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Bay Area innovator stops shoplifting, gives shoppers power to open padlocked shelves

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/consumer/bay-area-innovator-stops-shoplifting/3369064/

New technology coming to stores could stop theft and ease customer access.

Bay Area innovator stops shoplifting, gives shoppers power to open padlocked shelves::New technology coming to stores could stop theft and ease customer access.

47 comments

_dev_null

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This whole article is a fucking advert for glorified vending machines.

bobs_monkey

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Written by AI

LWD

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LWD

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Pyro

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The problem Is real but this solution seems very bs

LWD

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Pyro

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I would rate it as a concern. Probably not "HUGE" concern but it is impacting thing.

I work loss prevention, so I have a slight bias. But I also see how often and to the volume that it is. There are individuals I have helped with that are linked to 6 digit worth of stuff (and then of course money theft but that's a different ball game).

Yes if a company has 30,000,000 in sales, theft seems less a problem until it gets multipld out hundreds of times a 1,500,000 of saleable items being stolen can and is something that happens with the current security stuff. And while that is 1/20 the of the sales that 30 mill is before paying for the product, utilities and salary.

Profit is still there but it is getting harder to hold that profit and new ways to loose/new scams pop up all the time

GeneralVincent

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It's much lower than 1/20, try 1-2% of sales

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/27/business/crime-spree-retailers-are-actually-overstating-the-extent-of-theft-report-says/index.html

Pyro

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More then Likely the overall average is hitting that. not really going to argue that. I have been at and looked at metrics for individual stores that have been 4.2,4.5, and one that was a 6% (their was a bit of restructuring that happened after that). I will state that those percentages were lost item numbers that could be accounted with other things other then theft.

The store thats in a "nicer" area and the one that has is in a really bad 1 can even out so the number is low. but the bad store can have really high numbers, numbers that can be worse as it goes through. Also keep in mind that the overall theft % has stayed "constant" by the link you gave, and thats with the annoying glass cases and other such being used to try to lower shrink. better measures are needed as time passes. A case an area cost 6k to order for the area I was in, and the store chose to put it there. or the ones that are paying for off duty officers to help. If they didnt work the stores wouldnt use them (and yes that does happen, a security set for a store got canceled because the numbers didnt change after 5 months)

GeneralVincent

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I appreciate the in depth and personal knowledge, it does add some perspective and nuance. I rarely agree with large corporation's decisions (on principle alone haha) but I do understand why they do stuff like this

Corkyskog

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The problem is barely real.

Piecemakers3Dprints

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surprisedpikachu.jpg

applejacks

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In the first half of 2023, shoplifting reports were 16% higher than the first half of 2019. New York City saw a 44% increase in shoplifting complaints between 2021 and 2022. New York and Los Angeles saw the largest increases in shoplifting from 2019 to 2023, with more than 60% increases.

lol ok

you think they are just locking stuff up for fun?

CmdrShepard

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Why are they only reporting numbers from the pandemic? This is like my local paper talking about how "traffic deaths have shot up since 2020" while omitting the fact that nobody was driving around in 2020. You're telling me shoplifting is up when compared to a time where most people weren't going out in public, let alone shopping at retail stores?

LWD

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applejacks

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https://counciloncj.org/is-shoplifting-up-or-down/

And yet the comment I replied to was "They fixed a problem that wasn’t real".

Incredibly scientific and thoroughly sourced lol.

LWD

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GeneralVincent

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Wow, those percentages are large numbers. Except a 50% increase starting at .01 crimes a day ends up being only .015 crimes a day. So maybe some additional context can be helpful to know if the problem is rampant or just a tiny problem in some cities becoming a slightly bigger tiny problem.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/27/business/crime-spree-retailers-are-actually-overstating-the-extent-of-theft-report-says/index.html

Kolanaki

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TL;DR - Instead of locking shit up in a cabinet you need an employee to open, dude wants to use vending machines (that he sells) so you can just buy the stuff without waiting around.

Honestly not a bad idea. Trying to find the only employee with the key to a locked cabinet is fucking annoying and wastes so much time. They often have a call button, but in my experience nobody fucking comes anyway

AA5B

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Thanks, I’m not going to read a glorified ad ….. not a bad idea though.

The company I work at has something like this in IT. If you need something simple like a cable or new mouse or headphones ….. instead of opening a ticket and making an appointment and trying to chase down the IT who’s supposed to be at the appointment, you just use the vending machine. In this case, scan your badge and it spits out the thing. I’m sure they keep track of it somewhere but it’s so nice to just get the theming instead of going through all the hassle

CameronDev

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Useful unless you just want to look at the item more closely (read the back of the box or whatever before you purchase.

Dudewitbow

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honestly not the worst idea for some smaller high priced items

Lettuceeatlettuce

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Great, so now they can fire all their on-site staff and force their customers to use some shitty, proprietary app/software that 100% grabs as much of their personal data as possible. All while the only people who save money in the long run is the corporation that puts these in, and the company selling it to them.

I'm sure the corpos that install these will lower their prices once they recoup the losses they have from the stealing right?....right?...

The cyberpunk corpo dystopia is upon us already.

Gointhefridge

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Man, capitalists will do literally anything to not pay people more money. You know people steal cause shit is expensive and they don't have a lot of disposable income to waste on stuff right? Why inconvenience everyone. Pay people more and hire more workers.

Also cause the propaganda to get people to "want" stuff is so effective they start stealing just to have it.

Fal

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If you think the people filling trash bags with laundry detergent is because they just can't afford it because it's too expensive, you're not living in reality

Gointhefridge

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Why else? They don't think it's "worth it" because they only have so much money to go around and they don't want to waste it on bullshit like needlessly expensive laundry detergent compared to their salary.

When a bottle of detergent is 2/3 your hourly wage why the hell wouldn't you want to steal some if you could?

Fal

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When a bottle of detergent is 2/3 your hourly wage why the hell wouldn’t you want to steal some if you could?

Lol you think these people have jobs...

bus_go_fast

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Mr_Blott

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bay area

Are we talking St Andrew's bay? Largo bay?

CmdrShepard

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Clearly the Bay of Pigs.

TechNerdWizard42

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In the before times you would go to a store and it was essentially a warehouse with a desk. You walk in and the dude behind the counter asked what you wanted and you gave him your list. He'd then rummage around the boxes and get you what you needed, you'd pay, and go. You didn't pick, you just paid. You could even phone in your order and the store would hold for pickup or deliver cash on delivery with options and take back what you didn't want.

Moving to a self-pick model involved the risk of theft but most of the studies showed it was cheaper to eat some theft than to employ more pickers or have customers leave because of waiting. And that's what happened. But theft has continued to rise to where now it's no longer a viable tradeoff.

Of course the recourse is back to company picking. And we now have reverted back to the old way except prepayment is required and some items can be returned... It's annoying but I see the need.

Having said that, if I'm in a store to self pick, if what I need is locked away I just leave anything else I collected there and walk out. I'm not dealing with that.

GeneralVincent

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Average retail shrink is less than 2% of sales, and theft is only 65% of that 2% so it's still a viable trade off. (https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-09-26/retail-theft-2022-112-billion-losses) They're just realizing they can go back to the warehouse and replace the person at the desk with technology.

I love technology too but I'd hate dealing with all that too

ApeNo1

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Am I the only one that read the title as the innovator was actually a shoplifter but they made a life decision to stop and instead invent an anti-theft device?

Was he doing research for his invention, is this just a ploy to help him steal more down the track from his own devices, was he visited by 3 ghosts during the night just before Christmas and have a change of heart?

Thelaststandn

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“Ashforth showed us how it works: you pay in advance online or at an in-store kiosk.” Aaannndddd you’ve just re-invented going to someone with a key to go unlock something. It does look to be a bit better, but considering half of the point they where making was allowing ease of ‘obtainablity’ to customers, you still need to go to someone to ask them for the item.

twotone

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The video showed people breaking glass displays to rob a store; how do these vending machines prevent that issue?

scottywh

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The article says that some retailers are interested in customizing the machines with bullet proof glass.

twotone

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That's not exactly the vending machines being a solution then, is it?

scottywh

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Just read the fucking article next time

scottywh

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Sure it is..

Keeps customers from waiting on employees still.

TheFeatureCreature

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If I see a store doing this (or any other locking up of basic goods) I am never shopping there ever again. Also: Sledgehammer.

You want to stop shoplifting? Stop charging nearly double for everything.

snowe

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I don’t get what this solves…

Fermion

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It solves a stagnant demand for vending machines and gives a made up growth path for him to take to their investors.

This sounds terrible. If I can't pick up a product and look at the packaging for specs or ingredients before deciding which item to pick, why wouldn't I buy online instead? This is a great way for retail to finally cut one of their last benefits.

AbidanYre

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It solves a stagnant demand for vending machines

I thought you were being facetious, but no. This is literally just vending machines.

Shadywack

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This is literally just vending machines.

"Innovator".....I gotta admit that the corporate speak is well tuned to get him some VC money so he can fucking ruin his business and golden parachute out when legit consumers say "fuck this shit".

AbidanYre

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Seriously. Vending machines are definitely a cool combination of tech and robotics these days, but saying "let's put toothpaste in it" doesn't make this guy some kind of visionary genius like the article wants us to believe.

jmp242

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Has anyone watched Anime? Like they (and japan?) had the idea to put darn near anything in a vending machine a while ago.

yo_scottie_oh

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But if the merchandise is already locked up anyway, this device saves customers from having to find someone with a key.

bus_go_fast

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ShaggySnacks

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Honestly, give it about 30 minutes after implementation and people will have figured out how shoplift.

Chickenstalker

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Simply require people to shop naked. Bam! Problem solved.