Is Surveillance Of Consumers Is Manipulative Or Unethical?

To truly understand the consumer’s needs one must listen to what the consumer wants and desires, it takes very little effort on the part of Company Q to understand the needs of its consumers. The effort we make can be the difference between a store’s success and a store going bankrupt. Insuring that Company Q's stores standout amongst its competitors in the marketplace will help give Company Q a competitive edge.

Thesis: Although some claim that retail anthropologists’ placement of surveillance cameras for consumers while shopping is manipulative, it is not in fact unethical because their actions are meant for the benefit of the consumers, the benefit of the producers, and most importantly, shoppers are aware of the surveillance cameras.

When a consumer walks into a store they know what products they want to buy,

Would you like to have someone snatch an item from your store?Tracking customers are becoming more and more popular for stores in the United States. Currently, retailers are using cameras and smartphones to learn about their customers’ shopping experience and tendencies. Critics may argue that spying on customers is creepy, but it prevents shoplifting and gets customers good deals and coupons.

With technology gaining the ability to intrude upon each individual’s privacy, people are only recently becoming aware of the ways in which this is achieved—while many are focused on, for example, the NSA tapping into his or her phone, the biggest invasion of privacy comes from a system which we often turn a blind eye to: consumerism. In the article “Economic Citizenship and the Rhetoric of Gourmet Coffee”, Mathieu uses Starbucks as an example to show how one company can appeal so strongly to costumers that the consumer turns a blind eye to the company’s ethics. However, in the article “The Science of Shopping”, Gladwell analyzes the methods in which retailers try to appeal to their customers to maximize their sales.

| |When a customer enters a retail outlet they will expect to be able to purchase|

Retail anthropology is another word for spying. It was never designed to improve the customer's shopping experience or teach us how to better serve people. Companies like Envirosell and Videomining have one idea in mind; find out the behaviors of shoppers and use the data to manipulate their shopping environment. The use of surveillance cameras is an invasion of privacy, people are being watched not only in stores, but on the devices they use. Using these tactics are unethical because once introduced, the practice of spying for profit has become standard. Retail anthropology, as it's called, is harmful to society because it feeds into capitalism and worsens a system that is already failing. Retail anthropology

Hi Danae, I think the examples you choose were very strong to support your argument that surveillance of consumers by retail anthropologists is not manipulative and unethical. However, I think you should add some details to these arguments, especially your first one. You should definitely mention how the surveillance of consumers allows retailers to improve constomer interaction, but as well as provide a real life example with statistics from another source in addition to the video. I think that your thesis is very strong in explaining the overall points you are trying to make. I can clearly see the points you are trying to make, you argue that surveillance of consumers helps retailers how to increase customer interaction, satisfaction, and

In Malcom Gladwell’s “The Science of Shopping” (Maasik, p93), Gladwell explains how the retail industry has examined consumers and shoppers and manipulated their entire retail experience. Gladwell goes on to explain that it is unethical and consumers are unknowingly being observed. I strongly refute Gladwell’s claim, stating that the surveillance of consumers by retail anthropologists is manipulative and unethical. The surveillance of consumers has been very beneficial to pinpoint the customer needs, and also to improve the shopping experience by making it more enjoyable and less time consuming.

Modern retail stores have to use a variety of techniques in order to lure and keep customers inside their stores. Without paying customers there is no retail store. This shows the importance of the consumer and how much influence they have over modern retail companies. These Fortune 500 companies pay top dollar to know how they can maximize product sales in every way possible. In The Science of Shopping Malcolm Gladwell interviews Paco Underhill, a retail anthropologist who's sole purpose is to study consumers' shopping habits and to determine the best store design for maximum profit. Over the years Paco has noticed various human tendencies that, if used properly, will increase a retail stores sales. Tendencies like: the Invariant right, Petting, and the Decompression Zone. I visited a local Walmart looking for evidence of Pacos work and recorded my findings.

Do you feel like your privacy is safe in stores?Well, cameras located in stores are able to acquire an abundant amount of information on its customers just by capturing their image on camera. This is absolutely an invasion of privacy, and that’s why most people feel that cameras should not be placed in stores and invade their privacy.To begin with, your mug shot can be leaked, and everyone will know your identity, it is a violation of privacy and cameras are expensive and difficult to manage. Therefore, cameras should not be used in stores.

Stores use these surveillance cameras to see what the shoppers look at, what they like, and how they react to things, and all of those sort of reasons. You know those super cute jeans you wanted from Aeropostale? Well they are so expensive and the camera’s will see you put them back down and you might get a 20% off coupon on your phone just like that. Bam now you can get those jeans for much cheaper and you can look cute. Not only it saves you money, but the store might come out with more clothes similar to the ones you bought, so now you can have more clothes for cheap! As you can see it’s a win-win situation for you, and you look stylish. That’s a perfect way to save

Don’t we all hate when we can’t find parking at the mall? On weekends the parking lot at almost every mall or shopping center is completely full. It is a task to find parking before we enter into the perfectly lit, perfectly air-conditioned building. Whether we have a purpose to be there because we need to pickup a necessity, or we want to pass time, shopping is on the checklist for most of us sometime throughout the week. America is known for our consumer culture. We love our products and the way a merchant knows what type of product we need or want is by gathering data. Shopping surveillance is a beneficial tool used by merchants to assist with gathering data. Although the surveillance of consumers by retail anthropologist is viewed

Consumers greatly benefit from the studying of their shopping behaviors by retail anthropologists. Imagine a man named Dan, walks into a store with a few set items to buy in mind. Dan is determined to go in and buy those items. A few weeks prior the store had been examined to improve on providing what their customers want. Dan just so happens to be a frequent shopper at the store so his metadata influenced how store layout and placement of items. Normally, Dan would go to get what he wants and get distracted along the way but thanks to the improved layout and consideration for the shoppers needs in mind, Dan was finally able to quickly get what he wants and leave the store. Dan directly benefitted from having retail anthropologists use his data. Data taken from the YouTube video, “How stores track your shopping behavior” shows that with 2 shelf facing it takes 3.3 seconds to locate Post Bran Flakes, as opposed to 2.3 seconds with 4 shelf facing. Not only does Dan benefit from the consumer surveillance but so do all consumers. Now, let’s say another shopper named Lisa goes to the same store as Dan. Lisa hates the store because of their narrow walkways and being bombarded by things as she enter. Just as with Dan, she is subjected to surveillance to see how shoppers behave in that store. The

Technology are getting very advance. Companies now track consumers’ shopping and other preferences. Some say it's an invasion of privacy, while others, may argue that it is beneficial to consumers. This debate has been going on for a while now. Companies that track people using cameras or through phone search are invading people's personal