Good Idea?
 

I’m up in Minnesota spending some time with family, and ran into a situation at a.local Home Depot that I’ve never encountered before. Simply put, the brakes on their shopping carts lock up if you try to push them through an open door without paying for your items. They will also lock up if you try to push an EMPTY cart out of the store, which is how we found out. Apparently it is Home Depot’s latest effort to combat shoplifting, which is especially bad in Minnesota at this time.

Good idea?

Any other novel ways by merchants of countering shoplifting that you know of?

Any other ideas from folks how to stem the shoplifting craze?

Good idea. Some stores use an alarm system that most shoplifters and store employees just ignore.

Well, shoplifting under $1000 is OK in some big cities like San Francisco and NYC.

Just not fair - should be OK everywhere.

Nice idea. Seems like it would be expensive to implement but if a store is suffering from shoplifting then maybe it would be worth the investment.

it's good & bad. good for the store, bad for the person whose items are so large they need the cart to get it to the car. unless of course, they have store employees who can carry it out for you, then is ok.

Agreed. In Minnesota any shoplifting theft under $1000 is a misdemeanor. You can report it but due to police shortages and the proliferation of other more serious crimes (in the eyes of law enforcement anyway) following up on misdemeanors is seen as a waste of time.

We Villagers are extraordinarily lucky to have the law enforcement we have.

Have all stores close, and only sell online.

Thats what happen when people are allowed to get away with petty crimes but to me stealing $ 950 is not petty at all

I agree. Amazon sells everything that Home Depot does and most items are at a lower cost. I rarely ever go to Home Depot or Lowes. This week, I received some HVAC filters, refrigerator filters, batteries, toilet paper, and a pair of pliers. Saved time and money.

I thinks it’s great
We use to have a problem with carts disappearing, the store got carts that lock up is you try to remove from the parking lot. It helped keep the carts on the stores property and cut down on the loss of carts.
So if this helps all for it. After all we, the honest consumers pay the price for loss and theft.

No commercial tax base....where do you think that burden shifts to?

Now if we can just find a way for those carts to find their way back to their corral. Shout out Cart Narcs!

Arresting shoplifters used to work pretty good. Maybe we ought to try that again.

Target up in my old town up north had shopping carts that lock their wheels if you roll them too far from the front of the store. If you bought a lot of stuff and parked further away in the parking lot, it was an inconvenience to drag the thing to the car. But then I realized you could roll it just fine, if you rolled it backward. Just push from the back end or pull it behind you instead, and it'd roll fine.

My area wasn't a high-theft area. Most of the thieves were just mundane shoplifters - people who steal the "loss leaders" put out near the registers on purpose because they expect shoplifters to steal. Candy mostly. Bic lighters, gum, stuff like that.

I hope Winona Ryder is reading some of these posts!

Where is Judge Dredd when you need him?

The locking wheel carts have been around for years
 

[we had them at a grocery store I worked at to keep people from stealing carts. Didn’t work. They picked them up and put them a pick up truck bed!



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The majority of Home Depot's profit comes from builders, contractors, and business owners. Amazon cannot compete with the amount of lumber and building supplies that goes in and out of every store daily.

I see quite a bit of shoplifting at Home Depot. I find opened pkgs with product missing frequently. The theft protection carts will help with large thefts as will the locked cages. Most likely, people will still snag small expensive items without concern.

Brakes on shopping carts? What brakes?

How do these carts know they are empty? How do they know you haven’t paid for everything in them? I’m interested in the tech.

Probably related to the 'toss it in the cart & the system knows what's in there' movement.

"The checkout equipment uses computer vision-based cameras and sensors mounted on the ceiling to monitor shoppers"

This is from an article about the Aldi experiment, but there are others the Amazon Just Walk Out technology for one.

Aldi Is Overhauling Its Checkout Process with the Help of AI

That is such a shame our country and laws are so soft. There is no fear of doing wrong.

We have lost faith.

Yet right here in FL we are not funding our state troopers properly. Hiring freeze is on, raises frozen also & our troopers are being sent out of state. Makes no sense.

Plenty of crime here & more on the way as the population expands. Not a good scenario & it sends the wrong message

How did that work out for the 12 sheets of plywood, sheet rock, 48 2x4's, custom color paint, etc.?

Easiest way to stop shoplifters is to start giving them jail time like they used to do. Jail time should be without tv or exercise equipment time. Should be like the Singapore jails. Only time out of cell is to do road side pick up of trash or weeding mowing government property or walking circles in prison yard with no talking.

Good point, but Amazon does sell construction materials, like 2x4's, plywood, and paint. Fortunately, I don't need to buy that stuff anymore.

Back in the day the jurisdiction I worked for had a program “Sentence To Serve” (AKA “rent-a-con”). Such folks who were convicted of more petty crimes could elect A) a jail sentence; or B) work on. Various municipal projects such as cleaning parks, painting various items, mowing, sodding, etc. for a prescribed length of time. Some were even hired out to private concerns with the benefits going to the County,. It seemed to run about 50-50. The advantage was that the county lockup was less plagued with overcrowding and actually made money on the deal.

Seems as if those convicted of shoplifting would be ideal candidates for such a program.

How very novel! Would love to know if that idea is actually working!

Link please?

Regardless, state troopers generally don't get involved with shoplifting. That's municipal PD or county sheriff if unincorporated.

Why would anybody want to live in the lawless states like MN, CA, NY, NJ, IL, and others? You get what you vote for, and the residents of these states deserve every bit of this mess.
Also, it’s not the villages that have laws to put criminals away, it’s Florida and its administration. If Florida was a lawless state too, you think the villages would escape this mess? We would be hit more because you know, it’s the old folks community!

Hate thieves. Shoot 'em all. Let God sort 'em out. 😬🤠☹️

Who you callin' old folks, Willis? (Oops. Did I just give my age away?)

So some info:

It costs around $80/day for the state to incarcerate someone. If a person is convicted and jailed for 30 days for shoplifting, that means the shoplifter's jail term is costing $2400 for room and board.

The convicted shoplifter has to pay $50/day for the privilege, bringing that $80 total down to only $30/day. For 30 days, that's $900 that the taxpayer has to pay, to incarcerate someone who might've been caught stealing a pack of gum.

Prisoners in Florida don't get paid to work, so when they get out of jail they'll be in debt $1500 (the total of $2400 minus the $900 that the taxpayer has to pay for). Now that they're ex-convicts, they aren't likely to find a job. Their credit score tanks, they can't get a loan, any loans they have will be called in, putting them further into debt. They can't rent, they can't mortgage, they can't work, they can't pay that debt back. Their only choices then, are a) end up on welfare, food stamps, and medicaid and the taxpayer pays for their future expenses, b) commit more crimes to make ends meet, or c) marry someone with money.

All that, because someone stole a pack of gum and got caught.

Nope - jailing shoplifters without regard to *what* they stole - isn't the answer. It doesn't teach the shoplifter a lesson, there's no rehabilitation, and there's a high probability that it'll cost the taxpayer a LOT more than it would've cost, if they just told the shoplifter to stop being stupid.

Cub Grocery has mostly ended their 24 / 7 policy, locking down from Midnight to 5am. Also they no longer put Tide and Gain on the shelf: you must ask for it. Also, in one of their more urban locations they position displays and shopping carts to subtly block some easy routes of egress, channeling customer through check out paths. :BigApplause: It's disturbing how many shops encourage employees to not challenge shoplifters to any extent.
Funny story: a few years ago when the wife had surgery on her foot, we asked where to find the handicapped - motorized carts. "They were all stolen."

"All for a pack of gum"...

Yes, that is exactly what people are talking about...

Are you familiar with the "reductio absurdum fallacy"?

You think there isn't shoplifting in The Villages?!?!?!? :1rotfl:
FYI shoplifting laws are the same here as Minnesota, except the value is $300

Nobody is talking about a pack of gum. This is about smash & grabs or shopping carts full of stolen goods.

+1 to JMintzer's comment "reductio absurdum fallacy".

I disagree. The lesson currently being taught is breaking the law has no consequences. Prison teaches the opposite lesson.

Good question, and

correct.

LOL, cuz that has worked well everywhere it has been tried. Maybe they just weren't doing it right? I know, let's double -down on failed policy!


All laws should be enforced. I agree. But equating major shoplifting with minor speeding is disingenuous. Now if someone is going 40mph over the limit, sure, put them in jail.

So you are excusing smash & grabs or major stealing because of racism? Pretty sure the small businesses that get robbed have a different view.