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Experiencing the New World Order in Lowe’s…..
We just moved and have had to make multiple trips to Lowe’s for closet rods, bathroom gadgets, hooks, towel bars, all those little (now overly-priced) doo-dads that make a home a home. My husband was at the return counter on trip number three, while I hovered at the front entrance and happened to look up. I saw a small TV monitor with me on it and an orange box around my head. I made a face at the camera.
I asked my husband later why my head was in an orange box on a monitor at Lowe’s. He stated nonchalantly, “Facial recognition…” Cough! My face was being scanned by AI in Lowe’s? I told my sister, who said, “Geez! I knew they were doing that in China, but now here?” Why did Lowe’s need to scan its customers walking through the front door? We then noted no cashiers – all self-checkout. When did that happen? There were plenty of cheerful employees standing around to assist, but you did all the work.
The movers brought the top of our concrete bird bath but left the base (among other things) behind. They would not sell just the base, so $65 later, we had another whole bird bath.
The same thing at Home Depot, several fast food joints and supermarkets. The change was subtle; the rest of the store seemed normal, but you do the work. Every self-checkout had a kiosk to self-order or a monitor and the words “recording” scrolled across the bottom. Every day shoppers’ heads are now literally in the Clouds.
I wore dark sunglasses in Lowe’s today, and left the one-stem basil and one-stem curly parsley on the shelf. I found basil the $3.98 a stem, $5.98 a stem for the coveted flat parsley. Appalling! At those prices, I should not have to check myself out. I found full potted herbs at the grocery store.
The house we bought had no toilet paper rolls or towel holders. I guess the woman who lived there was fine without them. Before we had them installed, we cheaped out and bought a stand-alone toilet paper holder. For $25 it wobbled and came with this little soap dish on top.
As I looked at the picture on the carton a little closer, it turned out to be a “phone shelf.” Good to know if you needed to take a dump, you won’t miss a call. It toppled over and the fake “aluminum” broke in half. We returned it. I hope these tariffs remove cheap Chinese goods forever!
I thought about all those cashiers who need that job, who liked the interaction with the public and added to the personal touch that businesses used to have. Banks are next. One teller I am finding, and that’s it. I keep getting texts about downloading apps for absolutely everything, or to give that Gold Star Google review that every business now depends, the company even pays someone, like the pest control tech or the local car wash, $10 extra for MY five-star Google review!
All this while an increasing number of stores are closing their doors or filing for bankruptcy, and large corporations are merging to become more powerful – Chase and Discover being the latest.
Lastly, I want to mention that at the closing for our house at the title company, we both had to have our faces scanned by our phones. These were sent to the title company’s internal procedures before we could proceed with the closing. This was a first. They said there is so much scamming now, they have to do it as an added security measure!
Facial recognition software to shop at Lowe’s? Pull out your hoodie and cheap sunglasses. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is here, and Klaus is checking off his boxes whether we like it or not.
Published in General
With all the self checkout lanes, expect W-2s from all those stores and claim some “refunds.”
Surely, You still have over 2000 disposable masks You could use first.
There’s this. The claim is that the odd patterns in this company’s clothes defeats facial recognition … it fools the system preventing it from identifying you as human.
https://petapixel.com/2023/01/20/this-clothing-line-tricks-ai-cameras-without-covering-your-face/
80s arcades had carpeting that looked like that.
Little by little the “conveniences” of using your card, or your phone or whatever, become no longer options but requirements.
If I don’t choose to have a cellphone, I am increasingly excluded from interacting with the modern world. Am I crazy if I find this sinister?
Get thee a flip phone. I’m seriously considering. And I decline the picture at TSA when flying.
Yer not crazy. We are just the generations in between the transition.
Eventually, cash and anonymity will be found explained only on history sites.
Edited to be more specific.
I loved “Max Headroom” way back in the dusty days of yore when we were all so innocent.
There were characters in the show called “Blanks”, radical crazies who refused to get the implant, or the tattoo or whatever it was. They were forced to operate on the outskirts of society, which they did proudly.
Boy, I totally NEVER thought I would eventually desire to become a Blank.
You are a prose stylist. Well done.
Even Big Lots is going down the tubes.
I filed a claim as a member of a consumer data-breach class action lawsuit, and recently received an email that I had a monetary award from the settlement. But to receive it, it would be in the form of an online prepaid debit card preloaded with my award once I went to the site and processed my unique code.
When I went to the site to collect, the extent of private information I was now required to provide, along with the “consent” to information sharing and future communications, turned me off. I do not care to play in that world any more than I have to. Especially when, as far as I can tell, my award was under ten bucks.
And pay Cash!
We are very cash oriented and we do not Venmo or other similar stuff. Buy online as a guest with only 1 card. The few times I’ve told vendors I dont Venmo and will pass if that’s the only choice, they’ve taken a check. We especially do not Cloud anything by choice.
Not having a flip phone is just a problem, even out in the boonies.
But Lowes scares me – could it be a regional thing? For now anyway?
6 years ago:
Home Depot and Lowe’s are secretly using facial recognition security cameras to track customer movements, lawsuits claim
I don’t know the outcome of this lawsuit – it sounded a bit sketchy. I expect any large chain store is using facial recognition now.
I know that ofttimes facial recognition uses infrared light, hence these glasses to defeat that:
http://www.reflectacles.com
I got a pair that claim to block infrared. A co-worker who had his iPhone set to unlock using facial recognition put them on, and couldn’t unlock his phone. Eye measurements are a significant part of facial recognition.
I didn’t realize Lowe’s had cameras, but I’m not surprised. Walmart has had cameras on customers for at least ten years. According to this article, Walmart loses $3.5 billion a year to shoplifting, organized retail crime, and employee theft. Having cameras that can get a good look at each person’s face won’t help catch every thief, but it must help catch some of them.
I don’t want to use self-checkout if I’m buying a whole bunch of stuff, but it sure is nice and quick when I’m just buying a couple of items. People are sometimes angry at stores that have self-checkouts rather than having many more cashiers, but there is one advantage to the self-checkout computers. They very reliably show up for their shifts. Sometimes my boss comes to work without having first had breakfast, and he’ll send me to Hardee’s to buy him breakfast. I just walk there, because it’s only a block away, but sometimes I walk there, then walk back to work to get my car and drive there. Why would I do that? Because some days, too many employees fail to come to work, so the doors are locked, and you can only get service at the drive-through. I had a friend whose wife was the manager at a Burger King for years. She finally quit that job because she couldn’t handle the stress of every day wondering who was going to come to work.
So, yes, it’s a shame for those people who would love a job as a cashier and cannot get one because of the self-checkout systems. A lot of the blame goes to people who got jobs as cashiers, but are lackadaisical about showing up to work on time every day.
Two things I’ve learnt from reading the Loss Prevention sub on Reddit:
Retailers don’t always detain shoplifters the first time they’re identified but instead record video of repeat offenders and call in the cops to make an arrest when the value of the stolen items moves into felony territory. Facial recognition alerts the LP staff that a crook has entered the store.
Once an offender has been trespassed, facial recognition is used to detect the entry of banned individuals (banned not just from the store they were caught at, but from all stores in the chain) and alert staff to call the boys in blue.
I recently heard on YouTube (so it has to be true) that Home Depot was cutting back on self-checkout in a lot of stores. Too much theft. Maybe your problem is that there are too many honest people in your area.
I never noticed that in Arizona, or where I live now. But how do they expect you to self-checkout a water heater, or a furnace, or a side-by-side fridge, or…???
Try Planet Fitness, Lifetime Fitness, or Anytime Fitness. Or buy a case of beer for your buddies.
I do have to wonder what town it is where Lowe’s, Home Depot, multiple fast-food restaurants, and supermarkets have self-checkout exclusively, with zero human cashiers.
I’m going to try this along with a Groucho nose . . .
I’ve gotten a little squeamish about handing over checks too, especially if I don’t know the vendor well. Sometimes that’s the only choice. My husband is now using an app (when necessary) to pay some of the people we hired. It worked fine until we had to pay a larger amount and it put a daily limit on it. So I had to write a check.
Not zero, just not many. It’s a small FL town, but it was the same where we came from, also in FL but much bigger and more hectic area. My sister is in MD and the same thing going on there. In fact, key stores are packing it in, like CVS, Big Lots and others. It’s a mountain town and they need these places.
That will alert the cops for sure!
Photo?
You’re in luck. The cheap Chinese goods have become expensive Chinese goods.
Over the years of doing a lot of renovation projects I’ve learned that how trades manage the business part of their trade means a lot. So if their trucks are clean and in repair and they have businesslike means to accept payment I have more confidence of their work the first time they do something. And I always start with a small thing with a new person, so risk both sides is lower. Moving to a new area where you don’t know anyone to refer the most favored trades is tough when you need a lot done.
Good points – our realtor who lived in the area for years referred us to some great contractors. I was grateful for that.
When you get the followup email asking for feedback, be sure to give rave reviews. The AI keeps track of its friends and enemies and shares that with the other AIs.
This is all deflationary, so of course the Fed has to force inflation. It’s insanity and it’s going to get worse.
Deflation.
When I’m in a city I frequent, I often go to a McDonald’s that only has Mexicans working at it and you have to use the computer or your smart phone to check out.