A. Bug an employee even where this system is implemented.
B. If I had no other choice than to use the app: Open the cabinet, take a dozen products, close the cabinet, “decide” against buying some and leave them on an adjacent shelf.
(Edit) C: just “forget” to close the shelf. I’m not trained to handle their BS system.
Just take the shelf apart. I’m sure it’s just some shitty plastic flap with a crappy lock. Cheapest crap they can get.
If the Walmart/target cases are anything to go by, it’s a basic universal tubular lock. You can by a decoder/pick for like $10
Yeah but they’re a little tricky to use, you can’t just bump them.
Also I would not recommend doing it at all in the first place.
You’re right but it’s funny to think that you could be hassled for breaking into a box with the intention of purchasing its contents.
Hey, no shop…ing?
I swear I’ve seen people use bump keys on high quality tubular locks before.
Depending on where you live it is illegal to possess lock picking tools unless you are a licensed locksmith. Something about “intent to commit a crime.”
What the fuck, for real?
Yeah, but that’s a key, not a lockpick
D) Turn around and shop elsewhere
D. Staff just leave them unlocked because it’s in a “dead” network spot and nothing reliably connects or store requires users to be on their Wi-Fi
Fuck the very idea of buying anything at CVS other than a prescription. Their prices are predatory high.
And I wouldn’t install their fucking app on Bea Arthur’s phone.
Some stores have started requiring the app to get your prescription. Happened to me. They actually made me install the app before they would fill my Rx. I stopped using that store and went to another neighborhood.
Hard no to that. As if they are denying people medicine because they want to harvest your information.
Depending on how primary care works where you are
tell your doctor too
Sometimes they don’t hear about the problems with pharmacies or other places they refer people to. Letting them know means that they can send people elsewhere
I just got a prescription yesterday and that didn’t happen so hopefully they don’t roll it out everywhere. I would find a different pharmacy.
This is dystopian level privacy nightmare.
I pick up a client’s meds as part of my job. It’s through Safeway, and I can’t get text notifications anymore when they are ready for pickup, I have to use the app, and I have to have push notifications turned on, so more than half of the notifications are some BS ad for safeway, trying to tempt me into buying bread or some shit. The guy takes over twenty medications, so it’s kind of a nightmare.
That’s almost worth having a dedicated burner phone for.
Succinct, I would like you to consider becoming CVS’s next CTO.
nope, never happening.
“Do my job for me?”
“No.”
Mentally ill CEO dreams up the perfect dystopia where the customer does everything.
If they could, I bet they’d try to implement a discount system for time spent stocking shelves
They drool for the possibility of this.
Not only techno fascism, just ordinary fascism. You know where the companies controls the government and vice versa.
Do you actually want to stand there while someone is called over to unlock these? I get nothing out of that service experience. Would far rather press a button in an app. It’s just dumb that things are behind glass in the first place.
Access would require being logged into the CVS app and connected to the store’s Wi-Fi
Wow. I had to check if the page is the onion
For this to work, you need to download and install the app, and sign up for CVS’ loyalty program. In the store, you need to be logged into the app and connected to the store’s Wi-Fi, and have Bluetooth turned on.
And drink verification can
On their wifi? No thanks.
CVS wants me to stop shopping with them.
I’ll just goto a fucking supermarket. It’s faster. Yes, even with the checkouts.
Many supermarkets are enshittifying/rent seeking too though
I’ve been looking into the local veggie co-op. You pay for the season and you can pick up a box of veggies once a week, all locally sourced. I’d go to the farmers market, but I’m worried it’ll just be a bunch of people selling marked up veggies they got from the grocery store.
Fortunately, at the farmers market, you can usually look up the farmer. Eg, visit once or twice just observing, seeing who gets visited by regulars, Google the farm name to look up details and reviews, etc
Will do. Cleaning up the sourcing of my food for both health and political reasons is a goal of mine for 2025. If I can grow it, trade it, or get it from a farmer locally, the supermarkets can take the loss.
Unfortunately, farmers markets are rarely open in the evening. Actually that is a bit of a business opportunity…
I’m just not gonna shop at CVS
Or, just maybe, they could adequately staff their stores instead of constantly running skeleton crews. If they were actually sincere with their cries of high theft, more employees on the floor could deter would-be thieves, while also giving them time to help customers when needed and pack out product so the place doesn’t always look like an obstacle course left in the wake of a hurricane, with piles of stuff on the floor blocking half the aisles.
Any place that requires an app for me to shop at is a hard no for me, much less all the other nonsense they want to include.
That’s a no from me dawg
How 'bout no?
This new system with the app is a hydra
How about I just don’t shop there?
The poll in the article…
Would you use an app to unlock retail store displays?
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Yes. If it speeds up shopping, that’s a win for me.
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No. I don’t need an app to shop, and will just find and employee to unlock it.
Where’s the option of “no, I didn’t need it as much as I thought I did”
Or, “No, I’m not bothering to shop at CVS anymore because that’s a hassle.”
@howrar @dantheclamman I needed a replacement garage door remote last week. Bunnings has them locked to the shelf thing. I did bend it a fair amount but couldn’t get the thing off. Found an employee who seemed as pissed off as I was. He didn’t have a key though. So had to disappear for quite some time to find one. It’s a $60 product in a reasonable size pack. Not a $6000 item I can slip in my pocket. Another reason to shop online (I needed that item that day otherwise I would have got it online)
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If everyone has a key, what’s the point of locking the products? Maybe next they’ll have public mag keys available at the entrance?
The point is they know from your app login who opened which case when, so if shit goes missing, they’ll know who stole it. That’s the point.
There’s no timestamp for when things go missing, though.
I guess if they discover shrink, they’ll have a log of when it was accessed, and could cross reference camera footage, then track down the account and blacklist it or prosecute… no loss prevention is going to do all this lol.
I can’t wait until store shelves are set up like those janky pressure sensitive hotel minibars
there are regular inventories, and most likely smart cases with time recording on tap (most even low digit inventory is rfid chipped these days, so even if it doesn’t set off an alarm when taken out of the store, that shit is being recorded when it triggers)
Genuine question, do I need to show an ID to make a CVS account? Use a real name? How could they reliably link the digital account to a person?
yeah i dunno the ins and outs of that, but the app most likely reports on your devices iemi, so regardless of what throwaway email address you use to sign up, if you bought that device, the cell company has your deets, also if they’re making you connect to the cvs wifi, then their router will have that devices MAC address, and most like grab it’s iemi information as well
They probably just ask for your name and link it to the info they already have about you
If you fill a prescription or use a credit card, that’s a very solid link to your identity. The app also probably is collecting all the data it can on you to resell, most of which can be used to fingerprint you through a data broker
They might also require an ID, but all of it is probably more an intimation tactic and stunt for investors than anything else
No way I’d install their app though
I think I’ll just shop elsewhere, thanks
