Kmart publishes next wave of Black Friday-style deals as world ends

[Via I4U News]
Posts with tag shopping


Although Wal-Mart is traditionally viewed as a logistics leader and a pioneer in RFID adoption, only 975 of its stores currently utilize the technology. Frustrated by losing sales due to misplaced inventory, the firm is now dead set on rolling out RFID gear into every single North American store, and soon. When complete, over 4,000 locales will be fitted with the equipment, which could net Wally World over $287 million in extra sales by simply having the technology in place to quickly track down wares before a customer heads elsewhere. Of course, it seems but a matter of time before these tags actually make it beyond the crate and onto individual items / shelves, but hey, it's not like you actually expected Wal-Mart to turn away Big Brother, right?The long-promised day that die-hard sofa jockeys have been yearning for is almost upon us, friends, with a partnership between Echostar and the Home Shopping Network promising to finally bring the first large-scale shop by remote project to the US. Rather uninspiringly called, um, "Shop by Remote," the service will allow DISH customers to simply click a button on their remote (plus 15 other buttons corresponding to their phone numbers and zip codes) when they want to buy the current item being shown on HSN -- a process that is supposedly "three to four times faster" than ordering by phone, but only slightly lazier (especially if you've got all these shopping channels on speed dial like certain people we know, Mom). If the current product isn't doing it for you, you can also select from the two previous items or the deal of the day, all of which allow you to further customize your choice (color, size, etc.) through a series of contextual menus. Sure we're not yet able to one-click Rachel's pants while watching Friends like the futurists predicted oh so long ago, but this is still an important step on the path towards the completely-impulsive, thought-triggered shopping experience that will finally enable us to accumulate crap at an even faster clip than we've managed to already.
Honestly, we're a bit freaked out right here in the US of A with all the RFID tags floating around in various forms, but Japan is planning to take tagging to the extreme by creating an island where there's just no escapin' it. The nation is looking to set up an "experimental landmass" where a smorgasbord of sensors will "allow doctors to remotely monitor the health of the elderly," and in another instance, "monitor the movement of pedestrians and notify nearby drivers." Additionally, IC tags could be implanted into produce in order to divulge information such as where it was grown to a shopper's mobile phone. Reportedly, the government is talking with local telecom carriers, electronics manufacturers, automakers, and several "other companies" as it attempts to assemble the pieces, and while no specific test site has been nailed down just yet, "the northern island of Hokkaido or southern island chain of Okinawa" are currently the most likely candidates.
Don't you just hate shopping for groceries? Being around other people, having to spend time thinking about what you want to buy, and the inevitable "shopping hangover" caused by the later realization that you bought a dozen things you don't need or want: yuck. A lot of people head online for their shopping (where else can you read Engadget while you order loo roll?), but for those who prefer to take their cash into the real world, there's now a solution that could prevent the likelihood of encountering one of those aforementioned shopping hangovers: SmartShopper is a device that can convert a spoken shopping list into a printout to carry around in your wallet or purse. Just mount the SmartShopper on your fridge using the magnet, start waxing lyrical about apples and oranges -- don't worry, your neighbors already think you're crazy -- and the little gray box will neatly print all your choices onto a little piece of paper. At $149, the SmartShopper is on the low end of smart fridge solutions, but at least you can feel safe knowing that its limited artificial intelligence prevents it from sticking "5 kg of Soylent Green" on your list.
Although some women do indeed prefer an in-store (human) professional when looking for a new lineup of cosmetics to try, those independent ladies who'd rather take things solo just might prefer this method. Mitsukoshi, Shiseido, and Fujitsu have teamed up to bring a virtual, real-time makeover machine into Japanese department stores in order to give women a chance to test out a smorgasbord of shades on their virtual face before throwing down their hard earned loot. Sure, we've seen hypothetical approaches before, but this rendition lacks the mess and time requirements of previous methods by allowing customers to snap an image of their face, and then scan electronic tags of interesting looking makeup in order to dash their on-screen persona with whatever they please. The system allows the user to test endless combinations of products without causing a mess, using up samples, or demanding extra help, and the "before and after" feature should do a number on same-store sales. While there's no details about a mass rollout, the system is being tested right now in the Mitsukoshi store in Ginza, so fellas, steer your ladies clear of this one if you value your bank account.










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