The company that sells you Chips Ahoy, Nabisco, and Ritz products has a new and seriously creepy way to convince you that snacks are goooood, you waaaaant them. Mondelez International has developed a grocery shelf that scans your face as you stare blankly at the rows of virtually indistinguishable cookie products and stores “aggregate demographic data” about what people like you tend to buy. And then later, it’s going to use this to sell cookies to you.
The Washington Post’s Switch blog says:
The company expects the shelf to help funnel more of the right products to the right consumers, and even convince undecideds to commit to an impulse buy by offering well-timed in-store commercials or coupons when the embedded weight sensor learns they’ve picked up an item. The move is almost certain to make it more difficult to resist junk foods.
Basically, it tracks you so it can find your food weaknesses and encourage them. Seriously? This is not cool. And one more reason to shop at a farmers market.
