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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHome Depot plans to foil shoplifters with power tools that won't work if they're stolen
Home Depot has a clear message for professional shoplifters: Stay away.
The home-improvement chain is unveiling power tools that won't work unless they're properly scanned and activated at the register via Bluetooth technology. If a thief managed to smuggle a power drill out of the store without paying, the drill simply wouldn't turn on.
Scott Glenn, Home Depot's vice president of asset protection, told Insider about the company's fight against organized retail crime. He made a point to distinguish between "professional shoplifters" and disorganized solo thieves. The pros, he said, frequently are connected to a larger network that can, in some cases, function as a sophisticated "shadow business."
"There are very organized groups where the leaders at the top are recruiting people that are drug-dependent, homeless, or down on their luck and offering them incentives and providing shopping lists to go out and bring back certain products," Glenn said. "At the top levels of these hierarchies, there are absolutely good administrators that understand the return on their money."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/home-depot-plans-to-foil-shoplifters-with-power-tools-that-won-t-work-if-they-re-stolen/ar-AAMrJaS
Mosby
(16,168 posts)Because you can't safely stop or confront shoplifters anymore. People are aware that major retailers will not touch a person so shoplifting is spiraling out of control. The only exception is when employees and customers are threatened.
Devil Child
(2,728 posts)I'm leaning more towards keeping the high-value items in bulk off the retail floor. When I used to shop at Fry's Electronics (when they were in biz) you would choose your computer hardware, complete purchase, and they would pull it from the cage at the register.
Archetypist
(218 posts).. they have multiple locations
Initech
(99,915 posts)Archetypist
(218 posts)I swear I drove by one recently but maybe they just had not taken down their signage yet
dawg
(10,610 posts)But they'd have to hire an extra employee to get them out for customers, so fuck that added expense. Let's just make inferior products that will probably inactivate themselves 18 months after I buy them!
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)Organized Retail theft rings are very, very real and very, very costly to the Retail Sector and I guarantee you that you are the one that ends up paying for the theft.
In the grocery business they target, baby formula, batteries, Tide detergent among other easy to turn products.
As mentioned in the OP these folks come in with a list of things to steal and this is not a crime of opportunity for a pack of cigarettes or a bottle of booze.
dawg
(10,610 posts)This is just another example of the extreme lengths today's companies will go to in order to avoid hiring more employees or paying them more.
PurgedVoter
(2,191 posts)And now they are painting the homeless as the evil. How much expense does this add to your bottom line and how likely is the blue tooth apparatus to help with planned obsolescence. Any organization will know how to bypass the Bluetooth block, by software or by wiring.
Since the Home Depot Founder said Retailers Who Dont Support GOP Should Be Shot, and gave 7 million to put Trump in office, the clear message to smart compassionate customers has always been: Stay away. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/home-depot-founder-retail_n_144863 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/home-depot-distances-itself-from-trump-supporting-cofounder-after-calls-for-boycott-2019-07-10/
Lochloosa
(16,019 posts)Towlie
(5,308 posts)
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And beside that how much effort do you think it would take to hot-wire a drill? Power tools are generally pretty simple machines.
Pobeka
(4,999 posts)Just stand there at the checkout with a bluetooth receiver doing a legitimate purchase, sniff all the bluetooth activity.
Hugin
(32,778 posts)Ransom ware attacks so you can use your drill or electric toothbrush are on the horizon.
Takket
(21,425 posts)dalton99a
(81,068 posts)A Sawzall or battery would be useless if it leaves a job site or is deactivated
Devil Child
(2,728 posts)Pay per month to keep your shit running.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,147 posts)Yes, pay more money to protect the property, not people.
DFW
(54,055 posts)Last edited Sun Jul 25, 2021, 09:36 AM - Edit history (9)
It doesn't sound much different from the clothing stores that remove a beeper that will otherwise go off if an unpaid article of clothing tries to leave the store "by mistake."
I am sure that they don't want this to be any more complicated (and expensive) than it needs to be.
zuul
(14,615 posts)only to find that the scan failed and you have to go back to the store. This will surely piss off legitimate customers.
DFW
(54,055 posts)There would have to be a safeguard built in that any retail outlet blessing an article to leave its shop has to guarantee to replace it with a prefectly functioning device with an automatic 20% (as a suggested example) refund for the purchaser. Better yet, the store should have a testing station to check any item as it leaves the store so as to make any such scenario improbable. Attempted thefts and/or overrides should be dealt with by hitting the perps with fines to go into a general fund to defray the extra cost. Professional theft rings should be pursued under the RICO act with stiff mandatory minimums for the ringleaders, since pressing financially desperate people into positions where they are the fall guys for the bosses is nothing short of urban serfdom with a bigger downside.
roamer65
(36,739 posts)Store floor models under a locked case.
If you really want it, you will ask and wait to see it up close.
AllaN01Bear
(17,383 posts)Response to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)
ExTex This message was self-deleted by its author.
Progressive Jones
(6,011 posts)I was an order picker. I located the item, and got it to that conveyor.
madinmaryland
(64,920 posts)Pioneer receiver and speakers and a Marantz turntable.