Usually, when you enter a supermarket, you enter with an empty shopping cart and then fill it with items that you want. What if supermarkets offered discounts to people who, when they entered, took a cart of items and stocked them instead. Once they were done, they would received compensation such as in-store credit or percentage discounts. Another option is a special shopping cart that was also one of those floor moppers or buffers. People would get one when they enter, and depending on how much work they performed, they were automatically offered a discount or credit. Employees would take items from their warehouse and prepare carts to distribute.
-- twitch, Nov 23 2017

//this would end up being gamed//

It would be easy enough to demand the user install an app on their phone and have employees occasionally check the work of customer-stockers. People caught doing this would have their account deactivated.
-- Voice, Nov 24 2017


In this country, a few years ago, there was a psychopath who blackmailed manufacturers. He'd poison a jar of food, or whatever, then put it back on a store shelf while shopping.
Because of that, now we have security theatre anti-tamper devices on everything.
I can't see stores going for this, because it would make identifying adulterators much harder.
-- Loris, Nov 24 2017


With all of our technology, it would be simple to serialize every item, instead of batch serializing. I wonder if this is done already, especially for small food items?
-- twitch, Nov 24 2017


//it would make identifying adulterators much harder//

The three stages of life: infancy, childhood and adultery.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 24 2017



random, halfbakery