Eyes, Locks, Patterns, Tiers: How Intelligent Crime-Control Technology Amplifies Demands for Frontline Retail Workers

Abstract

Retailers are increasingly adopting loss-prevention technologies to counter rising concerns over theft. While systems are primarily aimed at customers, millions of frontline retail workers remain central to their implementation. This article examines how emerging crime-control technologies reshape frontline retail work. First, drawing on retail-technology marketing materials and observations at industry conferences, we identify four approaches promoted by vendors: eyes (behavior observation), locks (physical access restriction), patterns (automated anomaly detection), and tiers (customer access differentiation). Eyes and locks reflect long-standing retail security practices, and patterns and tiers introduce “intelligent” layers atop them. Second, through interviews and observations of frontline workers across the United States, we show that these intelligent layers shift workers’ relationships within the worker-manager-customer triad by (1) intensifying monitoring and managerial control over workers, and (2) creating more relational demands. We argue that studying behavior-control technologies targeted at customers enables a better understanding of qualitative changes in frontline jobs.

Publication
ILR Review — Forthcoming.
Date
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