Kmart Australia has ‘freaked out’ hundreds of shoppers by making a major change to select stores.
A Melbourne customer noted that the Westfield Southland department store had installed a digital board in the changing rooms to detect which products were being tried on.
Confused by the new technology at the time, the customer shared an image of the screen in question on Reddit, showing images of the identified clothing.
“Kmart can now detect the clothes that fit you,” the caption read.
The post quickly caught the attention of paranoid shoppers who immediately denounced the displays.
‘Do you have to scan them or does this happen automatically? I don’t want anyone scanning my ass in a locker room,” one person wrote.
“My paranoid ass would have totally freaked me out,” said another.
A Melbourne customer noticed that the Westfield Southland department store had installed a digital board in the changing rooms. The latest technology detects products entering the fitting rooms by scanning the barcodes (photo)
However, some pointed out that shoppers have nothing to worry about as no cameras are used.
‘This is quite common around the world, they just have RFID tags on them, and when you come into the room those tags are scanned. RFID doesn’t require a camera or anything so they don’t look at you, it’s basically just an advanced barcode,” one person wrote.
“The Uniqlo stores here have that too,” says another.
The latest technology detects products entering the fitting rooms by scanning the barcodes.
A spokesperson for Kmart Australia told FEMAIL that only one store is trialling the new technology
A spokesperson for Kmart Australia told FEMAIL that only one store is trialling the new technology.
“Kmart Southland is currently participating in a new trial of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology in our fitting rooms, which scans our clothing products upon entry and then displays these products to the customer,” the spokesperson said.
‘No cameras or photos are used with this technology.
‘RFID technology is used worldwide and is not new to Kmart as it is already used in other parts of our stores, including with our Tory robot, which uses RFID technology to count our stock daily and improve the shopping experience for our customers to improve.’