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

61–70 of 356 posts

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#61

Post by devilbunny »

rimunroe wrote: post #22
rickdeckard wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually the advertised price must be honored, because it may have brought the customer to your store. For prices displayed on the shelf-label inside the store the law is usually not that strict (YMMV), as a shop-owner can refuse sale on check-out (otherwise I could put a pricetag on e.g. a shopping-basket and the shop-owner would be legally required to sell me the basket...). Besides, most shops I've seen (in Europe)…

> Usually the advertised price must be honored, because it may have brought the customer to your store. This is not the case for groceries in Massachusetts at least. If there’s a discrepancy between the tag’s price and the scanned price the store must charge the customer the lowest of the two: https://www.mass.gov/price-accuracy-information

I suspect this law does not apply in cases of fraud. If not, simple tag-switching would be rampant.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#62

Post by [deleted] »

teeray wrote: post #54
rickdeckard wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually the advertised price must be honored, because it may have brought the customer to your store. For prices displayed on the shelf-label inside the store the law is usually not that strict (YMMV), as a shop-owner can refuse sale on check-out (otherwise I could put a pricetag on e.g. a shopping-basket and the shop-owner would be legally required to sell me the basket...). Besides, most shops I've seen (in Europe)…

It definitely varies by jurisdiction, but the register price always loses to any printed price in the US states I’ve lived in. This is a protection since retailers have used pricing mistakes to unfairly profit. Watch your receipt like a hawk at the dollar store[0] [0] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/03/customers-pa...

[deleted]

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#63

Post by gavinray »

hnburnsy wrote: post #60
shrubble wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a video where someone took banana bar code stickers wrapped around a bunch of bananas and put them on the TVs in their shopping cart and then checked out via self checkout. I predict that self checkout will only remain in the more trustworthy areas…

That video was staged, at Target electronics need to be paid for in the electronics department where there is no self-check out. In addition Target has the best Loss Prevention in the business, including let shoplifters continue until they accumulate enough goods that their crime is a felony.

Partner spent a significant time working at Target, can confirm

Their Loss Prevention is so advanced that FBI has collaborated with them for case help

https://thehorizonsun.com/features/2024/04/11/the-target-for...

I also worked there briefly in my teens, they are a great employer.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#64

Post by kimos »

petterroea wrote: post #55

It's always funny when people publish source code and have a disclaimer saying "You CANNOT use it for bad!". When is the last time a criminal read such a disclaimer and thought "Oh right, guess this isn't for me"? Sure, at least the developer can say they did say so, but it doesn't matter. To me it seems more like avoiding responsibility. You published the tool, and by doing so you changed the world, even minutely, a…

I think it’s trying to demonstrate intent. “This is cool and hacking is fun” vs “Here is a tool to do bad things”. I don’t think it would much protect you from consequences, but it can change perception of the intent of the project.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#65

Post by saintfire »

shrubble wrote: post #48
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

I saw a video where someone took banana bar code stickers wrapped around a bunch of bananas and put them on the TVs in their shopping cart and then checked out via self checkout. I predict that self checkout will only remain in the more trustworthy areas…

Every self checkout around here has an employee staffing ~6 terminals. They're supposed to be watching for things like that. Usually theyre just staring vacantly into space, which I get, that job pays nothing and provides 0 mental stimulation.

When you see a TV being purchased, though, it wouldn't be hard to just watch that it in fact got checked in as such.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#66

Post by hrimfaxi »

petterroea wrote: post #55

It's always funny when people publish source code and have a disclaimer saying "You CANNOT use it for bad!". When is the last time a criminal read such a disclaimer and thought "Oh right, guess this isn't for me"? Sure, at least the developer can say they did say so, but it doesn't matter. To me it seems more like avoiding responsibility. You published the tool, and by doing so you changed the world, even minutely, a…

What would you prefer they say?

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#68

Post by Tangurena2 »

miki123211 wrote: post #40
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

IANAL and this depends on the jurisdiction, but in many places, the penalties for shenanigans like these are far steeper than for outright theft, as it's considered to be financial fraud.

Some retail chains, of which Dollar General is the poster child, have one price displayed on the shelf and a different, much higher price at the checkout register.

Links:

> Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has filed suit against Dollar General, claiming deceptive and unfair pricing at its more than 600 retail stores throughout the state. The lawsuit alleges that Dollar General violated Missouri’s consumer protection laws by advertising one price at the shelf and charging a higher price at the register upon checkout.

> The joint investigation revealed that “92 of the 147 locations where investigations were conducted failed inspection. Price discrepancies ranged up to as much as $6.50 per item, with an average overcharge of $2.71 for the over 5,000 items price-checked by investigators.”

https://progressivegrocer.com/dollar-general-accused-decepti...

> All told, 69 of the 300 items came up higher at the register: a 23% error rate that exceeded the state’s limit by more than tenfold. Some of the price tags were months out of date.

> The January 2023 inspection produced the store’s fourth consecutive failure, and Coffield’s agency, the state department of agriculture & consumer services, had fined Family Dollar after two previous visits. But North Carolina law caps penalties at $5,000 per inspection, offering retailers little incentive to fix the problem. “Sometimes it is cheaper to pay the fines,” said Chad Parker, who runs the agency’s weights-and-measures program.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/03/customers-pa...

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#69

Post by hrimfaxi »

dfxm12 wrote: post #51
kvuj wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People like you are why we are living in an increasingly lower trust society, with for example having items behind locked door in shops. Reminds me a bit of the shopping cart theory.

Think about blaming the grocery store replacing workers with no one in particular before you blame some college pranksters. Grocery stores in general consolidating, laying off workers, leaving them without pay/benefits, taking advantage of greedflation, etc., is a bigger drain on society.

Ah yes, let's blame some shadowy "big grocery" rather than point our fingers at individual bad actors.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#70

Post by rogerbinns »

stavros wrote: post #31
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

Couldn't you also not just check stuff in? These are all obvious drawbacks, it's not really a high-scrutiny environment.

That is something you can do in cahoots with a regular cashier and the reason places like Costco check your receipt. The cashier just has to fake scan an item, and nobody would notice. Receipt checking makes it possible to get caught.
Post reply on HN