香港专业教育学院被计算机顶着购物车，你可能也去过

Cart Jacking: When the items in your online shopping cart suddenly disappear and are no longer available to purchase. Causes range from speedy clickers to computer shopping programs. Your items in your virtual “cart” have essentially been “jacked”…

购物车顶升 ：当您的在线购物车中的物品突然消失并且不再可购买时。 原因范围从快速的答题器到计算机购物程序。 您的虚拟“购物车”中的物品已被“劫持”…

I woke up bright and early before 8 a.m. on a Friday. I was a college student so sleep was crucial, but who needed sleep when I had a chance to get a t-shirt from one of the most popular streetwear brands, Supreme. I popped open my laptop and hoped I wouldn’t wake up my roommate with the clicking of my mouse pad.

我在星期五的早上8点之前醒来，非常明亮。 我是一名大学生，所以睡眠至关重要，但是当我有机会从最受欢迎的街头服饰品牌之一Supreme取得T恤时，他需要睡眠。 我突然打开笔记本电脑，希望我不会因为单击鼠标垫而唤醒我的室友。

As it hit 7:59 a.m, my heart began to irrationally race as if I were about to talk to a crush or tell my parents that I got an F on a test (non-curved). I was wondering if today would finally be the day I land my hands on a highly coveted “Box-Logo” Supreme t-shirt.

到了上午7:59，我的心开始不合理地比赛，好像我要和暗恋对象说话或告诉父母我在测试中得到了F(未弯曲)。 我想知道今天是否终于是我将手放在一件令人垂涎的“ Box-Logo” Supreme T恤上的日子。

I refreshed the web store page a few seconds before 8 a.m. and I saw the shirt pop-up on the site. Within a matter of seconds, I had added the shirt to my cart and inputted my payment information with the help of Google Chrome autofill. I clicked “Process Payment” and the next page began to load.

我在上午8点之前几秒钟刷新了网上商店页面，并且看到网站上弹出了衬衫。 在几秒钟内，我将衬衫添加到了购物车中，并借助Google Chrome自动填充功能输入了付款信息。 我单击“处理付款”，然后开始加载下一页。

You know the feeling when you click on something and you think it’s about to do exactly what you think? Well, I had that same exact feeling. I thought I had finally done it. But all I got was: “Some of the items in your cart are now sold out”. These words are every Supreme enthusiast’s least favorite words. Just like that, it was over. I had just been a victim of a “cart jacking”.

您知道单击某物时的感觉，并且认为它会完全按照您的想法去做吗？ 好吧，我也有同样的感觉。 我以为我终于做到了。 但是我得到的只是：“您购物车中的某些物品现在已经卖完了”。 这些单词是每个Supreme爱好者最不喜欢的单词。 就这样，结束了。 我刚刚成为“购物车劫持”的受害者。

This failed attempt is widely experienced by many “manual users” who don’t use the aid of computer programs (besides autofill) to speed up their checkout time. On the other side there are “bot users” who utilize computer programs to checkout at incomparable speeds. Manual users can’t compete and often fail to checkout successfully, while bot users can purchase large quantities of a certain item’s stock and resell them for a higher price.

许多“手动用户”普遍尝试过这种失败的尝试，他们不使用计算机程序的帮助(自动填充之外)来加快结帐时间。 另一方面，有“机器人用户”利用计算机程序以无与伦比的速度结帐。 手动用户无法竞争，通常无法成功结帐，而机器人用户可以购买大量特定商品的股票并以更高的价格转售。

To give context, I was after a Supreme Murakami “Box-Logo” t-shirt. It was one of the most sought after collaborations Supreme has ever done. In this case it was a collaboration with popular Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. The t-shirt retailed for around $60 and some sizes sold out in less than 2.7 seconds.(Source: Supremecommunity) The shirts are now being resold for around $550, a little over 9x the retail price! (Source: StockX) That’s a little outrageous for a white t-shirt if you ask me.

为了说明背景，我追求的是村上至尊的“ Box-Logo” T恤。 这是Supreme历来最抢手的合作之一。 在这种情况下，这是与日本著名画家村上隆的合作。 这款T恤的零售价约为60美元，某些尺寸的衬衫在不到2.7秒的时间内就卖光了。 (资料来源：Supremecommunity)这些衬衫现在以550美元左右的价格转售， 是零售价的9倍多！ (来源：StockX)如果您问我，那件白色T恤有点离谱。

You might be wondering what the fruits of labor are for a bot user reselling Supreme products. As an avid Supreme fan, I have a few friends who happen to be veterans of the business. I asked one of them, who was a high school student at the time, what their most profitable single transaction was. Hold on to your seat. After selling 6 Supreme hoodies, they made out with $5,928 (factoring in shipping+tax+retail expenses) in a single day! A single day. As a high school student. I continued to prod a little further and asked what their most profitable month was. $9,000 was their answer. That’s essentially income equivalent to that of a very well paying professional job. Now it’s clear why so many people are flocking to these bots. Whether it’s a side hustle or even someone’s main source of income, the prospects of earning that much money will turn heads. It’s our modern-day gold rush.

您可能想知道对于转售Supreme产品的机器人用户来说，劳动成果是什么？ 作为狂热的至尊粉丝，我有几个朋友都是该行业的资深人士。 我问其中一个当时是高中生的人，他们最赚钱的单笔交易是什么。 等一下 在卖出6件Supreme连帽衫之后， 他们一天就赚了$ 5,928 (含运费，税金和零售费用)！ 一天。 作为一名高中生。 我继续进一步推销，问他们最赚钱的月份是什么。 9,000美元是他们的答案。 从本质上讲，这相当于收入很高的专业工作的收入。 现在很清楚，为什么有那么多人涌向这些机器人。 不管是方方面面，还是某人的主要收入来源，赚这么多钱的前景都会令人反感。 这是我们现代的淘金热。

The practice of using “bots” to purchase items online has affected other industries. You can find bot activity on sites ranging from Adidas to Amazon to Whole Foods. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nintendo Switch gaming consoles became almost as hard to get as Supreme clothing. Quarantine orders drove many people to demand entertainment and gaming systems as they stayed home for indefinite periods of time. Noting this increase in demand, many bot users began buying out entire stocks of Nintendo Switches at various online retailers such as Target and Best Buy. These bot users resell these consoles for double the $299 retail price. Looks like I won’t be playing Animal Crossing anytime soon.

使用“机器人”在线购买商品的做法已经影响到其他行业。 您可以在从Adidas到Amazon到Whole Foods的网站上找到机器人活动。 在COVID-19大流行期间，Nintendo Switch游戏机几乎变得与Supreme衣服一样难买。 隔离令驱使许多人在不确定的时间内呆在家里，要求娱乐和游戏系统。 注意到需求的增长，许多机器人用户开始在Target和Best Buy等各种在线零售商处购买Nintendo Switches的全部库存。 这些机器人用户以299美元的零售价转售了这些游戏机。 看来我很快不会再玩Animal Crossing。

Not only are these bots used to purchase entertainment items and sought after clothing, they are also used to secure necessities such as groceries and food delivery. Popular services such as Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods, and Instacart are online, no contact grocery delivery services. These services became in high demand as a result of the pandemic. Anyone using these services over the last few months knows it’s nearly impossible to schedule a delivery. Bots were at play again, allowing users to automatically reserve delivery times once they became available. (Source: Vice) No harm no foul right? Not exactly… Unlike with the Supreme t-shirt or the Nintendo Switch where we can easily admit defeat at the hands of bots and move on from these discretionary purchases, grocery delivery services are a different matter. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen the importance of these services for survival. When people can’t receive food during a pandemic and they are competing against bots, there’s an issue. Segments of our population such as the elderly or the immunocompromised may have to rely on these services since they can’t go to the supermarket to purchase necessities in person. Others are completely unaware of the existence of bots or are non-tech-savvy. All these disadvantaged groups are unknowingly competing against an invisible army of robots.

这些机器人不仅用于购买娱乐物品和寻找衣服，还用于确保杂货和食品外卖等必需品的安全。 热门服务(例如Amazon Fresh，Whole Foods和Instacart)在线，没有联系杂货店送货服务。 由于大流行，对这些服务的需求量很大。 在过去几个月中使用这些服务的任何人都知道几乎不可能安排交货。 机器人再次发挥作用，允许用户在有空时自动保留交货时间。 (来源：副)没有伤害就没有犯规吗？ 不完全是……与Supreme恤衫或Nintendo Switch服装不同，我们可以轻松地接受机器人的失败并继续进行这些随意购买，而杂货店送货服务则是另一回事。 在COVID-19大流行期间，我们已经看到了这些服务对于生存的重要性。 当人们在大流行期间无法获得食物并且正在与机器人竞争时，就会出现问题。 我们这些人群(例如老年人或免疫力低下的人群)可能不得不依靠这些服务，因为他们无法亲自去超市购买必需品。 其他人则完全不知道机器人的存在或不懂技术。 所有这些弱势群体在不知不觉中正在与一支看不见的机器人大军竞争。

It’s important to note that nowadays computer programs and the people manipulating them behind the scenes are responsible for the supply and demand for certain commodities. Any commodity from game consoles, to hype clothing, to hand sanitizer is not safe from bots. As long as there’s room for profit, bot users are ready to jump on the opportunity. Theoretically, a handful of bot users could buy up all inventory of a certain product. As a result of owning a large portion of those products, they can hike up prices and essentially control the market for them. This revolutionizes what it means to shop online.

重要的是要注意，当今计算机程序和在幕后操纵它们的人员负责某些商品的供求。 从机器人到游戏机，炒作，洗手液等任何商品都不安全。 只要有获利空间，机器人用户就可以抓住机会。 从理论上讲，少数机器人用户可以购买某种产品的所有库存。 由于拥有这些产品的大部分，它们可以提高价格并从根本上控制它们的市场。 这彻底改变了在线购物的含义。

The technology behind these computer programs is constantly being updated and improved upon. They’re almost always one step ahead of online retailer’s security. Despite online retailer’s efforts to detect non-human customers, programmers are always able to bypass security measures such as Captcha (that annoying little popup asking us to click all the images that are crosswalks). They’re even ways to adjust the speed of the program so it doesn’t tip off any security measures that detect unusually high execution speeds. As of now, these programs have proven time after time to be unstoppable.

这些计算机程序背后的技术正在不断更新和改进。 它们几乎总是比在线零售商的安全性领先一步。 尽管在线零售商努力检测非人类客户，但程序员始终能够绕过诸如Captcha(这种令人讨厌的小弹出窗口，要求我们单击人行横道的所有图片)之类的安全措施。 它们甚至是调整程序速度的方法，因此它不会提示任何检测到异常高的执行速度的安全措施。 到目前为止，这些程序已被证明是势不可挡的。

With that being said, I pose a few questions:

话虽如此，我提出了几个问题：

• How can online retailers level the playing field for manual users?
  在线零售商如何为手工用户提供公平的竞争环境？
• Are there ways to strictly regulate bot purchasing of essential goods such as hand sanitizer or toilet paper during times of shortage?
  在短缺期间，是否有办法严格限制机器人对基本产品的购买，例如洗手液或厕纸？
• Will we arrive at a time when everyone will need their own computer program to purchase their online goods due to the increasingly competitive nature of online shopping?
  由于在线购物的竞争日趋激烈，我们会到达一个每个人都需要自己的计算机程序来购买其在线商品的时候吗？

If everyone else is playing this game, do we play with them? Or do we get left behind with an empty cart?

如果其他人都在玩这个游戏，我们会和他们一起玩吗？ 还是我们被空车甩在后面？

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