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Target's Cartwheel Deals Near You

22 January 2018

Target recently updated its app with a cool new feature: Cartwheel Near You. I was wondering when something like this would be available and it's great to see this advancement in making the brick-and-mortar experience (almost) as easy as cyber shopping. Now shoppers can roam around and find Cartwheel deals near them in the store (it's an in-app option that — obviously — only appears while in a Target store). Gone are the days of having to scroll through deals ahead of time or — more famously for me — before I head to the check-out (either self-serve or with a cashier, it depends).

This type of scanning technology no doubt also plays a role in Amazon's new cashierless store in Seattle, opening today. Sounds like all you have to do is load up the bags and go — with sensors identifying what's in your bags and charging your card as you stroll out the door.

In the case of Amazon's store, I'm wondering about the impact on theft management. The Amazon Go app serves as a virtual entry ticket into the store and thereby identifies the account to be charged. Certainly one perk is ID thieves won't be able to use another person's credit card fraudulently. In theory. For now. It also makes phone theft a greater risk as this type of implementation becomes more widespread.

On a related note, it seems so wrong to me that all credit cards don't have a photo ID component and that signatures are rarely checked — or worse: the cashier swipes the card, then gives it back, signature-side up, as if to assist a would-be fraud. Amazing how there seem to be relatively simple solutions and processes that go unexplored or unenforced.