NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY “HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS” MADRID, 2011 Retail Store Security Equipment: How Non-humans are Made Visible

Issues for Research Which factors contribute to an extensive adoption of anti- theft 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 ( ): 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

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

Detectives and Loss- prevention Agents Close - circled Television (CCTV) Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS)

Evolution of Electronic Article Surveillance (1968 – present time ) MicrowaveMagneticsSwept RF Tell Tag- RFID UltraMaxVideo Access Control POS/EM Integrated Security RFID Asset Protection 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 C ounter -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

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 Anti- theft 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 large- scale suppliers From small- scale suppliers Often or from time to time Never Total 100

Conclusions 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; Social construction of technologies is a flexible and interpretative process; 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. Modern and traditional technologies coexist; 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. Although technologies became a part of everyday life, sometimes they are turned out to be visible.

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