Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 356 posts

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#191

Post by culi »

conductr wrote: post #113
culi wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true, grocery stores made record profits during covid. I've sometimes toyed with the idea of an "open sourced" grocery store that's extremely transparent about every detail. Think electronic price tags that give you a complete breakdown of the cost of an item, cost of labor, cost to account for "loss", over/under-supply, etc. I feel like there's a niche out there for hyperinformed consumers

I think with this openness the problem is there’s so many fluctuations and estimates that average consumer would think you’re being dishonest even if you weren’t. They’d see that you acquired an item for $20 and could never quite understand why they have to pay you $50. They’d see the plethora of line item costs as nickel and diming even if many are absolute hard costs. They’d see the estimated numbers as inflated. T…

Yeah I was imagining this would be more of a co-op situation so the rift between "consumer" and "manager" is lessened. Maybe I just want a more nuanced version of the co-op model or a technologically-enabled model that allows a more intelligent exposure of the subcosts

The reason I used the word "open sourced" is because I think a good goal to shoot for would be to allow anyone else to learn and copy the structure/data/model. It'd be more of an experiment than anything else. Like a "let's teach everyone how a grocery store actually works" thing. Maybe even a non-profit

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#192

Post by OJFord »

lamasery wrote: post #153
FatherOfCurses wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too bad the store owners introduced a way to give customers more control over how merchandise exits their store.

Not just that, getting unpaid labor. Self-checkouts aren’t automating anything, they’re just making the shopper do work for the store. I hope they’re losing money over it.

I scan as I walk around the shop and only pay at the self-checkout, I'll happily volunteer that 'labour' of scanning a bar code as I drop items into my bag instead of a basket in exchange for not having to hang around at checkout while someone else takes care of all that hard work for me.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#193

Post by jmux »

HoldOnAMinute wrote: post #167

I'd like to buy some of these tags and use them as displays around my house.

Look into openepaperlink. It’s an open source project that integrates with home assistant, and lets you control multiple tags over WiFi with just one device. you can create custom display setups in yaml to show anything you want.

my favorite that I have set up is a tag in my bathroom that shows me today’s weather and chance of rain when im brushing my teeth - I haven’t been caught by surprise in the rain since :)

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#194

Post by jmyeet »

Aboutplants wrote: post #29

I was in college when self checkout became a thing and it took us all of about 45 seconds to realize that you could just check everything out as bananas. Steak was weighed and priced at 4011 (banana code) as the stoned teenager cashier paid no attention. Everything on the receipt was literally Bananas

This was I think effective early on but now there are many systems to detect this "fraud". I say "fraud" because I honestly have zero sympathy for these companies who are doing anything but paying people a living wage to do a job and that goes for Walmart in particular.

I've had opportunity to hear many stories from people who have had largely unintended encounters with law enforcement. Many of these are for "shoplifting". That can be something as simple as forgetting something on the bottom of the cart. Walmart are super aggressive about this and rather than saying "sir, did you forget that thing or not want it anymore?" they prosecute.

Walmart is one of those publicly subsidized companies in the country. They don't pay employees enough so the government gives them food stamps. Those food stamps are largely spent at Walmart so Walmart is profiting on both ends. And then they displace checkout workers with self-checkout and pay for fraud detection systems and when people either intentionally or unintentionally didn't scan something correctly (or at all), they offload the costs of loss prevention onto the state by prosecuting. Walmart doesn't pay for that prosecution. TAxpayers do.

Walmart is a trillion dollar company. The stock has almost 3x'ed in less than 4 years. How long did it take to 3x to that level? About 23 years.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#195

Post by Alive-in-2025 »

runjake wrote: post #142
neuralkoi wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yesterday I went to Walmart, and at the self-checkout the system quirked out and an attendant came by. She reviewed some sort of draconian overhead cam video of me trying to locate a tag out for a product to scan. Gave me "guilty until proven" innocent vibes. Are these systems actually effective?

Hey, something I'm somewhat qualified to answer! So, yes, these systems are actually effective. The systems and procedures are designed to look low key, but essentially perform PRISM-like mass surveillance behind the scene. These systems are managed by former US IC personnel. What happens is that your identity is tied to these purchases and after a certain threshold you get flagged as a thief, essentially. At that po…

But what if you don't steal anything but the system is messed up. I had a case where I bought multiple things at a big hardware store, self checkout of course, and on my ticket was something I didn't notice. Because I bought a lot I didn't notice until a month later when I looked at the ticket and returned something else. Should I tell them or not, will I be some kind of weird situation?

I hate self checkout.

At my grocery store, it very often complains about something when I'm checking out. The person comes over, reviews the video and said you aren't doing anything wrong.

The answer is don't go to places where you self-checkout, and don't go to places with surveillance. There are still a couple of grocery stores in my town like that.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#196

Post by spike021 »

Avshalom wrote: post #157
runjake wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, something I'm somewhat qualified to answer! So, yes, these systems are actually effective. The systems and procedures are designed to look low key, but essentially perform PRISM-like mass surveillance behind the scene. These systems are managed by former US IC personnel. What happens is that your identity is tied to these purchases and after a certain threshold you get flagged as a thief, essentially. At that po…

On the other hand Walmart has been getting rid of self checkout because they're not actually effective.

My local Target had also done this most of the past year but re-opened them recently, thankfully.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#197

Post by yreg »

lamasery wrote: post #165
yreg wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are automating quite a lot, since the wait times are much much lower. I choose the self-checkout counters >95% of the time.

Please explain to me which part they are automating. A person scans the goods. A person handles keying in codes when necessary. A person tells the system the scanning is done and to accept payment. A person bags the groceries. I guess if you’re paying cash it automates taking the money slightly more than the standard cash register does. Mine have lower wait times because people with lots of stuff can’t fit that shit…

The difference is that where I live stores that used to have, say, 10 counters out of which maybe 6 were open on average now have 4 human counters and 20 self-checkout counters.

So for me it is in effect automating the part where I need to wait in a queue. We should surely keep some human counters for accessibility reasons, but I as a person able to scan my groceries in the 3 minutes it takes I'm perfectly happy to do just that.

By the way there are also RFID counters where you just dump your goods in a bin and it scans everything automatically. Wouldn't solve the problem with items priced by weight, but makes the rest significantly easier.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#198

Post by crazygringo »

compton93 wrote: post #49
Aboutplants wrote: post #29

I was in college when self checkout became a thing and it took us all of about 45 seconds to realize that you could just check everything out as bananas. Steak was weighed and priced at 4011 (banana code) as the stoned teenager cashier paid no attention. Everything on the receipt was literally Bananas

That's crazy. But coming from someone who wrote a book on retail fraud and worked as a retail fraud analyst for several years... you could have just walked straight out with those items. Transacting was your way of leaving a calling card for the investigators/analysts to find you... You stole regardless of how you did it.

Seriously. Especially since self-checkout is almost always with a card tied to your identity, not cash.

Depending on the value, the police probably aren't going to show up at your address, but use that card again at the store in the future and you might find the security guard coming over. Or, like many stores, they wait for you to do it repeatedly until it adds up to enough for a felony instead of just a misdemeanor, and then they bring felony charges...

The stores have cameras. Likely someone is well aware those weren't all bananas, and has it on video.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#199

Post by mswphd »

fennecbutt wrote: post #95

Lmao more flipper zero crap. I'm sorry, but I'm so sick of seeing "omg hacker man" mystique surrounding flipper, which is exactly what they want because it drives sales. Ofc you can muck about with open and unsecured stuff...like duh. But it annoys me to no end when I have reasonably intelligent friends parrot claims like "flipper can clone the nfc in your credit card and you can steal people's money wow much hack!"

kind of a circular argument though? the reasonable definition of "unsecured" is "stuff you can't muck about with". That might change over time as attacks/exploits are developed though.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#200

Post by rkomorn »

crazygringo wrote: post #198
compton93 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's crazy. But coming from someone who wrote a book on retail fraud and worked as a retail fraud analyst for several years... you could have just walked straight out with those items. Transacting was your way of leaving a calling card for the investigators/analysts to find you... You stole regardless of how you did it.

Seriously. Especially since self-checkout is almost always with a card tied to your identity, not cash. Depending on the value, the police probably aren't going to show up at your address, but use that card again at the store in the future and you might find the security guard coming over. Or, like many stores, they wait for you to do it repeatedly until it adds up to enough for a felony instead of just a misdemeanor…

I agree that they're well aware.

I once got stopped at self checkout because I put two vegetables (peppers, IIRC) of different types in the same bag and weighed them together.

They were the same price so it's not like I was trying to pull a fast one one anyone, but "the system" noticed and flagged me for someone to come over.

This was pre-pandemic, and I'm sure they're not less capable now than before.

Post reply on HN