CVS wants you using its mobile app to unlock store shelves

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.
- My first choice of action would be to walk out the door. My second choice of action would be to walk out the door.
- 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
- 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
  
  This is dystopian level privacy nightmare.
  
  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.
  
  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.
  
  Sounds like it's time for a new pharmacy.
- 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.
- I don't mind doing it, if I have access to the pharmacy/prescription department.

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.

I'm just not gonna shop at CVS

That’s a great idea if the goal is to make sure I don’t shop at CVS anymore.

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.
- Yeah but the engines of capitalism & infinite growth in a finite world gotta go brrr.

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?
Yes. If it speeds up shopping, that's a win for me.
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)

I think I'll just shop elsewhere, thanks

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.
  
  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?

The "shit being locked and nobody comes to help when you press the button" bullshit is why I bought some spare keys for the universal barrel locks most stores use. 9 times out of 10, these cabinets are locked with a lock that's key is just a circular bit with a single tooth.
- And you carry one of these around with you? How often are you visiting stores with these locks?
  
  Yes, and weekly; every time I do my shopping.

Why the fuck aren't they just dropping this shit off at my door?
Why do I need to go into a convenience store when there's no convenience?

The answer is never “make service better to attract customers”, it’s always “extract as much value as possible from the ones that remain”. Shitty short term number go up mentality.
- Bigger problem is we have these companies with so much market capture that there isn't growth to be found so they find ways to either change the laws to drive down costs or find ways to extract more money per consumer, so either way the line goes up while the majority of people suffer
  We need to shift the culture away from investors who expect the line to always go up. Normalize companies just being happy to turn a nice profit doing what they do without growing because they realistically cannot grow any more

I honestly can't remember the last time I went to a CVS. Definitely before Covid hit. I can't even imagine going now.
Someone needs to tell Winnetka Bowling League to update their song and video.
- I only went there to get some eye drops because my eyes were on fire and I was desperate.

Buh bye CVS, I wish I could say it was fun. It's amazing how quickly a corp can become a corpse.
- Yeah, shopping at CVS was never something I'd consider enjoyable, it was a thing I did occasionally if I needed something and was nearby. Now I'll go the extra half block to a different store. Screw 'em.

I already don't shop there, so no.

My local grocery store from the Safeway family of stores has Bluetooth beacons that crashed my old phone. Now I turn my phone off as I have to assume these are to track where I am in the store and for how long so they can further target their ads.
Actually downloading their app is 100% a no from me. I'm moving to local stores wherever possible because I can afford it, and to be honest, the grocers raised their prices so much, only certain items are more expensive bought local.

What kind of inefficent shitscape is your business that adding a new app functionality is easier, cheaper and faster than hiring more, better paid people?
Hold on, maybe this is a method of appeasing the stock holders to improve trust in them, backing out might cause people to back away
Wait, this could also be a temporary measure as they hire more people, although the damage has already been done and will show itself next quarter
- This sounds to me like satire. If you hire people, you need to go through HR process and then you are rewuired to pay them monthly.
  System is one and done. It may be pricey up front, but as they already have infrastructure in place, long-term costs will be laughable compared to additional employee per every shop.
  In what world keeping employee doing useless work is worth it?

I am sure CVS will not assume the worst when I buy three 12 packs of Magnum XL, two bottles of NyQuil, six cans of Monster Energy and a roll of duct tape.
- That is...an interesting shopping list.
  Do I dare ask: planning a big party?
  
  Nice try CVS

Fuck. This. Noise.

Or, now hear me out, I stop shopping there.

!smartphone_required@lemmy.sdf.org

I wonder whether it ever occurs to normies that surrendering PII in order to transact amounts to hidden cost inflation
- Would it make a difference if they did? Here in the UK every supermarket has a loyalty card scheme. I held out for a long time but eventually I simply couldn't afford to pay the effective 20% premium for not using it
  
  Depends on what value you place on your consumption data. I'd argue the scheme participants are the ones paying a premium.