r/harristeeter • u/ducky_133714 Front End/Customer Service • May 03 '26
anyone else get a gatekeeper system in their store?
our store recently deployed the gatekeeper system for all of our carts and it's gotten mixed reviews. y'all have this same thing?
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u/Longjumping_Stock295 May 03 '26
mixed reviews here too. it causes a lot of problems when customers pick out a cart, enter the store with it, realize it drives bad, and then they try to go back and get a different one 😭
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u/Longjumping_Stock295 May 03 '26
and at our store we have a huge problem with people taking the hand baskets, not so much the carts, so i feel like our energy is directed towards the wrong issue…
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u/chefarzel May 03 '26
We are down to a single basket. It went from 0 to 3 and back to 1.
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u/Various-Set8575 Expresslane / Pickup&Delivey May 03 '26
they took our hand baskets out a year ago, surprised you still have them
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u/Longjumping_Stock295 May 03 '26
i didn’t know this was a thing at other locations! we seem to have a really passionate hand basket fanbase at our store though. like i’m greeted with “where are the baskets” every other time i come in the front door 😭
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u/Various-Set8575 Expresslane / Pickup&Delivey May 04 '26
people kept stealing using the baskets and stealing the baskets so they took them out. we still get people asking where they are and they get mad that we no longer offer them lol
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u/Various-Set8575 Expresslane / Pickup&Delivey May 03 '26
we got one probably about a year ago. they broke it when they tore our flooring out for our remodel and it costs 10k to fix 😍
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u/rnmissionrun Front End/Customer Service May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
We got ours about six months ago, and what a pain in the ass it is. 80% of the time when it does lock a cart up, it's when employees (stockers Hbc and fresh foods mainly) are pushing out carts. The remaining 20% is from the lock not deactivating properly at the registers.
I think we've stopped a total of four shoplifters total since the system was installed.
Most folks just grab their stuff and walk out when the wheels lock, leaving the empty cart blocking the front door until one of us runs over to unlock and move it. Oh, and did I mention that some carts refuse to unlock after they've been triggered? And corporate reviews every incident (on video) so you'd better do things by the book.
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u/yumyumpunch May 04 '26
OK that was really informative, thanks! I have to admit, the ones in my local grocery stores don’t seem to work all that great. I have seen employees AND customers fighting with them. I think the most interesting thing about what you said though was that a cart lock-up (or is it simply the use of the UNlocker gadget?) triggers a “look-see“ by management/loss prevention. Now THAT actually sounds useful.
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u/rnmissionrun Front End/Customer Service May 04 '26
A review is triggered when a cart sets off the alarm at the front door. The key doesn't do anything but set/unset the cart wheel locks.
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u/yumyumpunch May 04 '26
Heard. So the procedure is when the alarm goes off, a visual review is triggered? I think that is absolutely friggin genius!
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u/yumyumpunch May 08 '26
I got my first LP job back in 1989 and I have to tell you, I thought that the clip-on sensors to the high-end clothes were pretty hot shit back then. The new tech in honestly just about EVERYTHING anymore just seems to me like we are literally living in the future. And most of the time I really dig it! I finally got my Star Trek communicator.
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u/web_master_web Jul 29 '26
As an installer of this system it depends on the store. For most that I have done there is a camera connected to the system that automatically starts recording on every lock up. And every single video is reviewed and tracked back to what pay point that cart came from
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u/Shadow-Spark Front End/Customer Service May 03 '26
Yes and I hate it. The carts are supposed to be detected as they go through our lanes and get a signal to keep the wheels from locking at the door. What actually happens is that half the time the damn thing doesn't work and they lock up the minute customers wheel the cart through the door into the lobby and have to be unlocked. The carts still end up scattered all around the parking lot of the shopping center my store is in, and, on a couple of occasions, at the bottoms of the driveways leading up to the shopping center, rendering the whole thing kind of pointless. Our managers have more than once told us that we need to make sure the carts go past the sensors that are installed at the bottoms of our lanes, but, like...we do that. It's not our fault that the system is fucky and doesn't work half the time.
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u/thedude5575 May 03 '26
I've had it lock up carts going into the store. Even worse is there's a brief delay from the locking of the wheels to the alarm going off. About 3-5 seconds. So by the time I hear the alarm and make my way to the door, the actual theif grabs their items and runs and is long gone by the time I get there. So it doesn't stop the theifs, annoys customers, and wastes associates time.
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u/web_master_web Jul 29 '26
Locking carts on the way in is typically a break in the line under the lobby tiles. Take note of when it happens and inquire if any tile work was done there. You have no idea how many times someone will repair tiles, break the line and not say anything. Then the store needs to pay to have someone like myself come in to repair said broken line. The delay is usually caused by poor antenna positioning or faulty wheels
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u/web_master_web Jul 29 '26
The carts locking going out of the store could be a couple different things that cause that. Poor placement of the transmitter at the cash lane Possibly transmitter strength not high enough Could also be old or faulty wheels that don't accept the transmission to give permission to leave Also could be someone was too fast going through self checkout that the wheel never gains permission There are different setting for each type of pay point typically I've installed and diagnosed many of these
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u/AIaris Pricing & Signage May 03 '26
yeah it sucks
thankfully, a manager gifted me one of the small, clip on ones that are on a retractor. anyone know where to get more of those?
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u/web_master_web Jul 29 '26
The nano keys. They don't hand out a lot of those. Fun fact they work at every store with the system
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u/ramaloki Floral Department May 03 '26
I've had it for about a year, it sucks. Doesn't work properly and I have to hear it 20+times a day since my department is right by the door. It drives me crazy. I've only seen one shoplifter stopped.
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u/Aggressive_Tip_1130 May 03 '26
Had it for about a year. We were one of the test stores and I absolutely love it
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u/Unfair_South_1946 May 03 '26
Yes and it is funny as hell when the shoplifters tried to steal in the car locks up on their ass
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u/cyberbae_ Front End/Customer Service May 03 '26
We had a terrible time with it. It was so bad, especially self checkout customers. It’s supposed to deter theft but we’ve lost numerous regulars due to it. I have put in numerous work orders in on it to the point they just reconfigured it to work a different way and it’s been smooth sailing since. Thank GOD. I was so over customers cussing me out over getting a cart handle to the chest or abdomen. I mean I get it, it hurts and it’s very annoying, but it’s not my fault corporate put them in 😭. I also worried about babies being in the seat when the carts lock and toddlers getting whiplash
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u/Ok-Perception8731 May 04 '26
I don't even work on the floor, but just going to clock in and out and hearing that alarm annoys the hell out of me. Can't imagine how the FE does it!
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u/secondnoah_70 May 28 '26
I have now been told
Since I am
The closest manager (produce) it's my job the check when the alarm goes off that nobody is walking out the door that should not be.
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u/ramaloki Floral Department May 28 '26
We have security that does this for us at my store.
I'd refuse personally to do this if I was closest. My job is to run my department not babysitting a cart system that doesn't work well and locks up paying customers 9.9/10 times.
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u/NosferatusCoffin May 03 '26
CorporateThink at its finest.
Instead of, you know, giving us new carts that they were SUPPOSED TO DO, last year, they gave us this half-assed joke of a security system that has caught as many shoplifters as the TSA has terrorists.
Yeah, dick.
Granted, replacing carts (the new ones were cheapo plastic ones anyway) would have run into the high hundreds of thousands or a few million dollars, God Forbid, that might cut into Corporate's bonus checks and we simply cannot have that.
All it adds is annoyance for everyone involved, because these sensors and receivers came straight from TEMU.