Yeah I'm big on shutting down anti-consumer practices. I don't want to restrict people's ability to shift around their inventory, but if you're heat mapping and psych consulting to boost the time people are lingering, it toes a line.

[–] Pringles@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's inconvenient, but not scummy. Every business tries to increase its bottom line and this is not high up at all in the scumminess scale. And a heat map can be created without actually monitoring people but just by looking at sales vs placement. It can be done in a completely unobtrusive and privacy respecting way.

Just to be clear, I also get upset when my grocery store changes things up. It throws our shopping routine completely out of whack and causes more people in the store because everyone spends more time looking for their regular stuff.

[–] Sabre363@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

It's certainly not high on the scummy scale, but I would argue that any practice meant to control people's behavior in order to increase sales is, as a matter of principle, scummy.