Black Friday shoppers in California and Virginia might learn their phones are being tracked as they move along the mall. That's the plan at the Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Virginia. The malls intend to monitor signals from peoples' cell phones starting on Black Friday and running through New Year's Day. Their movements will be tracked as they go from store to store.
Retailers and mall management have long been excited about capturing drill-down data to support decisions about optimal inventory, position in the mall, staffing, and customer demographics. For the industry, this is one more survival data tool. For mall management, knowing more about their shopper traffic is their lifeblood. People’s patterns of movement can give them a better opportunity to profit and keep drawing in traffic by ensuring a better so-called “shopping experience.”
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
