New cameras spotted in Woolies are not what shoppers think

“More surveillance at Woolies?” asked one shopper on social media. Now, the supermarket has clarified what they're for.

In recent years, supermarkets have been getting increasingly high tech for the sake of saving both customers and employees time.

Regular check outs became self service, and then self service became the Scan&Go scheme, where you barely have to spend any time in the check out at all.

Now, it’s restocking that’s being targeted.

A Sydney shopper has taken to Reddit to share a peculiar notice that they spotted in their local Woolworths store alerting people of additional camera technology - now we know exactly what it is.

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Image: Reddit.

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"More surveillance at Woolies?"

A Sydney Woolworths shopper has taken to Reddit after spotting a customer notice they weren’t familiar with.

“We’re trialling new camera technology in this store to improve product availability,” the notice say.

“Any customer imagery captured will be silhouetted out.”

But, for the customer, this felt a little vague, leaving them to wonder what this could possibly be for.

“More surveillance at Woolies?” they asked in their post.

“Woolies in Kellyville has now put cameras on a lot of their aisles. This store is one of the more digitally ‘advanced’ ones with digital price tags and those self-checkout tablets.”

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What is it for?

Commenters on the post were just as confused, wondering why this would be a thing, and how it could possibly be more efficient than any other solution for stocking.

“Wouldn't the logical conclusion be to automatically detect when stock is low and restock?” one person asked.

“Can’t they monitor stock by how much they sell via the checkout registers?” said another.

“They probably want to analyse browsing habits and rearrange products accordingly,” a third person suggested.

And the real reason is...

Woolworths has now stepped in to dispel any rumours.

These cameras are not surveillance cameras, but rather act as a simpler way for staff members to see what needs to be restocked and when.

Images are taken of the shelves every hour, reducing the need for team members to constantly review them manually to ensure enough stock is available.

These cameras are mounted to the underside of shelves (near the price tags) in every section of participating stores - from the produce section, freezer and chilled sections, to every individual aisle. But, for the moment, it's just a trial, meaning it may not impact you at all.

"We’ve been trialling the use of on shelf cameras to help improve product availability in less than 15 supermarkets since June 2023," a Woolworths spokesperson told Kidspot.

"The cameras, which alert our team members when shelves or products need to be restocked, means more of what our customers want is more readily available.

"We’ll continue assessing the benefits of this technology as we proceed with the trial."

For those worried about accidentally being caught on one of these cameras, don't worry! Woolworths assures that a customer’s image is taken, the customer will be silhouetted out and the store team will view the information of the shelf condition.

Originally published as New cameras spotted in Woolies are not what shoppers think