To be fair, things like customer/club/discount cards do most of the information collection already. The bigger issue is how all this information will be offered to a single company, of which Facebook in particular has shown recently just how dangerous that is.
And yes, it's likely this will decrease the number of jobs when it comes to the retail business. When steam engines and internal combustion engines became practical we had to reconsider our manufacturing processes, when the assembly line was invented we had to do that again, and the invention of robots that could do the same, repetitive jobs as factory workers forced another rethink. And not just in manufacturing, also in things like mining. But all of these had the disadvantage of needing relatively big robots and systems, that had limited mobility and no capacity to reason and merely did what limited things they've been programmed to do.
Modern technology has changed that. Pathfinding has been automated. Improved battery technology along with electrical engine improvements have solved the mobility issue. Dexterity equal to a human's has always been possible, but now we've got the sensors necessary to perform actual hand eye coordination and track how much pressure is actually asserted. All that has been needed now is putting it onto a single platform that can be afforded at a lower per hour of labour cost than a shelf stocker, and you can start replacing those people with a more efficient alternative.
Of course, at that point the question becomes 'now what,' as you either need to find a new form of labour for those with either no prospects or no interest in a better paying job, or you need to change the way society looks at labour and money.
And yes, it's likely this will decrease the number of jobs when it comes to the retail business. When steam engines and internal combustion engines became practical we had to reconsider our manufacturing processes, when the assembly line was invented we had to do that again, and the invention of robots that could do the same, repetitive jobs as factory workers forced another rethink. And not just in manufacturing, also in things like mining. But all of these had the disadvantage of needing relatively big robots and systems, that had limited mobility and no capacity to reason and merely did what limited things they've been programmed to do.
Modern technology has changed that. Pathfinding has been automated. Improved battery technology along with electrical engine improvements have solved the mobility issue. Dexterity equal to a human's has always been possible, but now we've got the sensors necessary to perform actual hand eye coordination and track how much pressure is actually asserted. All that has been needed now is putting it onto a single platform that can be afforded at a lower per hour of labour cost than a shelf stocker, and you can start replacing those people with a more efficient alternative.
Of course, at that point the question becomes 'now what,' as you either need to find a new form of labour for those with either no prospects or no interest in a better paying job, or you need to change the way society looks at labour and money.