I have a few problems with that Times article:
NY Times said:
Thanks to those insights, trucks filled with toaster pastries and six-packs were soon speeding down Interstate 95 toward Wal-Marts in the path of Frances. Most of the products that were stocked for the storm sold quickly, the company said.
So, the idea here is that Wal-Mart looks at sales trends to predict what people buy before a hurricane, then they actually make sure they have enough stock of those items?
How dare they?
NY Times said:
With 3,600 stores in the United States and roughly 100 million customers walking through the doors each week, Wal-Mart has access to information about a broad slice of America - from individual Social Security and driver's license numbers to geographic proclivities for Mallomars, or lipsticks, or jugs of antifreeze. The data are gathered item by item at the checkout aisle, then recorded, mapped and updated by store, by state, by region.
A couple of problems here. People should never, ever be giving the SSNs out to anybody. I can't imagine a situation where WalMart would insist on the information. A driver's license, maybe (for age-checking), but even then the consumer should not allow the information to be recorded.
As for the "geographic proclivities for Mallomars, or lipsticks, or jugs of antifreeze" who cares? All retailers who know what they're doing track sales trends by geographic areas.
NY Times said:
By its own count, Wal-Mart has 460 terabytes of data stored on Teradata mainframes... To put that in perspective, the Internet has less than half as much data, according to experts.
I call cite on that one! You're telling me "the internet" (define that, too please) contains about.. what, 200 TBs of "data"?
There's a whole lot of room for interpretation there, is there not? Who measures this and what is considered "the internet"?
Hell, I can find P2P sites and Torrent trackers that could get me 2TBs of data over the internet in an afternoon!
NY Times said:
Information about products, and often about customers, is most often obtained at checkout scanners. Wireless hand-held units, operated by clerks and managers, gather more inventory data. In most cases, such detail is stored for indefinite lengths of time. Sometimes it is divided into categories or mapped across computer models, and it is increasingly being used to answer discount retailing's rabbinical questions, like how many cashiers are needed during certain hours at a particular store.
Again, this means nothing! Inventory data and data from customers are 2 very different things! This article implies WalMart is stealing your personal information with RFID scanners when you walk on the door!
So, WalMart uses data about traffic management to try and have enough staff on hand for customers to actually check out in a timely manner?
Again, how
dare they!
NY Times said:
All of the data are precious to Wal-Mart. The information forms the basis of the sales meetings...and it is shot across desktops throughout its headquarters and into the places where it does business around the world. Wal-Mart shares some information with its suppliers - a company like Kraft...can tap into a private extranet,...to see how well its products are selling. But for the most part, Wal-Mart hoards its information obsessively
I'll bet the data is precious. They've invested a lot of dollars into it, and it seems it helps give them an edge in a competitive market. So what?
NY Times said:
It also takes pains to keep the information secret. Some of the systems it uses are custom-built and designed by its own employees, the better to keep competitors off the trail.
First... so? Second, that they use in-house programmers to protect their proprietary systems is A) an assumption, B) not uncommon and C) SO WHAT??
NY Times said:
Companies that sell equipment and software to Wal-Mart are bound by nondisclosure agreements.
.
So... what? Is there a point?
NY Times said:
One source of information can be a credit card or a debit card, Ms. Albrecht said. Wal-Mart shoppers increasingly use the cards to pay for purchases, particularly in the better-heeled neighborhoods where the company has been building stores recently.
Consumers need to be responsible for themselves. ANY financial lender requires personal information like this, and "can" (theoretically) trace other information with it. People need to know what they're buying into with their financial dealings with lenders and make decisions wisely.
Also, because they "can" doesn't mean they do.
NY Times said:
"We can access what they paid for their house, and their mortgage," though not driving records. The company has not done any work for Wal-Mart, she said.
Strawman. They introduce this company that
claims they can do this, but they've never worked with WalMart... ever. So what? There are companies that make military weapons, too. They don't work with WalMart either. So what?
I'd go on but it's lunch time.
