Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!tmkk
From: tmkk@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Scott Coleman)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Point of Sale
Message-ID: <1991Jan29.192529.10761@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 29 Jan 91 19:25:29 GMT
References: <9161@uwm.edu> <1991Jan28.131402.29179@com50.c2s.mn.org> <1991Jan28.204538.17471@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 39

In article <1991Jan28.204538.17471@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> jkonrath@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (jon) writes:
>In article <1991Jan28.131402.29179@com50.c2s.mn.org> craig@com50.c2s.mn.org (Craig Wilson) writes:
>>In article <9161@uwm.edu> levine@csd4.csd.uwm.edu writes:
>>>In my local supermarket the sale is scanned by the now ubiquitous
>>>laser scanner with, I am sure, the data being stored somewhere.  I
>>>noted at our last visit that the clerk was keying in our store account
>>>number (the number we use to speed up the check cashing process) as a
>>>last part of the transaction.  
>>>
>>>They now have in their computer a complete file.  Each item we
>>>purchased, our name and address and the like.  Who gets that
>>>information and for what purpose is not under my control.  Check out
>>>the procedure in your favorite store.
>>
>>I am curious.  Does anyone know, from experience, what the record layouts look
>>like for these supermarket databases?  
>
>OK, I used to work in a department store that had a rather advanced POS
>system.  My department wasnt scanned (its hard to run a lawn tractor over
>one of those counters) but our database was similar. in our 'base, all
>it held was a 20some letter description, a big/small ticket toggle, and
>a price.

Admittedly, most stores with POS systems do it primarily for inventory
control purposes (they like to track how many of which items are sold so
they know when to order more, etc.) However, it is quite possible to store
information on who buys what. The details escape me, but just this procedure
is used by a group of people studying the effect of advertising on joe
consumer family. They have special commercials beamed directly to their home,
and each and every item they purchase is tabulated via the laser scanner POS
system at their local supermarket, and the results are correlated by the
researchers. Clearly, it CAN be done, if someone wants to badly enough. 


-- 
Scott Coleman                                                    tmkk@uiuc.edu

"Unisys has demonstrated the power of two. That's their stock price today."
       - Scott McNealy on the history of mergers in the computer industry.