New Home Depot store security

[bob haller]

New Home Depot store security I went to home depot today. searching for a employee to get some wire cut, couldnt find anyone close by electrical.

did find the store full of a new security system. It features cameras and tv monitors, with flashing lights, beeping constantly, and messages you are bering recorded.

Now I dont mind security cameras or even audio recordings but dont care to see my picture repeatedly, they literally have hundreds of cameras with monitors all thru the store.

Unable to find help I stopped at the registers to give the store manager my opinion of their new security system. a guy did come I asked are you a manager? well no can i help? no i want to speak to the store manager, no he isnt available......

Well I went on a tirade of their new system, and left suggesting they take a photo of me a now lost customer..

I am all for stopping retail theft but this is way too annoying and the beeping drove me nuts

I called home depot complaint line, they took my info but no one called me back.

has anyone else seen anything so intrusiv

[sms88]

At the Home Depot near me they wrote the code for the wire rack on the wall so you can start up the rack and rotate it yourself. If anyone runs over after you do that you simply tell them that you thought it was self service. If no one runs over you get your wire yourself.

[gfretwell]

I have heard that the average American is on 100 cameras a day if they actually get out and about. Most of the time you don't ever see them. Just about any big chain store has you on camera from the time you drive in the parking lot until you leave. Home Depot can even correlate what you rang up to your picture on camera. (My wife is a very regular customer with a corporate account and she got a sales/customer service call based on this) They actually watched what she picked up and what she actually bought and asked her why she chose one item over the other. They also watched her get accosted in the parking lot and punch out the guy. They wanted to know if she wanted to file a report. I suspect most other stores can do all of this too.

I think they are getting as bad as casinos that recognize you when you walk in and if you are a whale they greet you before you get 50' past the lobby (usually with a gift box and your comps). If you are banned, big guys hustle you out the door.

[gfretwell]

It is 1234 at my Home Depot.

I have spun off 100' of wire, labeled it and took it up to the cashier without any of the "help" stopping me. I do think they know me there because I have been asked if I could answer a code question for a customer, just walking through the electrical department..

[Doug]

Is this really your biggest concern for that day?

[Larry Fishel]

To be fair, it may very well be that way because of all the other customers who went on tirades because they were taped without their knowledge...if not because they got sued by a thief for violating his privacy...

[bob haller]

the store isnt in a rough area, low overall crime rate even for pittsburgh zip 15237.

home depot recently stopped a major theft problem.

idiots would take a cart, load it up with high value stuff, then return it at customer service using fake IDs. net take 70 grand. the thieves would be issued gift cards, the thief would sell them on craigslist for a discount..

i guess home depot wants to discourage copy cat thieves........

like i said i dont mind video and even audio recordings, but refuse to see me on every camera in the store.

today i will check out lowes, hopefully they havent done the same thing.

if this sticks it will be in every store nationwide

[trader4]

Nothing like that here in central NJ, at least not yet.

[bob haller]

I could care less that they video me. what I object too are 100s of cameras everywhere beeping loudly and flashing, but what puts it over the edge is the 100 of mini monotors showing my picture.

i dont like how i look ( old ) and avoid mirrors too......

but this store is insane

[dpb]

That seems like a _very_ unMorman-like action... :(

[bob haller]

store manager called me back its a test of new technology........

cameras are fine but i wouldnt shop at any store that puts up a monitor in my view..... thats over the edge

whoever in corporate approved this should resign or be fired for gross stupidity

[Percival P. Cassidy]

Ten years or so ago the two HD stores I visited most in the area where I then lived had separate checkouts for the tool department, and one of them had a person checking things at the main exit door as well.

I don't see either of those at the HD stores in this area. I don't know about cameras because I haven't looked.

My point is that different HD stores may do things differently, perhaps dependent on their loss statistics.

Perce

[Curt]

What is Home Depot?

[WW]

I asked a sales personat local WalMart if they have much promlem with shop lifters. She replied she has watched many teenagers do this. I asked if she calls police dept. She said NO we are not allowed to stop them. ?????????????????? WW

[jeff_wisnia]

I'm shocked, shocked that a big box store would take back merchandise without a sales receipt nowadays. A small place where the owner knew the customer and remembered what they bought maybe, but not a big one.

Years ago I wondered about how many sharpies bought an item, brought it home and then came back a couple of days later, took an identical item off the shelf and then "returned it" using the original sales receipt.

That got them two items for the price of one. I asked a friend who was GM of a department store whether he was aware of that happening and he blanched and said he'd never thought about it, and then told me he knew that most of the thefts from his store were committed by dishonest employees.

I remember when women employees in department stores who wanted to carry a handback to work were required to use transparent plastic ones to discourage shoplifting by them.

Jeff

[HeyBub]

Oh. I thought you meant their "shoplifting" security system. I was going to offer that I always hold my bag over my head as I pass through the detectors at the exit.

So, never mind.

[HeyBub]

I think the instructions cautions that the presence of a camera, even a fake one, generates ill will amongst employees or customers. Therefore, the instructions read, one should HIDE the camera, out of sight, even the fake ones.

[bob haller]

most cameras are in cieling mirrored balls....

this home depot system takes first place for intusive and irritating with flashing strobe lights flashing messages and beeping. makes all customers feel like thieves

i hope they get lots of complaints.

[DerbyDad03]

...

So they netted $70K minus whatever discount they sold them for and you called them "idiots"? Doesn't sound very idiotic to me.

Idiots or not, I'd like to know how they accomplished that. At my local HD's (three of them) the return counter is "outside" the security system. You can not get to the return counter without leaving the store - or at least not without going through the sensors by the one entrance that leads to the return counter.

If you come in from the parking lot, you can either walk straight into the store (through the sensors) or turn left to go to the return counter (avoiding the sensors). If you are already in the store, you would have to go out through the sensors to get to the return counter. In addition, there is usually a greeter handing out flyers or something as you pass through the sensors on the way into the store. That means that they have a visual on anyone trying to access the return counter from inside the store. I'll bet that's why the greeter is only posted at that entrance, not at any other one.

I'd like to know how they managed to get $70K worth of carted items to the return desk without someone or something knowing that the items were never purchased.

[dpb]

OK, so I had a typo; I suspect you got the drift anyway.