Profit Margin
Posted by Ceri Davies Sun, 13 Mar 2005 11:19:00 GMT
I had a vision of the future of shopping and, with strange synchronicity, saw that Zoe Williams has been thinking about it too. In yesterday’s Guardian, Zoe guesses that the only reason that banks are forcing shops over to Chip & PIN ”is that, when a signature is faked, they’re liable, whereas when a pin is duped, the customer is”.
Zoe does have somewhat of a reputation for making uninformed guesses about economics, but in this instance Zoe does state that she doesn’t know if the incentive stated above is correct. Although it may be part of the reason, I see a good reason for the merchants to be moving: RFID, plus Chip & PIN (or payment by fingerprint), means that checkout assistants can be dispensed with.
It’s not hard to imagine a system that will only let you leave you the store with the items that you have paid for - oh wait, apparently the ”Shopping Buddy” already does this. If you work in a shop, start thinking about what you want to do next.
