JCPenney’s To Eliminate Check-Out Clerks

This is the future... and the future is now.

Basically, every item in the world will have an RFID chip. From tires to soup mix to watermelons to shoes etc.

The RFID chips coming along will be no bigger than a flake or grain of pepper. They will be each individual to infinity. Each RFID chip will be on the label or barcode of every item produced and sold...

This way, a can of green beans can be tracked from packer to their warehouse to the box and storage to the truck pallet to the wholesale shipper to the retail distributor to the shelf to the register and out the door.

The good side is that inventory can be traced instantaneously...if a can rolls under a pallet in wholesale distribution... it can be tracked and found. All items can be automaticall scanned at the register... in fact, there will eventuall be no register.

You push your shopping buggy of goods up to the front checkout... a machine, laser, or scanner instantly scans all the items at once and gives you a total... in the electronic world... this will be instantly deducted from your account (upon approval) and you can go.

Green bean can #31013467 has left the building... Or in the case of JC Penny... a blouse.

Badside.... every purchase is recorded. The product is supose to be deactivated upon sale to customer... or is it?

Don't mistake this as political, but a very real scenario... With Obamacare... the government hospital will treat you for a small fee or based on income... mabe free. The Doctor wants you to quit smoking... your rate for treatment is based on you quiting within a year. The government drone flies over, scans your house... picksup the cigarettes and you are penalized or dropped all together.

May the insurance company has a drone... flies over... scans your house and your premiums are based on the lifestyle and eating habits on display in your house or home... fruits and veggies... filtered water... low premium... ice cream and a 6pack with frozen pizzas... higher premiums.

The FBI scans your home and detects multiple boxes of matches, vaseline or petrolium jelly, lots of PVC pipe and several new boxes of nails and wiring... are you a fixit man with nicked up fingers or a home grown terrorist making pipe bombs?

Alreadyy, the grocery industry is preprinting grocery lists based on previous buying habits from your using the loyalty cards for extra discounts on sale items.

Anybody here see how intrusive these little RFID tags can be?

And it will all be done in the name of convenience, controlling inventory, cutting payroll costs, and keeping down prices... How can we argue with that?

reply to post by RealSpoke


Why would you even ever go to JC Pennys... I see no reason.. I can get what I want anywhere else... I havent been there in 15 years.. do not like there stuff..

reply to post by AlreadyGone


LOL yes track it all ... till the solar storm puts out the lights... or it doesnt rain and there is no food to can..... cotton to make in to cloth.. oh maybe you can scan from the sky and find out WHO still has a few cans of Food you can take...

reply to post by hollwd


Since you mentioned drones scanning for things, I wonder just how many people have money or other valuables buried in their backyards or other similiar places. Could someone with a drone see where the money is hidden or at least see a metal box or safe that is buried. If so, no one will ever be able to "hide" anything ever again. Just a thought.

On topic-I do not like the idea automated checkouts being the only option. It is already difficult at times to find someone in a department store to answer a question, so some of the time, I just go to the checkout because there is always someone there.

Where I live, two of the grocery stores already took out the automated checkout, and one of the reason given was that the store wanted to provide personal customer service and they just did not like the machines. However, these are smaller local grocery store chains, and the stores that are larger national chains, have added even more self-check out lanes.