Imagine that you are standing in the supermarket deciding which type of candy to buy. Would you want to know if one of the Swedes had just been recalled or if the parent company of another candy had recently paid a big fine to settle charges of unethical behavior? In the not so distant future, you will be able to research nearly anything and everything about a product before you buy it and even without ever having to leave your shopping cart. This future technology is often referred to as scanned first and then buy and pilot programs throughout the country have been received with an overwhelmingly positive response.
Here is how the scanned first and then buy technology works. First you would scan your selected products barcode on a small wireless computer with a scanner affixed to your shopping cart. The information retrieved from the scanned barcode would then be transferred over a wireless connection to a massive online database which then provides you with a very thorough and specific text based search phrase. Now this search phrase would be automatically plugged into your computer and sent through a major search engine, Microsoft’s Live search in the case of recent pilot programs, where any recent recalls or related news stories would appear. This would allow you to know if there is anything currently happening with the product which you have scanned. This search will even yield results pertaining to working conditions at the company or environmental policies; basically anything that you could think of which would help you to determine which company to buy your desired product from.
With such a system, businesses would be able to hide anything significant. After a wide release of the scanned first and then by future technology companies would be forced to engage in fair labor practices, environmentally responsible manufacturing policies and even make sure that health and safety standards are kept above and beyond those required by regulating agencies. The demand for companies who engaged in an environmentally responsible manufacturing, paid fair wages overseas workers and ensure your health and safety would surely be enough to offset a small price difference and ensure that responsible companies are able to compete with said policies are fair and level playing field.
Although this technology is not yet widespread and mainstream it is 100% working and functional and simply waiting for the demand to implement it to rise to an economically feasible level. So, spread the word and this technology may soon come to a grocery store near you.