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How many of those people can afford iPhones in the first place though?

I have no doubts that if such a system is put into place that theft/ shoplifting/ 'I-thought-I-paid-for-it's' will increase exponentially and cause problems. But given Wal-Marts clientele, I think a majority will be 'iPhoned' out from the get go.



And i bet half the people at the apple store cant afford the Bmw M5 i have....whats your point?
 
You live in a different economic world than a lot of people. Pity you can see much from there.

I worked ****** retail in high school and college, part time. And I still cracked a decent amount of money.

If you can't afford an iPhone, dont buy a phone at all! Get a pre paid flip phone.
 
Bad move

If they do this in the ghetto cesspool where I live, their inventory will shrink right along with their profits as their shoplifting skyrockets. I can just hear the ghettoliscious excuses now.
 
hows self-checkout working in the US? its pretty pointless here in Germany. its either closed or an employee watches over you anyway so they might as well do it themselves lol

poor ppl in retail

Same here in the USA. They usually have 2 self-checkout lanes which need to be manned to keep things moving, yet it's still much slower than going through the normal checkout. Average wait to give Walmart your money is about 17 minutes here. As you said, they have a dozen lanes, but only 2 to 3 are open with 6 to 8 or more people in line at each. I still can't understand why they make it so hard to give them your money. I stopped going to Walmart last year. My time is simply worth more than any money I might save, not to mention how depressed I feel whenever I leave the store.

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If they do this in the ghetto cesspool where I live, their inventory will shrink right along with their profits as their shoplifting skyrockets. I can just hear the ghettoliscious excuses now.

Ghetto Creep is an ongoing problem. They closed down the Best-Buy next door last year, and Walmart is shutting down after the Holidays. They just couldn't get product to pass through checkout on its way out of the stores. It's 14 miles to the Apple store, so it may take a few years to get to them.

Thei new App may help the checkout time, but I'm concerned about the theft.
 
I really hope this becomes widespread. I absolutely love the Scanners at Stop & Shop. You can pack your bags as you shop, scan, and then pay without waiting in line. Walmart ALWAYS has a line no matter when you go. It would be great there. Just do the random audit thing that S&S does, and they'll be fine.
 
Note exactly the same as this retail model, but when we flew back from NYC a few months ago, several of the restaurants/bars in the airport had iPad based self-service right at the table. In fact, the first screen you set your flight so that the app could notify you of the status and time (and even do a little upsell, "You've got time for a cup of coffee").

It was pretty slick, we ordered a couple of beers, swiped our card, and a few minutes later we had our order. :)

God, this just brings memories of "Wall-E" to mind. We're headed for a world of people floating around in loungers drinking their corporate meals and communicating to everyone with their touchscreen devices.
 

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It wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn of an Apple / Walmart strategic alliance.

Applemart will soon be the only corporation in the USA.

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God, this just brings memories of "Wall-E" to mind. We're headed for a world of people floating around in loungers drinking their corporate meals and communicating to everyone with their touchscreen devices.

Massive, massive facepalm. There is a reason why I eat salad every day (and I hate salad) and bike at least 50 miles a week plus 3 days at the gym: because I don't want to end up like that.
 
The Future

What this means is the tip of the iceberg for massive retail layoffs. All retailers will eventually follow suit . It's not a matter of if... It's a matter of when. If you work as a cashier in retail...time to upgrade your marketable skills. This is what the term "natural selection" refers to.
 
Massive, massive facepalm. There is a reason why I eat salad every day (and I hate salad) and bike at least 50 miles a week plus 3 days at the gym: because I don't want to end up like that.

Amen. I've been lifting/training since high school, and get 45-60 minutes of "gorilla" cardio 4-5x week. Working in communications (mostly as I enjoy it) while in grad school, it's hard not to fall into the "trap" of 24/7 sitting in front of your systems. However, it's hard not to realize the general population is already headed in that direction. More cars, more consuming, less walking, less interaction.
 
I just wish Costco would implement this. Imagine if you could scan your purchases on your phone, pay for it on your phone, print out a receipt at various kiosks and then they verify your purchases as you walk out the door.
 
What this means is the tip of the iceberg for massive retail layoffs. All retailers will eventually follow suit . It's not a matter of if... It's a matter of when. If you work as a cashier in retail...time to upgrade your marketable skills. This is what the term "natural selection" refers to.

Sadly, very true. However, for the past decade it has been impossible for most American's to afford a higher education and banks stopped giving out many student loans. If you were lucky enough to qualify for a student loan to pay for $30-40,000/year tuition costs, you're most likely paying the 29.99% interest rates banks began charging even with good credit (anything below 30% is "fair game").

The divide grows with less people educated to compete in a global market while America sinks further into a "hospitality" nation. God I miss the "good ole days"
 
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It's really just a variation of the Sam's Club approach. That's probably where it came from. At the longer lines at Sam's Club they have a roving employee with a scanner who scans your items while you're waiting in line. When you get to the register your purchase is already there and it just needs to finalize. They've just eliminated the rover with the scanner and made that the task of the customer. You're right, they're getting the customer to do the work.

Not a variation on, but a perfection of. They can even cut out the roving employee with the scanner because the customers have agreed to do his job for nothing, and even provide their own equipment.
 
Sadly, very true. However, for the past decade it has been impossible for most American's to afford a higher education and banks stopped giving out many student loans. If you were lucky enough to qualify for a student loan to pay for $30-40,000/year tuition costs, you're most likely paying the 29.99% interest rates banks began charging even with good credit (anything below 30% is "fair game").

The divide grows with less people educated to compete in a global market while America sinks further into a "hospitality" nation. God I miss the "good ole days"

Student loans are given by the federal government. Private loans are rare these days for student loans. Even the loans previously given by banks were actually federal loans serviced through banks. This practice has essentially stopped.

30-40,000 tuition is more like medical school tuition (though 40-50,000 is more typical).
 
How many of those people can afford iPhones in the first place though?

Everybody can afford an iPhone these days. It's hardly the exclusive symbol of wealth and taste some people believe it to be.

Case in point, I grabbed my iPhone as soon as I was eligible for my 2 year upgrade through Verizon. It cost me roughly $90 for my membership dues to Club Apple. Were I in more dire financial straits, I could've paid for my iPhone with a couple of trips to the Plasma clinic, or a few days of swap meets, or setting aside bits out of my paycheck for a month or two. An iPhone is not a hard thing to get.
 
Fail. The point of a self-checkout is to get through faster and avoid the lines. If you have cases of soda or water, you cannot fit the damn things on the scale, and if you can, you have to remove the previous bags. And due to this, you need to get approval for all of the scenarios.


Most self checkout I've seem have a big sign " 25 items or less" . If you have 75 items and run out of room on the rotating carousel it's your fault!! The express lane for people with 6 or less items is also to avoid lines. With your logic you think you can go to any line as you please to check out not thinking of the other people. I bet you would to a 1000$ checkout at the makeup counter and complain.
 
Sadly, very true. However, for the past decade it has been impossible for most American's to afford a higher education and banks stopped giving out many student loans. If you were lucky enough to qualify for a student loan to pay for $30-40,000/year tuition costs, you're most likely paying the 29.99% interest rates banks began charging even with good credit (anything below 30% is "fair game").

The divide grows with less people educated to compete in a global market while America sinks further into a "hospitality" nation. God I miss the "good ole days"

Yes, what needs to happen is a major change in the way the unemployment office works. They need to focus on retraining people for new jobs instead of just handing out checks. Hoping people will find a good job in this economy is pretty much a lost cause. It will cost more in the short term, but will pay off greatly in the long term. The cost of school tuition is another sad story. When I went to my local city college 40 years ago, I only paid for the cost of my books and supplies.
 
Student loans are given by the federal government. Private loans are rare these days for student loans. Even the loans previously given by banks were actually federal loans serviced through banks. This practice has essentially stopped.

30-40,000 tuition is more like medical school tuition (though 40-50,000 is more typical).

Yup. Exactly. Additionally, with Goldman Sachs practically owning our Federal Reserve, they might as well be one and the same.

As for yearly tuition costs, depends on the school. I paid ~$45,000/year (however I went to a small liberal arts school then Stanford). I have friends who have gone to SUNY schools, UC programs, they're up there. Higher education is not cheap.
 
Everybody can afford an iPhone these days. It's hardly the exclusive symbol of wealth and taste some people believe it to be.

Case in point, I grabbed my iPhone as soon as I was eligible for my 2 year upgrade through Verizon. It cost me roughly $90 for my membership dues to Club Apple. Were I in more dire financial straits, I could've paid for my iPhone with a couple of trips to the Plasma clinic, or a few days of swap meets, or setting aside bits out of my paycheck for a month or two. An iPhone is not a hard thing to get.

Like others, I think you're mistaking the segment of the population that shops at Wal-Mart for the middle class. You're also ignoring the total cost of ownership for the device.

Have you been in a Wal-Mart? When I am, I see 'astonishing' number of non iPhones (hell, non smartphones) being used.
 
1. People actually shop there?

2. The people that shop there actually pay for stuff?

You just never stop learning.
 
Most self checkout I've seem have a big sign " 25 items or less" . If you have 75 items and run out of room on the rotating carousel it's your fault!! The express lane for people with 6 or less items is also to avoid lines. With your logic you think you can go to any line as you please to check out not thinking of the other people. I bet you would to a 1000$ checkout at the makeup counter and complain.

No... the quantity isn't the issue, it's the size of the items. They should only need to approve it one time when you hit do not bag item, not for every additional time. They have cameras all over the damn place anyways.
 
Here in the us it's one employee for like six stations to help with issues, take coupons, verify age for beer and smokes and works rather well when folks know what they are doing and stick to it being an express lane rather than trying to ring up a huge basket of stuff.

The bagging area is weighted to go with what you rang up so it is rather good at telling if you bagged something without scanning it. I would imagine Walmart is doing something the same to verify you paid for everything

Same around here. The only issue at my usual store is that that one person is often not attentive enough. It's frustrating to get stopped by a bottle of wine, only to see that employing chatting with a friend or co-worker and not seeing that the handheld device is needing their attention. Happened to me the other day. I had fish-oil capsules that usually contained 120 but this time had a "bonus" 40 extra. Beep! "Please remove the last item and scan it!" Attendant yapping away.

It used be a lot worse, but customers are getting better and making fewer and fewer mistakes.



Michael
 
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In the UK Waitrose have a similar system. You pick up a PDA type thing on your way in, you walk around scan your stuff and then pay at a machine.

I was just about to post that! My local store in Eldon Square doesn't offer this but the store in Hexham does, and I see loads of people using them.
 
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