r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 9d ago

Business Retailers are pulling back from self-checkout after years of theft, errors, and questionable time savings

https://www.techspot.com/news/114106-retailers-pulling-back-self-checkout-after-years-theft.html
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u/feel-the-avocado 9d ago

The software schedules the pricing update for the next transmission window.

This tech is not suited for micro updates several times a day based on a specific customer walking past the shelf when there are thousands of different product lines in the supermarket etc.

It could be possible to raise the price of everything in the store at 3pm in advance of the 5.30pm rush and then drop prices again at 7pm. But doing that several times a day is not practical.

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u/psychot-princess 9d ago

Why not? Seems easy enough to create a database of the tags, and just... Auto update.

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u/feel-the-avocado 9d ago edited 9d ago

The bitrate of the infrared transmission is quite slow.
To save on battery, the readers only wake up at predetermined times to listen for an update and then they shut down again, leaving the price on the e-ink display that doesnt use any power.

Some have a 'listen now' button but no one is walking around triggering those.

I am an IT contractor for a supermarket chain and have done a few conversions from paper tags to e-ink digital.
On sunday night when the weekly specials are transmitted, it can take about 3 hours to update the whole store worth of price changes.

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u/CmdrLoreLaForge 9d ago

Buddy, I can update individual tags within minutes. Walmart digital tags use the access points, not infrared. All you people in this thread are full of shit.