Dive Brief:
- Mondelez International says it will roll out store shelves in 2015 with sensors that can determine a shopper's age and gender—turning on lights and videos to highlighting the snacks that such shoppers are likely to buy.
- The sensors can recognize facial attributes, gestures, body types, etc. That data is then compared with information on the shopping habits of certain demographics. The idea is that the shelf would offer something different to an elderly man than it would to a Mom with a baby in the shopping cart.
- Mondelez, maker of Oreos, Certs and dozens of other household brand names, says all the data it collects is anonymous and that people's images will not be saved.
Dive Insight:
So here's a question: When we wander down the cookie aisle will the shelves recognize that look on our face as disgust? Can a store shelf tell that we're all creeped out? If so, will it then offer us a sedative? Comfort food? Will the shelves know that we shudder in disgust? Or will they think we're just cold, and offer us a hot beverage?
No doubt we overreact. We're old. We're sort of frightened by all this change. We're sorry. Don't tell anyone. Especially don't tell Google or Facebook or the NSA. We wouldn't want them to get the wrong idea about us. We're normal, American shoppers and we have nothing to hide. I, for one welcome our new computer overlords.