Walmart looks to counter theft with computer vision tech

[Bubbajim]

In brief: Computer vision isn’t only good at tracking faces. Walmart has revealed that it is using tracking systems in order to reduce “shrinkage” – lost revenues due to theft or items going unscanned.

There have been plenty of big stories in recent months about computer vision being used to track people in stores or going about their daily lives, but Walmart has revealed to Business Insider that it has invested half a billion dollars equipping 1,000 stores with technology to track items instead.

The computer vision solution tracks products at self-checkouts and regular manned stations, and alerts staff if it sees an item leaving the store that hasn’t been paid for.

The company said that this is an effort to reduce “shrinkage,” a retail industry term for lost revenues through theft or human error. While you may think theft to be the bigger problem of the two, it’s purportedly accidents that end up hurting the bottom line more.

According to Alan O’Herlihy, CEO of Evergreen, the company that makes the computer vision technology, customers may leave items in the bottom of their cart by accident, or cashiers may not properly scan items if they’re not paying attention. He said, “people make mistakes – in terms of ‘shrinkage’, or loss, that’s the main source.”

Walmart itself has also billed this as a move to protect itself from theft. LeMia Jenkins, a spokesperson for the chain, said, “over the last three years the company has invested over half a billion dollars in an effort to prevent, reduce and deter crime in our stores and parking lots.”

It’s an interesting move, and is certainly a safer bet for the company from a reputation standpoint. There are no privacy concerns to grapple with, so the policy and associated technology is unlikely to cause much consternation among customers. According to Business Insider, shrinkage cost US retailers an estimated 1.33% of their bottom lines in 2017 – which equates to roughly $47 billion.

Image credit: Walmart store cash register by QualityHD

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https://www.techspot.com/news/80624-walmart-looks-counter-theft-computer-vision-tech.html

 

[Uncle Al]

They better do something; with the new prices they are charging due to the Chinese embargo they are no longer the "best price in town" and in fact are a lot higher on a lot of things. They also need to go back to Sam Walton's original theory and give the customer the benefit of a doubt when it comes to price and quality. I just came from trying to get a simple furnace filter and all they had were those pleated, high efficiency filters that cost $12 each. Anyone that ever took 3 min to read the information on their furnace understands that the units were not designed for pleated filters. They limit the draw by a good 25% which is extra wear and tear on the motors, belts, etc. and limits the life of the furnace motors. You would think or at least hope that somebody at Walmart had some degree of knowledge about this and would stock the right thing ......

 

[QuantumPhysics]

"According to Business Insider, shrinkage cost US retailers an estimated 1.33% of their bottom lines in 2017 – which equates to roughly $47 billion."

Stealing is wrong, but:

#1 Most of the theft is INTERNAL. I remember when I worked in retail how shrink was happening before the items even made them to the shelves. There were employees stealing all the time: drinking sodas from the shelf, eating candies...stealing merchandise...

#2 If you buy this stuff from China for $10 and mark it up 100% to $20...did you lose $10 or $20?

 

[p51d007]

I live not to far from "walmart town" (Bentonville, Ar). Just across the border in Missouri, is their
data facility. You would not believe how big that thing is. No one knows what really goes on in
there, it's surrounded by a fence and tarp so you can't see in.
It's been said that they can tell the minute an item is sold, automatically know if that store has stock
on hand to put it back on the shelf, and alert the restock clerks to put it back on the shelf, if the shelf
is low. When you walk up and down the isles, they have (in most stores) overhead camera with monitors that start recording your face and, at the self checkout counter, it is scanning your face as well.

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.5007705,-94.2648507,441m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

[Paulos7]

I just came from trying to get a simple furnace filter and all they had were those pleated, high efficiency filters that cost $12 each.

I know what you mean. It seems that every time I go there and look for simple (cheap) 20x25x1 filters, they never have them. I've had to resort to using the wand attachment on the vacuum a few times to clean an old one . That's what I do when I clean the filters on my PC case, so why not the furnace/AC filters?

Looking at those Wal-Mart pictures I noticed that they did away with the lower wire rack. I guess that solves the problem of customers and cashiers forgetting to check for merchandise there.

 

[DoverCliff]

This is simply a distraction from the ubiquity of FaceFirst database across retailers including WalMart. Customers' facial geometry is catalogued, then stored for database match as soon as the customer enters any retailer with access to the database. All this is done in the absence of any legal oversight. Expect the legal vacuum to continue as WalMart alone spent 6M last year alone on lobbying.