Retail Store Security Equipment:
How Non-humans are Made
Visible
N AT I O N A L R E S E A R C H U N I V E R S I T Y
“HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS”
M AD R I D , 2 0 11
Issues for Research
Which factors contribute to an
extensive adoption of antitheft technologies in retailing?
What social meanings are
ascribed to anti-theft
technologies?
Under what conditions are
anti-theft technologies made
visible?
Empirical Data
 53 in-depth interviews (2006-2007):
39 interviews with managers of food retailing:
18 interviews with top managers of grocery chains;
11 interviews with managers of small-scale trading;
 500 questionnaires filled by managers of retail
chains and their suppliers from 5 cities of Russia:
Moscow, S.-Petersburg, Yekaterinburg,
Novosibirsk, and Tyumen (2007–2008).
Prehistory of Shoplifting
Prehistory of Shoplifting
 Modern trade formats (department stores and
supermarkets) provide consumers with a free
access to goods and turn shopping from labor duty
into entertainment;
 Self-service system liquidates visible barriers and
direct contacts between buyers and retailers and
provokes people into shoplifting;
 Anti-theft technologies are turned out to be one of
the essential features of supermarkets and
distinguish modern and traditional stores.
Competing Anti-theft Technologies
Competing Anti-theft Technologies
Detectives and Lossprevention Agents
Close-circled
Television (CCTV)
Electronic Article
Surveillance (EAS)
Evolution of Electronic Article Surveillance (1968 –
present time)
Microwave
Magnetics
Swept RF
Tell TagRFID
Ultra•Max
RFID Asset
Protection
Integrated
Security
POS/EM
Access
Control
Video
Intelligent
Digital Video
Smart EAS
Supply
Chain RFID
Business
Analytics
Item Level
Intelligence
Evolution of Electronic Article Surveillance
 Advanced technologies detecting and deterring
shoplifting replaced security personnel;
 Diverse technologies were designed for different
goods and different stores;
 Anti-theft technologies developed from
effectiveness and standardization toward
broadening opportunities and total surveillance
over movements of goods.
Retailers and Experienced Shoplifters: a Combat of
Technologies and Counter-Technologies
Retailers and Experienced Shoplifters: a Combat of
Technologies and Counter-Technologies
 Technologies stimulate changes in criminal practices.
 Experienced shoplifters effect greater damage to retailers
but occasional shoplifters are detected more often.
 While modern anti-theft technologies are better at catching
occasional shoplifters, traditional surveillance measures
are better at combating with experienced shoplifters.
 A major aim of anti-theft technologies has been
transformed: from detecting to deterring.
Retailers and Customers: Making the Hidden
Technologies Visible
Retailers and Customers: Making the Hidden
Technologies Visible
 Shoplifting prevention implies that retailers should
make anti-theft technologies visible.
 Making security measures more visible to
consumers it discourages potential shoplifting.
 Making security measures more visible to
consumers it causes a significant proportion of
shoppers to feel uncomfortable and bothered.
Retailers and Suppliers: Who should pay for Antitheft Technologies?
Retailers and Suppliers: Who should pay for Antitheft Technologies?
 tag sourcing;
 losses caused by shoplifters should be compensated
by suppliers.
Suppliers (N=249), %
Retailers (N=252), %
How often do retailers require from their suppliers to
compensate shrink loss?
Large-scale
retailers
Small-scale
retailers
From largescale
suppliers
42
From smallscale
suppliers
40
Often or
from time to
time
26
12
Never
74
88
58
60
Total
100
100
100
100
Conclusions
Social construction of
technologies is a flexible
and interpretative
process;
• From free access to goods toward total control under consumers behavior;
• From detecting shoplifters toward deterring causal shoplifters;
• From prevention of shoplifting toward total control under goods’ movement;
Modern and traditional
technologies coexist;
• It is easier to steal when you have deal with technologies because morality
and norms work better when it concerns human interaction;
• Technologies were transmitted the function of protection because they were
supposed to be much better at preventing people from shoplifting than
humans; but they fail to deal with organized crime: human intervention is
turned out to be better at recognizing and detecting experienced shoplifters.
Although technologies
became a part of
everyday life, sometimes
they are turned out to be
visible.
• Relevant social groups argue about meanings which should be ascribed to
technologies;
• People start to resist the technologies’ enforcement;
• Technologies are involved into redistribution of power in economic relations.
Thank you for attention!