Retailers set anti-theft technology goals
DVDs, videogames may be made inoperable upon wholesale delivery
By Danny King -- Video Business, 12/2/2008
DEC. 2 | DVD and videogame retailers and publishers have settled on a set of goals for anti-theft technology that would make products useless to people who steal them, following up on a September meeting where companies including Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Electronic Arts explored ways to cut theft, or “shrink,” the Entertainment Merchants Assn. said today.
The list of goals, known as “Project Lazarus,” listed 21 requirements for the so-called “benefit denial” technology, in which discs would be delivered to retailers in an inoperable state and would be activated once they’re sold to a customer, EMA said. Requirements include having the inoperable discs use the same size packaging, take up no extra space or time upon checkout and require no action on the part of the customer.
Retailers are taking a closer look at ways to cut back on theft, which is accounting for a progressively larger percentage of sales. DVD shrink, or theft as a percentage of sales, rose 16% last year while videogame theft increased more than 20%, the EMA said, prompting companies such Target and Microsoft, in addition to Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Electronic Arts, to meet in September to explore ways to cut theft.
Clothing retailers have long used a method of benefit denial to cut theft by using so-called “alligator clips,” which spill ink on the item if anyone other than a store employee removes the clip.
The EMA and the companies are looking to start testing benefit denial methods next year, with a widespread rollout of an agreed-upon product by the end of 2010. Currently, few methods are used to curtail DVD and videogame theft beyond electronic article surveillance tags, EMA said in October.
