August 2023 - 18

as a strong deterrent and can lower
micro market shrink rates.
AN AI SOLUTION
Bridger Keally, sales director at
Panoptyc, was well aware of the spike
in theft during Q1 of 2023. He heard
about it from clients. " Unfortunately,
the shrink rate has gone up
significantly this year. We have seen
situations where the loss level has
been at 25%, 30% or even 50%. At that
point, the operator is about ready to
just pull the market, " said Keally.
Panoptyc provides a video
security system for micro market
operators that uses AI to identify
anomalies in customer behavior
- red flags that are indicative of
possible product theft. Company
founder Mac Bolak offered some
examples of red flags that are picked
up by the Panoptyc system.
* When someone walks through
the micro market without
buying anything.
* When someone walks into the
market, picks up a product and
does not make a purchase.
* A wide variety of " funny business "
that happens near the kiosk.
Most importantly, once the anomalies
are identified, Panoptyc provides an
analysis of the video and a report for
the operator to understand exactly
what is happening at the location,
including actual evidence of theft.
That evidence is important when an
operator wants to discuss the matter
with their client.
A TECHNOLOGICAL
APPROACH
Tony Danna, VP and general manager
of the Three Square Market division at
Cantaloupe, said that the ability for
an operator to easily take an accurate
inventory is critical. " With everything
we offer between Three Square and
Cantaloupe, the operator has the
18 Automatic Merchandiser * August 2023
When operators make the mistake of not doing
inventory on a regular basis, that is when shrinkage
gets out of control. "
-Tony Danna, Three Square Market Division at Cantaloupe
ability to do all of their inventory
controls through a mobile app right
on site, " Danna said. " Now you can
get them to do a very strategic spot
check routine, monitoring the theft
and the spoilage in the markets on a
consistent basis. "
Danna noted that when operators
make the mistake of not doing
inventory on a regular basis, that is
when shrinkage gets out of control.
He said the operators who have a
huge issue are the ones who finally
take inventory after a longer period
of time.
At checkout time, Cantaloupe
generates an Abandoned Shopping
Cart Report. " What our system does
is it takes a picture, timestamps it,
puts it on the back-end, and then you
can review all of those with people's
pictures and the products that were
involved in cancelled transactions, "
he said. " This report provides useful
evidence when an operator needs
to communicate with a client about
shrinkage levels. "
Pete Carmain, vice president of
national accounts at Nayax, said that
operators need to focus on getting
the most reliable back-end system
as possible. Carmain points out that
operator error can really distort
shrink rates, but with products like
Nayax's MoMa 2.0 mobile app,
operators can get off to a great start
when they are picking and filling
products. " Accurate data is our
number-one focus, " he said.
The Nayax Nova Market offers a
yellow screen, red screen deterrent
system. " If you have a camera
pointed at the market, one of the
things that I think is really beneficial
is when a transaction is completed
and everything is on the up-and-up,
so to speak, you're going to get a
yellow screen, " Carmain said. " When
you see that yellow screen, you know
that was a good transaction. If the
transaction itself is cancelled, you're
going to get a red screen. So those
can be looked at from the camera,
and the operator can go back and
look at all those red screens. Did the
product walk out? Was the product
put back? "
Carmain continued, " It seems
almost too simplistic, but really,
if you have to go back and look
through all of this video, you could
be looking at hours and hours of
videos trying to find one or two
instances. " Now, you're just looking
at a basic color scheme. "
DESIGN, TRAFFIC FLOW
AND SHRINKAGE
Steve Orlando, an experienced
operator of 10 years who co-founded
Fixturelite, a leading supplier
of micro market retail displays,
equipment and design tools, believes
that there is a direct correlation
between a well-designed, wellstocked
micro market with smooth
traffic flow and a lower level of
shrinkage. He said an obvious
investment by the operator and the
location is appreciated by employees.
" They want to keep it. They want it
to work well because it's a benefit to
August 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2023
