GIANT FOOD STORES WILL DEPLOY EAS CHAINWIDE

DEENA AMATO-McCOY

CARLISLE, Pa. -- Giant Food Stores here reportedly began a chainwide rollout of radio frequency electronic article surveillance tags three weeks ago, in order to reduce shrink in its stores.

The system will be rolled out to 161 stores by September, according to a source familiar with the situation. The system uses security gates at each store's front doors, to trigger alarms when items tagged with RF surveillance labels pass through the gates unpaid for. Richard Pasewark, spokesman for Giant Food Stores, declined to comment on the installation, or expectations for the system.

"Since EAS tags are designed to significantly reduce theft and shrink, the results in turn boost the bottom line and store profitability increases," said the source. According to the source, an antenna integrated into the store's point-of-sale system deactivates the security tag as the product's bar code is optically scanned during the checkout process.

The RF surveillance tags, provided by Checkpoint Systems, Thorofare, N.J., reportedly will be housed in health and beauty care products, packaged meats and additional categories containing items that contribute to shrink, including film and batteries.

According to the source, the retailer can expect to see results within its first inventory-tagging cycle. "Typically, retailers will see their shrink level reduced within the first quarter that the system is implemented," he said.

Giant Food Stores, a subsidiary of Ahold USA, Atlanta, began implementing the technology based on positive test results experienced by Ahold USA family member Bi-Lo, Mauldin, S.C., according to the source. Bi-Lo reportedly is also installing the RF EAS tags chainwide, he said.