Posted on 01/06/2023 10:56:24 PM PST by grundle
Videos:
https://www.tiktok.com/@taylormadesince1993/video/7178540623153286446
https://www.tiktok.com/@taylormadesince1993/video/7179492933639441706
On a drizzly December day in Olympia, Washington, a woman in a red windbreaker is rolling her Target shopping cart laden with a stack of baskets when she abruptly grinds to a halt.
"Skrrrt! It's done!" A TikToker going by the name Taylor Ann cheerfully narrates in a video of the moment, which has amassed over 4.4 million views on TikTok. The TikToker did not respond to Insider's request for comment.
The red-jacketed customer — one of a half-dozen stymied shoppers in the clip — eventually resorted to what Taylor Ann described as "the bunny trick," doing little wheelies to hop her cart a few feet closer to her vehicle.
All were victims of an unfortunate combination of apparently crowded holiday parking lots and a likely new rollout of a cart-control system from Gatekeeper, the shopping cart loss-prevention provider that says it serves 47 of the 50 largest retailers in the world.
Whether and when a particular store gets Gatekeeper for its carts is determined on an individual store basis, a Target spokesperson told Insider. The company declined to comment on this specific instance.
The system typically depends on an embedded antenna that works as an invisible fence, though some locations have a wireless solution that has a signal range of about 40 feet.
While the hardwired system is supposed to unlock carts that return within the perimeter, the video from Taylor Ann appears to show the wireless system failing to release carts that have ventured a bit too far. A growing herd of abandoned carts can be seen in the foreground as exasperated shoppers struggle to drag empty ones from the spot where they froze.
The same TikToker even returned for a second day to film a Part 2.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
You’re going to need a bigger wifi signal.
I have seen this Happen, most recently to a bunch of firemen who had parked their truck out of bounds.
It was mildly amusing, but I know carts are expensive and frequently stolen.
First ran into these locking carts at Kroger grocery stores here in Georgia years ago. I often wonder at the lost productivity of unlocking malfunctioning carts (if they unlock) and what the frustration for customers does to sales. I haven’t noticed them at Publix (where they say shopping is a pleasure). Not thrilled if Target has them now. It’s a bean counter solution to theft that doesn’t work seemlessly.
If people were honest, we’d save so much money. And time. I’ve often remarked technology cannot take the place of honest people.
They should do like Aldi’s and charge a quarter. That would end theft!
With emphasis on the word DARK.
Our local Krogers tried that. After about 2 years the wires wore out now it does not matter
How far away are these folk parked?
Shopping center parking appears to be too large, even if they are in the same lot.
Video is too small of frame for scale.
Of course the actual thieves will just slip a skateboard or other wheels under one end if they still want a cart that does not roll well.
Theft is a “right” for some people - retail theft is at a very high level
A Safeway in my general neighborhood is a large store with a huge parking lot and extra parking on the roof. Good luck finding a shopping cart there these days. There is always a shortage, even in the cart return areas in the lot itself. Best method is to follow a shopper to his/her car and ask if you can have their cart when they’ve emptied it.
Same experience, different store. I never encountered this stupid anti-theft device until a cashier forgot to turn it off. My son’s shin slammed into the cart when it stopped at the door. Cashier said sorry. My son said no big deal. I told the cashier the store is lucky he’s a young man and a nice guy. Suppose that happens to an elderly person? If it does, I hope the store gets sued.
Yup. Why we can’t have nice things for $300, Alex.
But it won’t stop pushout theft.
These systems can also be incorporated with remote locking or even interfaced with those sensors by the door that detect unpaid items. They can stop the cart before it leaves the store. This puts an end to the thieves who load up a cart and just push it out the door.
But when they don’t work right, as shown in the videos referenced here, they are going to cost a store its customers. I know I would be pissed if that happened to me.
Not so bad. I’ve seen stores that have bollards to keep the carts close to the store.
Shopping cart theft in the U.S. is rampant, but curiously enough, you don’t find as much about it doing an online search that you’d think, given the severity and cost of the problem. Some municipalities have tried fining the store itself for carts found on the streets. Sounds bass ackwards but it evidently works. Other suggestions I have heard besides physical wheel locks etc is arresting people for larceny. Anyway it’s a big problem and needs a ‘big’ solution.
I’m one of those handicapped folks you see riding electric scooters in Walmart. The new ones have the same feature. So last Thursday the one I was using locked up next to the dairy section. Fortunately shutting off and rebooting cleared the problem.
I won’t giye money to homeless people if they have a bicycle or a shopping cart.
Well...
I worked in retail for a little while. One night, I was clearing out the ladies’ dressing room and found empty makeup packages. Someone had torn them open, stolen the makeup, and left the empty packages. I called out to a coworker, who happened to be a black woman, and her immediate comment was, “Black people steal.”
I stopped, looked at her, and said, “What did you say?” She went quiet.
Then another coworker, also a black woman, walked in and heard what I’d found. She made the same comment: “Yeah, black people steal.”
I said, “What?” I wasn’t sure I’d heard them correctly, but neither of them would repeat what they said. Instead, they walked out. Obviously, though, they’d been making that comment to each other.
I sooooo wanted them to repeat it, to make sure I’d heard correctly, because I wanted to say, “Not this time,” and hold up the empty packages for self-tanner and fair-skin foundation I’d found. LOL
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