7mo ago

Workers at TJ Maxx and Marshalls are wearing police-like body cameras. Here’s how it’s going

www.cnn.com Workers at TJ Maxx and Marshalls are wearing police-like body cameras. Here’s how it’s going | CNN Business

Hourly retail security workers are now wearing police-like body cameras at major chains.

Retail chains like TJX, the parent company of TJ Maxx and Marshalls, are equipping some store employees with body cameras to deter shoplifting and improve safety. This is part of a growing trend in the retail industry, as stores respond to an increase in organized retail theft and violence against workers. However, some criminologists and worker advocates argue that body cameras are unlikely to be an effective deterrent and that retailers should focus on improving training, staffing, and other safety measures instead. There are also concerns that the body camera footage could be misused, such as to monitor and discourage union organizing. Overall, the implementation of body cameras in retail is a complex issue with pros and cons that retailers will need to carefully consider.

Summarized by Kagi Universal Summarizer

83 comments

100% it's really for anti-union bullshit because who the fuck is stealing in full view of an employee where the employees having body cams would make a lick of difference?
Or is it meant to deter the employees from stealing? 🤔
- Most likely it is there to blame the employee for not being busy enough or not doing everything perfectly with a customer.
- They have a big issue with internal shrink.
  
  In other words, they have a systemic issue is where the threat of prosecution isn't enough to deter employees from supplementing income with theft.
  I wonder what kind of conditions led to that.

You could spend a lot of money on body cameras, or you could reduce your prices to being affordable again. I'd say either one has a decent chance of dissuading shoplifters.
But I suppose you can only write off the former.
- It’s probably more due to the lack of staff than price of goods, something else they could’ve addressed with that camera money.
- honestly, body cameras are more about liability after the fact. There's really only two reasons to strap a camera on somebody- liability defense (cops, armed security guards, etc,) and being able to monitor what the fuck they're doing. both are important when the individuals in question are armed. Not so much when the expected response is constructive cowardice.
  There's absolutely no way a body camera would act as a deterrent when traditional and AI-enhanced security cameras that they're absolutely already using won't. Also, I'm not entirely sure I believe that there's massive waves of organized shoplifters.
  There is- as noted in the article- a massive wave of unionization, though. and that would probably hurt their profits far more than any wave of shoplifting ever will.
- I haven't been to TJ Max in forever. Aren't they a low cost clothing store?
  
  Nothing is low cost anymore.
- I'm pretty sure you can write off shoplifted items as lost assets, so maybe just let them get shoplifted?
- reduce your prices to being affordable again
  Uh, they don't get much cheaper in the new clothing market. If you want even cheaper than the cheapest, learn to thrift and repair.
  
  And yet people can't afford new clothes.
- I am pretty certain Marshalls (a TJX store) has kept prices fairly flat (if not dropping them slightly). I am used to paying about $30 for pants (across many discount retailers), but the last couple of pairs I bought there were around $20.

I'd hate that as an employee. Imagine knowing that every time you talk to a coworker, it's recorded. Every time you sit for a few minutes to reset, it's recorded. Every time you check your phone, it's on camera.
- this is the real reason why they're doing it.
  
  Don't want them to unionize!
- Most retail stores and restaurants already have cameras everywhere. I had a boss who would sit at home watching the feed and then call the store to yell at us when he thought we were burning sandwiches.
- ...everytime you go ~~to the bathroom~~ to jack-it.

This is part of a growing trend in the retail industry, as stores respond to an increase in organized retail theft(1) and violence against workers(2)."
The first has been proven to be a lie. The second is true, especially since the pandemic began.
It's a sad state of affairs when retail workers need to wear cameras to protect themselves, but that is the only value. Not an alleged increase in organized theft. That is just the line being brought out by big companies like Target to excuse bad behavior on their part.
- Here is a great podcast episode about the retail crime lies.
  https://www.buzzsprout.com/2040953/13846837-the-organized-retail-crime-panic-teaser.mp3
- Can't wait until I can buy all my clothing online and be done with this
  
  We need a campaign to standardize clothing sizes. I can go buy men's size 32x32 pants in three different stores, or women's size 7 pants in three different stores, and they will all be different sizes.
  Even bras, which are supposed to be standardized, have the same exact problem.

Don't forget to turn on your body cam before clocking in!
- Yeah, I feel like this is more about keeping tabs on the employees instead.
  
  And who is going to pay who for watching all that video?
- They legally can’t require you to do that. They can only require it to be on your person, as part of uniform, prior to clocking in. Operating the camera is considered a compensated task.
  
  Yet some supervisor or manager will argue that you "have to turn it before you clock in to make sure that it records everything." Wage theft is nothing new.
  
  Always on unless it’s in the charging dock, then?

No way in hell am I wearing a damn camera and volunteering to have my employer have a live video feed of everything I do at work while making next to nothing in wages. Hey, it's performance review time, sorry, we can't give you a raise because you have been chatting with your friends too much while on the clock. 1984 shit. Fuck that.
- Hello, I'm your boss. Saw you on your phone during your break in the video feed.
  You've been asking for a raise for years. Unfortunately, you're a really good performer, always on time, good worker, and I've never heard anything negative that I could base my decision to deny your raise on. So I watched the video feed to find the most minuscule thing that I can pinpoint as a "problem". I was about to tell you that drinking water on the job significantly decreases your performance, but that post you made on your break is now going to be my reason. Screw you. I love money!
  Sincerely, your favorite boss
  
  Hey boss,
  Not sure what got into you. Given that we have literally hung out after work playing tabletop games and getting wasted, and I was planning to go to your wedding in September. Thought we were buds.
  Anyway guy down the street offered me more money. So going to be working there now. Best of luck without the millions of dollars I made you last year and finding someone with my skillset.
- Your employer already has a live video feed of everything you do. That's what those black domes all over the ceiling are.
  
  Oh I thought those were target practice spots for my laser pointers and high powered flashlights.
  
  It's a thousand percent different from being literally strapped to your chest

I have this great idea to stop an increase in organized retail theft and violence against workers. STOP PRICE GOUGING GROCERIES AND PEOPLE WILL STOP STEALING THEM!
- Whats that? increase prices further, while cutting the ~~slaves~~ employee wages by 30%? What a grand idea!

We had these where I worked, what a lot of people miss is these don't actually record until the person wearing it presses a button, it doesn't have the battery life to record, encode, then broadcast video for 8+ hours. No doubt when that becomes feasible they'll give it a go though.
In the UK we have to announce to everyone it's recording. The gangs and thieves know this and don't care. They were happy to attack and rob us when we already had store wide CCTV.
The only deterrent that worked was a security guard we had for a short while, but the company withdrew them because we weren't losing over 5% of our daily take to theft, ignoring that we got the guard because two people had been sent to hospital after being attacked by a gang of youths.
- Businesses shouldn't be run by people who never have to even step foot on the premises. The people making the decisions (and proceeds!) should be the ones that actually have to live with those decisions and implement them.
  
  Winco FTW
  
  Wholeheartedly agree, best we can do is do business with local shops where possible.

CCTV already exists. What is this even
- Security theatre.

I hope eventually theres a document of like flagged words and phrases like that one online document of words and phrases that'll get you on a watch list from that.was going around very online circles a long time back. That way as a shopper I can say things or hold up pictures to the camera to create lots of false flags making their little AI throw the results to someone they gotta pay to review it.
- Talk about meetings to get the union started and how it looks like we've already got enough committed votes in favour to get it going without worrying about what kind of propaganda they'll try to throw at the staff once they realize it's happening and that the other stores also seem to be on track and if they get the timing right, they won't be able to just shut that many down to quell it. Then think aloud about how we shouldn't be talking about this there because who knows what those fucking cameras are picking up and sending back to corporate.
  
  Great point, I can't believe I didn't think of that. Gonna throw a BS name on the end of the union talk to to make them spend time trying to find someone who doesn't exist. "Steward Hingus Dingus says their confident they have a super majority of votes"

I'd imagine the biggest difference is that these employees could actually get fired if they turn theirs off.

The primary responsibilities of one job at a Marshalls in Miami Beach, Florida, are to maintain a “proper and professional stance” at the front of the store, act as a “visual deterrent to prevent potential loss/dishonesty” and wear a company-issued body camera. The description says that the camera is to record “specific events involving critical incidents for legal, safety, and training purposes.”
These employees, who wear a company-approved black vest, black pants and black shoes, are instructed not to stop or chase after shoplifting suspects.
It's the same reason I made sure the security cameras on my house are visible from the street. People with bad intentions just move on to easier targets.
They may have seen the studies down on police forces who adopted cameras. They saw a drop in complaints against officers, as well as fewer escalations by the public against officers. Likewise, they're hoping this translates to retail.
- Stores are already full of security cameras. Shoplifters are generally aware of this. I'm not sure what this adds to that. I suppose it keeps someone employed.
  
  It's not for stopping theft, it's for intimidating workers
- It’s the same reason I made sure the security cameras on my house are visible from the street. People with bad intentions just move on to easier targets.
  no they don't.
  they wear a hoodie. or a ball cap. or they have a package to block their face. or any of a hundred other ways of making a camera useless on the cheap.
  Your highly visible cameras only tell them you can afford some good shit. I'm not saying you shouldn't have cameras- and they'll usually be visible if you know what to look for... it's kind of necessary for them to function... But cameras are not a deterrence, and neither are they an active element in your security. They are passive, and really only useful when dealing with insurance or explaining what actually happened in the first place.
- One massive MASSIVE problem with that logic. TJ Maxx/Marshalls employees don't have a pre-existing stigma as being known for beating and killing black people and getting away with it. These employees aren't known to single people out, harass them, stalk them, and make life hell for them.
  So if the cops behavior changed because they'll be held accountable, it's not quite the same thing as store employees already surrounded by cameras, and always have been held accountable for their actions. If they wanted to use this for shoplifting purposes they'd hire more back of house people to actively monitor cameras, and more human security guards to react live as it happens to theft.
  As it stands, all they're doing is getting yet another video angle of what they already have footage of. This time with a fisheye lense.
  
  They do follow certain people around who may or not be of certain demographic representation.

I have a proposal for the next iteration of Tik Tok challenges, or whatever medium we're using to flaunt our bad decisions now-a-days: steal the cameras right off the employees.
- Rogue: I roll to steal the camera
  DM: you want to steal the camera looking for thieves off the chest of the guy also looking for thieves.
  Rogue: yes
  DM: no.
  Rule lawyer: it's his right to roll
  DM: fine
  *Rogue rolls a nat 20
  DM: fine whatever somehow no one notices

I noticed in my local supermarket in the UK they started wearing cameras too it's really weird. I'm really not sure what their goal is - it will never help shoplifting as much as static cameras, and seems a lot of effort to safeguard against abusive customers.
- I just want to say that I appreciate how your comment has made me understand that writing run-on sentences without punctuation isn't a strictly American English language thing.
  This sounds mean-spirited of me, but I actually mean it. Everybody always makes fun of the Americans for it. And I'm not saying I'm perfect, either. Poor grammar can bring us all together.
- Can't have people who can't afford to eat actually eat? This is sad, and it doesn't bode well, for global society.

Hey! Who want's to shop at a retailer where someone follows you around with a camera and the merchandise is overpriced? Raise your hand now! [crickets] Consumers will shop elsewhere. Making your business like the DPRK is not a winning strategy.
- Worked for London.

I am wondering when teachers will get these. Little Timmy literally took a bite out of another students neck? No, you can't say it was someone else, I have it on video!
- It isn't uncommon for them to have policies where no adult is alone with a kid.

They think price gouging is going to increase theft and they wanna be ready. They'd rather waste money on this (and on advocating the govt for harsher penalties) than lower them.
Friendly reminder: if you see someone stealing from target? No you didn't. That goes for target employees too. Here's hoping your bodycams up with as much "lost" footage as the cop's.

Lovely.
The company I work for has some of the general managers of stores carrying tasers.
- Sounds like they would be in for an assault/battery charge if they ever used them.
  
  They've been used twice, no charges, not fired. Not at my store.
  Yeah, I don't know, I think it's nuts, and I hate that place, but somehow it's made to work.

The camera can only see in front. A person can see in a broad fov...

Say no employees. Disrupt shit

Forget cameras, how about actually arresting criminals and putting them away instead of this catch and release shit that is going on everywhere.

83 comments