shoppers
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Amazon is offering Whole Foods jobs to grocery delivery contractors
Amazon has offered Whole Foods jobs to a number of its grocery "shoppers," who pick products from shelves to help fulfill delivery orders.
Google expands its free Shopping listings to merchants worldwide
It's rolling out Local Services Ads in several European countries too.
Instacart is hiring another 250,000 grocery shoppers
Instacart is hiring another 250,000 shoppers and says it's doing more to protect all of its workers.
Google lets merchants sell for free in its Shopping tab
Google will make it free for retailers to list products in the Google Shopping tab.
Many Instacart shoppers still don't have their COVID-19 safety gear
Many of Instacart's shoppers still don't have promised gear to protect against COVID-19, but that's partly intentional.
Carnegie Mellon researchers develop robot that takes inventory, helps you find aisle four
Fed up with wandering through supermarket aisles in an effort to cross that last item off your shopping list? Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Intel Science and Technology Center in Embedded Computing have developed a robot that could ease your pain and help store owners keep items in stock. Dubbed AndyVision, the bot is equipped with a Kinect sensor, image processing and machine learning algorithms, 2D and 3D images of products and a floor plan of the shop in question. As the mechanized worker roams around, it determines if items are low or out of stock and if they've been incorrectly shelved. Employees then receive the data on iPads and a public display updates an interactive map with product information for shoppers to peruse. The automaton is currently meandering through CMU's campus store, but it's expected to wheel out to a few local retailers for testing sometime next year. Head past the break to catch a video of the automated inventory clerk at work.
Surprise of the day: HDTVs top holiday shopping lists
Okay, so it's probably not exactly shocking, especially considering the skyrocketing sales of RPTVs in the most recent quarter, and the (presumed) riots over cheap LCDs and plasmas on Black Friday. But the fact still remains that even though Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft are off tooting their own (console-based) horns, consumers are still eying those big screen televisions above all else. Reports suggest that TVs don't seem "very complicated, and they're not terribly expensive," which makes sense considering the plummeting prices of HDTVs over the past few months. Notably, the holiday's dust collectors are none other than "DVD players / recorders," presumably including those still pricey HD DVD and Blu-ray units. So if a svelte new set is atop your holiday wish list, rest assured, you're not alone.
Wal-Mart to use infrared to track shoppers / promotions
As if its insanely coordinated logistics system, biometric payment system, and (potential) RFID shelving weren't eerie enough, America's largest retailer is taking consumer voyeurism one step further with the use of infrared technology. In an apparent attempt to avoid the taboo "RFID" flavor of intrusion, Wal-Mart is hoping to sneak an IR system into its stores to gauge the effectiveness (and elicit more advertising dollars, of course) of its various promotions. Dubbed Prism, the arguably dodgy system was crafted by Coca-Cola, Kelloggs, Kroger, Procter & Gamble, Walgreens, and Disney in order to "track shoppers' movements around the store" and correlate them with actual sales in order to judge display effectiveness. The consortium of firms has coaxed the corporate giant to install a trial system in ten of its SuperCenters, with a much broader rollout expected to follow soon; so when making that mad dash to the Tickle Me Elmo eXtreme (or bathroom supplies) section, just remember that Big Brother could be keenly watching.[Via TechDirt]
