Comment by heavyset_go
2 days ago
This is already the case. The largest supermarket chain in my relatively wealthy area has had multiple cameras per aisle hanging about ~3 feet above your head + monitors in each aisle that show some, but not all, camera views, for over a decade now.
Like ALPR cameras and now Flock cameras, no one cares and if you seem to care, people assume you're up to no good.
This is the same culture that obsessively watches their Ring cameras and posts videos of people innocently walking down the street on the Nextdoor app because seeing the wrong people existing outside scares them.
It's so weird to me that the stores in "nicer" areas seem to be on the forefront of this crap.
I suspect it may have more to do with how local law enforcement handles shoplifting and theft generally than actual customer demographics.
> I suspect it may have more to do with how local law enforcement handles shoplifting and theft generally than actual customer demographics.
They literally have nothing better to do so this, traffic enforcement and bothering kids who are trying to have a good time are the bulk of their duty, so I'd agree.
> It's so weird to me that the stores in "nicer" areas seem to be on the forefront of this crap.
I think a certain kind of person is comforted by surveillance. They perceive it, usually somewhat correctly from places of immense privilege, to be for their benefit and protection. They idea that it would be used against them, who are Good, and not against those people, who are Bad, is laughable to them if the concept even crosses their minds.
Maybe you're one of those people if the cameras bother you, is the sentiment.
What I was getting at is that these richer areas are pretty bimodal. They either support the shit out of the police or they think that enforcing petty theft laws are racist and both cases lead to more orwellian crap (the latter because the retailer has to basically serve up felony prosecutions on a silver platter if they want anything to happen).