This new type of cameras is developing in French supermarkets. They can take a picture of you, but it is not to monitor your behavior.
In supermarkets, technology is gradually disembarking. Caisse automation, more efficient monitoring systems, connected caddies … Progress does not stop to save you time during your shopping and avoid incidents. In some brands, new hidden cameras have recently appeared. For the most part, they are slipped into the small electronic drinks on which prices are displayed, which are found below the products.
This hidden camera thus takes images of the department throughout the day. You can therefore be photographed at any time during your purchases. However, this is not a surveillance system to avoid flights, for example. Rest assured, the store is not trying to identify you either.
In reality, the camera takes pictures of the gondola opposite and almost continuously to prevent someone to be in front each time. The shots then went through recognition software and analyzed thanks to artificial intelligence. Once this maneuver has been made, they are immediately destroyed.
But for what purpose? If the software identifies that the stock begins to miss, an employee is immediately warned in order to restore. This system avoids holes on the shelves and maximizes your chances of finding the product you are looking for. For supermarkets, this avoids losing potential sales. This is particularly useful in large stores. Several brands such as Franprix, Monoprix, or Casino have already set up such systems or other similar.
This device responds to a great fear of the French. According to a Survey published in 2023 by OpinionWay for SES-Imagotagspecialist in digital solutions for physical trade, more than 9 out of 10 French people have already faced stock -outs and three -quarters consider this situation unacceptable, especially when it intervenes at the end of the morning. A third even says that these shortages impact their morale.
40% then prefer to change stores when they do not find the exact product they were looking for, against 41% which replace it with an equivalent. 73% of interviewees believe in these new technologies to better anticipate stock breaks in food products.