[ethbro]

Sure there is a reason -- there might not be a statistically significant / valuable signal in the available data.

And in the physical retail world, collecting data comes at a cost (hardware, infrastructure, support). Often times, benefits don't outweigh that cost.

[colordrops]

With optical cameras, wifi and Bluetooth signatures, location data, 3rd party databases, and ML, there is more than enough data to get an ID enough shoppers to care. None of that tech is prohibitively expensive. It just requires someone to build out a cost-effective implementation with off the shelf parts.

[ethbro]

There's a lot more "just" to deploying anything of the sort to a 1,000+ physical store footprint.

At minimum, what's the local network situation? Where are you storing and processing the take? Are you installing edge compute or transferring it out? If the later, what are your latency requirements?

I try and take a healthy dose of "maybe it's a harder problem than I thought" whenever something is valuable, looks easy, yet no one is doing it.

[bsenftner]

This plan all falls apart when the retail CEO has "his nephew manage the project, 'cause he's good with computers". Then a 20 year old more concerned with girls and video games appears. He has zero technical experience beyond video games, and attitude that you're his flunky. Seen it. Multiple times.