone would think that I was talking specifically about Apple stores.

As many others have already mentioned, the stores don't have any RF tracking systems in place. None whatsoever, not even for the serialized products. It's clearly visible, especially in the stores with large glass entrances. You can slap all the tags you want on the products, but it's useless if you don't have scanners/detectors. Monitoring foot traffic is a much simpler technology (video) that they use, but RF tracking is more involved. Putting in something like an RF system could require the costs associated with equipment, installation, maintenance, etc. in every one of their stores. Such costs might be higher than the costs associated with inventory shrinkage. Only they would know, and they have thought this through. This new self-check out is supposed to be rolling out imminently. The stores don't have RF systems in place as of now, and they're not going to be installing them especially for the launch today/tomorrow (depending where you are in the world).

RF tracking in the retail world has seen a lot of advancements and its prevalence has grown significantly in the past few years. But only among "typical" retail chains like Wal-Mart, Target, Gap, etc. This is a company who prides itself on doing things, especially retail, their own way. They are not going to conform to everyone else's standards without a legitimate need to. Obviously things could change, and I'm not going to pretend to predict the future with information I don't have. But currently they do not have RF tracking systems in place and any bystander can see this.

People who are going to steal will steal anyways. The company knows this. Whatever countermeasure they can come up with, someone will outdo them (like RF signal blocking). They are not going to compromise the customer experience and retail design over a small minority.

 

[Azathoth]

How will Apple employees know if someone is shoplifting?

Perhaps the scanning of the barcode will also identify the device SN. Seeing as pretty much all Apple devices are connected to the net nowadays, they could see that unsold inventory has been connected to the net?

 

[waterskier2007]

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!

There is barely any inconvenience. Hold up your card on the way in and take about 3 seconds to have the person read over your receipt and glance in your cart. They do that because they don't use bags at the checkout so people could easily throw more things in their cart. It seriously takes max 10 additional seconds out of your day and you are saving tons of money at that store. Grow up

 

[Trauma1]

Perhaps the scanning of the barcode will also identify the device SN.

Serial numbers are always scanned whenever the UPC of such a device is scanned.

 

[southernpaws]

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)

How will Apple employees know if someone is shoplifting?

Same as it is now....they won't.

Oh yeah. Good point.

The people who steal won't necessarily be more likely to steal. They weren't waiting for an apple employee to come by inthe first place.

 

[southernpaws]

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)

Like LP does at every retail store in this country, they will profile their customers. If you look like you would steal something, the will ask for your receipt. If you're a mom with 2 small children, they'll let you pass. That's how LP works, unfortunately. I worked for Stop & Shop all through high school/college and the department monitors the entrance door cameras and chooses who to follow throughout their shopping experience. And, I'm nearly positive this technique is in the LP handbook.

Watching everyone is impossible, so they have to watch the people they would consider a theft threat.

If theft really becomes a problem (actual data doesn't reflect their research or projected data), they will either slash the system entirely or install a low cost, individual RFID tag to each self-checkoutable product.

You could also expect prices of self-checkoutable items to rise slightly to compensate for theft. Even by 50 cents. That seems to be a technique that works for companies. They will find out how much to expect to lose and then make cuts elsewhere.

Apple has an idea of what to expect and backup plans for if things turn out worse than expected. Their one of the largest companies in the world, they know what they're doing.

Which is why clever people dress up, or take their baby with them when they go out snatching expensive stuff. Who would suspect them, when there are a bunch of raggedy teenagers to trail?

----------

It is so obvious, guys. If you buy the product legitimately, some sort of RFID receiver on the box will be notified so that you can walk out of the store without tripping an alarm. And if you try to walk out without buying it, as anyone who has even read one Neal Stephenson novel should be able to guess, argon-gas lasers will deploy from the ceiling and vaporize you. Simple.

RFID tag, meet Tim Foil... err.. Tin.

Majority of people who would put that much thought into it probably won't be eyeing a $20 iPhone case. I suppose

 

[trevorplease]

Bump please anyone.

why negative voted, legit question foo

 

[ladymacintosh]

Charging a premium for no customer service at all is not my idea of a good business model, from a customer's perspective.

 

[divinox]

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)



Majority of people who would put that much thought into it probably won't be eyeing a $20 iPhone case. I suppose

No. But something >100 that would sell like butter on the streets.

 

[tharris0101]

Apple stores are already weirdly trusting when purchasing items. I recently bought an Apple TV, got no receipt (it was e-mailed), walked back in a half hour later because I had forgotten to get an adapter I needed. I was still carrying the AppleTV. Grabbed the adapter, found a random different employee to check me out, handed him the adapter and said, "Just this. I've already paid for the Apple TV" and he just said okay and I was on my way again.

I think its going to still feel really awkward to scan a product and just walk out with it though. I think I will feel like I'm stealing even though I'm not

 

[MacFly123]

OK, I see where you're coning from but I wasn't meaning that Apple didn't strive for perfection where other companies did. No, what I meant was that although Apple strived for perfection, it was smart enough to realise that when it wasn't obtainable but there was still room for improvement, then that improvement should be made as a step towards perfection. Whereas other companies look to improving their existing products or processes, realise they can't make them perfect, but rule out any improvement because it's not perfection. Also, don't think about my comment purely in terms of products, think services and processes.

So, to directly apply this to the Apple shopping experience: Apple have come up with a new way of serving their customers. It leaves them liable to shoplifting, but at least they've realised that rather than just rule it out because of that, they've adopted it because it's not an actual regression.

In other words, the journey to Nirvana is taken in small steps, not one giant leap.

I get what you're saying but at the same time Steve was most proud of the things that they chose NOT to do because they only wanted to do things that they could revolutionize and make a massive contribution to reshaping.

----------

There is barely any inconvenience. Hold up your card on the way in and take about 3 seconds to have the person read over your receipt and glance in your cart. They do that because they don't use bags at the checkout so people could easily throw more things in their cart. It seriously takes max 10 additional seconds out of your day and you are saving tons of money at that store. Grow up

I understand why they do it. I also don't loose sleep over it in my life haha. But if you read this thread and pay attention you will see that many other people also understand why they do it but still find it annoying. It is called people don't like the feeling of being policed or bothered. Grow up? lol!

 

[neocerebrum]

At COSTCO wholesale, they have have people at the doors that check receipts. Apple already has people at the doors. Why can't they just look at the person's iPhone screen receipt when people leave the store with merchandise???

 

[divinox]

At COSTCO wholesale, they have have people at the doors that check receipts. Apple already has people at the doors. Why can't they just look at the person's iPhone screen receipt when people leave the store with merchandise???

false sense of security.

receipt would be electronic. electronic = easy to fake.

 

[Mac2012]

Good for the honest people... u need a cable? Amazon sells them for pennies on the dollar. Anyone who steals that stuff is just a plain thief!
They need to go back to the old days of cutting off your hands if your caught stealing because theres ways to get things if you have anything at all going for you towards integrity.

 

[ucantgetridofme]

lol