Paper or Plastic? Obviously, The Best Choice is “Neither”

I read an article in the Boston Globe by Hiawatha Bray about the technology offered to shoppers by the Stop & Shop chain. The article is fine, but certainly convinced me that I’ve made the right choice in avoiding the high-tech grocery carts that S&S offer (who needs personalized ads popping up and harrasing me while I’m shopping? No thanks, Big Brother). It’s Mr. Bray’s final comment that really bothered me. He writes,

… it’s time to pay. Scanning a barcode mounted atop the checkout device tells the Scan It you’re done. Swipe your loyalty card at the checkout scanner, and it instantly reads your list of purchases and tells you how much to pay. Now and then, you’ll be ordered to a checkout line where a human attendant will rescan your purchases. It’s a random audit to deter theft. But usually, the machine just asks for the […]