Environment
Neighbourhood and regional supermarkets: wide glass exits opening onto car parks or fuel stations, several checkout lanes, trolleys and baskets, promotional stock stacked near the doors and long opening hours. These are the busiest entrances we work with and the ones where the hardware takes the most punishment.
The problem
Supermarket shrinkage is spread across thousands of small items: drinks, cosmetics, razors, batteries, meat and cheese. The exit is wide, people leave in groups, and trolleys knock into anything in their way. The system has to detect reliably across the full exit width, survive years of trolley contact and not alarm at every passing bag.
What we chose
- Aluminium-frame pedestal pairs at the exits: robust enough for trolley traffic, with the spacing set to the exit width. Very wide exits use additional pedestals.
- Pedestals integrated into checkout lanes where the store layout routes customers through the tills rather than a separate exit.
- RF or AM technology chosen per store: AM where wider spacing or metal-rich surroundings demand it, RF where it fits.
- Soft labels on high-shrinkage products and deactivators at every till, so deactivation happens as items are scanned.
Installation
Supermarkets cannot close, so installation is planned for early morning or overnight. Pedestals are bolted to the floor, cabling is run under the floor or along the checkout furniture, and each system is tuned on site against nearby metal shelving, freezers and door frames. Detection is tested across the exit with labelled products before staff arrive.
Watch the case study
A short video from one of our supermarket installations (Romanian on-screen captions): the store, the exits, the checkout pedestals and a demonstration of tagged products at the door.
What the supermarket gets
- Reliable detection across the whole exit width, at every lane.
- Hardware that keeps working after years of trolley contact.
- A till routine that is not slowed down: scanning and deactivation in one movement.
The same exits are ideal for measuring customer traffic. A WELLPOINT People Counter can be mounted directly on the pedestal, so footfall data comes from the same door that carries the anti-theft system.