Are you being sarcastic? There is 1 person manning 10 checkouts and cameras that aren’t monitored. As someone who worked in the Front End of a grocery store for many years, I can tell you that they don’t have the resources to keep track of 99% of theft.
It’s a thing, but not for what everyone is talking about. Walmart LP in problem stores is intense and for serial shoplifters they will actually track… but it usually only takes two trips because they are stealing electronics or some shit. They aren’t counting in ten dollar increments items skipped in the self checkout one trip at a time lol.
Walmart has AI keeping track of theft at self checkout. They don’t use that as a basis for in-person stops, but they still record it.
And they have a small team of plainclothes people looking at camerad and sometimes straight up following people around the store.
Speaking of cameras, in addition to regular cameras, in the big metro areas there are around twenty 360 degree cameras that can see across the entire store at any time, even when playing back a recording. If you have line of sight, it sees you.
I am mostly just familiar with Kroger’s LP, but in my experience their loss prevention is pretty ineffective. They have a lot of cameras installed, but they aren’t being constantly monitored. There are actually only a handful of loss prevention personnel, and they spend the majority of their time walking around in stores. They will occasionally catch someone trying to steal a whole cart of groceries or a kid stealing a pair of earbuds. The majority of theft is actually either at self-checkouts or people walking out the doors with pockets full of merchandise. There are also people who regularly get caught stealing, and loss prevention will always keep an eye out for those people.
I didn’t work in loss prevention, but I would occasionally have to review security footage in the security office. The cameras, even in the newer stores, were pretty low resolution and had a lot of blind spots. They are put there as a deterrent more than anything else.
I assume Walmart probably has better loss prevention than Kroger, so you could be correct. Though, I doubt all Walmart stores have AI SCO tracking or 360-degree-recording cameras.
My experience is as a manager in three different high-loss stores in a metropolitan area. I assure you, the cameras are very good.
Now, when you’re zooming across an entire store the image does “bounce” up and down a bit, but it’s still good quality.
With the AI, I think it’s still in development. Again, it isn’t used as a primary means of apprehension, but it’s definitely a tool in the arsenal.
I was at a Meijers a few weeks ago (midwestern chain kind of like Wal-Mart but nicer) and the self-scanner started flashing for the clerk when we finished. When the clerk came over, it played a video of me scanning one of the items, and the clerk could see if I had tried to slip something in the bag without scanning it. It was interesting to see.
It may have triggered because we’d bought alcohol, which had to be paid for separately in a special part of the store, and that was still in the cart. But I don’t know for certain what triggered it, and, if he knew, he didn’t say so.
Yet a bunch of articles just came out recently showing Target does exactly that.
