How could this happen? Owners of #Chamberlain #MyQ automatic garage door openers just woke up to discover that the company had confiscated valuable features overnight, and that there was nothing they could do about it.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain
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"But this impulse to play shell games runs up against the hard limits of physical reality: grocers just can't send an army of rollerskated teenagers around the store to reprice everything as soon as a wealthy or desperate-looking customer comes through the door."
Can't they?
I've never thought about it before, but after reading this paragraph, I'm now AMAZED that the big grocery chains haven't replaced those little price signs on the shelves with digital displays of some kind, so that they can adjust prices on the fly.
@kingkaufman @pluralistic
I have seen such digital displays on big supermarket shelves in France, but changing the pricing while the shop was open would be legally problematic as a form of false advertising by putting the price up between when you pick up an item and when you get to the till.
Funnily enough, similar large French supermarkets have been known to employ staff on rollerskates to back up the checkout staff, but not an army, barely even enough for a squad.
Cory Doctorow
King Kaufman
Chris Hodges
Till Westermayer
Jarjan (He/Him)