Walmart is leading the charge to replace traditional paper price tags with electronic shelf labels (ESLs) by 2026. The retailer aims to introduce the technology in 2,300...
So, if I grab an item off the shelf and browse around the store for a while, is the price going to be the price currently displayed or the price when I grabbed it?
If it’s the current price, what’s the point of a price tag? If I can’t actually know the price until checkout, then showing me the price is kind of a useless bit of data. I also suspect that the “speak to a manager” types would make that a major headache for stores.
If it’s the price when I grabbed it, how are they keeping track of that? I see two ways of handling that: one requires that you use their app to shop, and the other requires cameras and “machine vision” that are still unreliable, at best. The former seems more likely, but I doubt either is going to sit well with customers.
Edit: someone pointed out that it might not actually display a price, and you’d have to scan it to get your price. Kind of like the first option, but I think it’s going to turn off less tech savvy customers.
I haven’t seen that aspect addressed in any articles about the “feature”.
Take a photo of it, I work with paper but we change our tags frequently. We often have prices changed when a customer reaches checkout. I’ve also had times where a customer came back to check a shelf tag after I just updated it. I honored the previous price those times as I was still holding the tickets but its not a guarantee even in paper stores.
We often have prices changed when a customer reaches checkout.
I know this isn’t your fault or anything but damn, that seems lightly customer hostile at best, and deeply unethical at worst. It sounds like it should be illegal.
I can’t speak internationally or legally but from what I know from friends in similar jobs daily prices changes aren’t uncommon. The reason and when it happens often is normally the start of the day when there is a new batch of tickets. They don’t go up instantly and multiple 100s of tickets normally take a couple hours to get placed depending on how many/busy staff are.
Main thing is e-ink’s don’t really make this significantly better or worse. I personally think they are neat for the end worker. The problem is that this is allowed or not enforced well.
Even at stores that have this feature, I rarely see people use it. It’s clearly not an experience that people flock to.
OTOH, on the rare occasion I’ve visited a Walmart in the past 10 years, I have a 100% rate of checkout taking an absurdly long time. Everyone there just seems to accept it like they have no choice.
So, if I grab an item off the shelf and browse around the store for a while, is the price going to be the price currently displayed or the price when I grabbed it?
If it’s the current price, what’s the point of a price tag? If I can’t actually know the price until checkout, then showing me the price is kind of a useless bit of data. I also suspect that the “speak to a manager” types would make that a major headache for stores.
If it’s the price when I grabbed it, how are they keeping track of that? I see two ways of handling that: one requires that you use their app to shop, and the other requires cameras and “machine vision” that are still unreliable, at best. The former seems more likely, but I doubt either is going to sit well with customers.
Edit: someone pointed out that it might not actually display a price, and you’d have to scan it to get your price. Kind of like the first option, but I think it’s going to turn off less tech savvy customers.
I haven’t seen that aspect addressed in any articles about the “feature”.
Take a photo of it, I work with paper but we change our tags frequently. We often have prices changed when a customer reaches checkout. I’ve also had times where a customer came back to check a shelf tag after I just updated it. I honored the previous price those times as I was still holding the tickets but its not a guarantee even in paper stores.
I know this isn’t your fault or anything but damn, that seems lightly customer hostile at best, and deeply unethical at worst. It sounds like it should be illegal.
I can’t speak internationally or legally but from what I know from friends in similar jobs daily prices changes aren’t uncommon. The reason and when it happens often is normally the start of the day when there is a new batch of tickets. They don’t go up instantly and multiple 100s of tickets normally take a couple hours to get placed depending on how many/busy staff are.
Main thing is e-ink’s don’t really make this significantly better or worse. I personally think they are neat for the end worker. The problem is that this is allowed or not enforced well.
Even at stores that have this feature, I rarely see people use it. It’s clearly not an experience that people flock to.
OTOH, on the rare occasion I’ve visited a Walmart in the past 10 years, I have a 100% rate of checkout taking an absurdly long time. Everyone there just seems to accept it like they have no choice.