Replies

Gillette is testing the technology in Europe, and it wants to wait until it has completed those trials, Eric A. Kraus said.

"We're trying to gather as much information as possible on the viability of this technology," Mr. Kaus said.

Gillette is testing in Europe where it fears no privacy laws until it can get the technology undetectable for the US. Gillette stockholders would be better served if management was putting resources into better shaving devices than snooping in its customers bathrooms.

As for Wal-Mart, I'm not surprised. It's like "Oceania" in there and Big Brother is watching.

Here's yet another reason NOT to shop at Walmart: a good friend of mine was at Walmart East in Green Bay yesterday picking up a few things. She wanted to buy two packs of cigarettes. The clerk demanded ID. She's 60. Yes, it's been 48 years since she was a minor & the clerk wanted ID (would an AARP card been sufficient?). She was so PO'ed, she left her purchases at the counter & walked out of the store. She's vowed never to darken their door again.

Something is wrong here! Tracking inventory is not that hard and can be accomplished rather easily using current methods. The UPC codes on the products are scanned at the checkout, which does a couple of things. First, it provides the clerk with the proper price but even more importantly it allows a company to know in real time what invetory is on hand and where it is. At the end of the day, a Wal-Mart warehouse packages and ships more merchandice to each Wal-Mart store in it's area with the proper amount and assortment to replentish what was sold.

Now what happens when something is not sold but stolen? Guess what? Thieves don't check out and have their stolen goods scanned so no one knows they're gone except the thief. The shortfall is not discovered until a physical inventory is conducted, actually going out and counting the goods on the shelves.

Now with this new technology, the store would be able to automatically find out how many widgets were on the shelf, but more importantly, they could find a large quanity of widgets that were in somebody's car or in somebody's home.

Great for loss prevention. Bad for privacy.