So they've started these idiotic, meaningless "security messages" at our store......mixed in at random along with the famously repetitive and tiresome song selections. (Let's guess: will it come on between "best of Intentions" by Mutemath and "My Baby Loves Lovin" by White Plains; or maybe between "Lido Shuffle" by Boz Scaggs and "Manic Monday" by The Bangles????? I am breathless with anticipation!!!!!!!)
Here is what I feel is rather strange about this whole new thing: The guy who recorded these soundbytes sounds rather quiet, in fact, just bored. He says (in a dull, monotonous voice) something that goes a little like this: "Security......... Check location 39, code 17." He sounds a little like he just woke up after going on a very bad "drunk" the night before, and is not yet totally awake.
In fact, the soundbyte is definitely much quieter than the rest of the 'soundtrack',( if I can call it that) and the message is virtually unintelligible to the average shopper or other listener, unless you are VERY close to an overhead speaker and NO ONE ELSE is talking or making noises in the nearby vicinity.
In fact, this is so dumb, I have to imagine this pretend scenario:
Kroger Corporate Bigwig, at a meeting of the minds: "Hey, which one of you guys can think of the dumbest idea in the world that will NOT help our shoplifting problem IN THE SLIGHTEST, but instead will cause employees and customers to laugh at us and say 'what a bunch of nincompoops they must be!!".
In reality the "security" pages should be done by multiple people/voices, with the voice in heightened tone. I know this is used as a "deterrent" but how many crooks will actually hear this? Most people doing the stealing will be in and out of the store withing 3 mins. I also find the new security monitors at SCO/In-Store a basic invasion and a distractions from making the customers shopping experience the best it can be. Yes, everyone knows there are cameras watching them. Why do we install camera/monitors at every SCO, when SBG you can basically walk about the store place any items in the bag and then pay on the mobile app? So basically people checking out are stealing, but we want more people to go to SCO. We want people to go to SCO, but now want them to scan the items while picking them up, where no real security mechanism is inplace. There is verification of customers information when using SBG, at the least the customer should needing to register with ID & CC at the beginning. Even Amazons "Store" have the customer register for Amazon Prime, provides them a credit card on file, valid address they can verify and Smart Phone data pulled when the app is active.
They started doing this in my store last weekend and it was obvious after the first one it was a recording, doesn't sound anything like the in-store P.A. and more like an advertisement. Only people who this'll scare off are jittery kids looking to take a candy bar and even that's doubtful. I get the idea behind it but it seems like it'd be more effective if you did an actual recording of someone over the P.A., though I'm guessing that's beyond Kroger's technical expertise.
The recording is of an actual person, but it would be more effective to have it recorded actually mimicking a retail worker. Normally someone making the page is walking, out of breath or their voice isn't perfect (associates stop in the middle of the page and think, their voice goes up or down, etc). Also, it would be more effective to actually say a department (but would alarm customers a little if they are in that department).
Glad we don't have that yet, at our store we simply page a keyword for LP if we suspect a customer and want LP there, or if someone is actively stealing, we page an LP Alert / manager emergency code and the nearest door they are heading for. This way it alerts management that we have spotted a confirmed shoplifter and alerts LP we need them to X door right now to confront the customer. Or if we here "all cameras" or "X, Y, Z lobby / front end / produce immediately" we know something is going down and keep a lookout
Also, since they are mere recordings interspersed with music, they come on at random times throughout the day and night. I've heard them at 1:20 or 2 AM in the middle of the night..........when the store is closed and there are NO customers in the store!! Stupid.
Also, since they are mere recordings interspersed with music, they come on at random times throughout the day and night. I've heard them at 1:20 or 2 AM in the middle of the night..........when the store is closed and there are NO customers in the store!! Stupid.
yep. And it's on the same track as the music, so if you call the store and are put on hold, you'll hear the same track being played in the store, including, you guessed it, the security messages. Happened to me. "WTF?"
Even more funny my store does not have a location 84.
My store does not have a location 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90 or any other number!! (yes, because of hours being cut, I have free time at home to sit here and type all those numbers at my leisure).
What we DO have are aisles! (DUHHH!!) Aisles 1, 2, 3, etc.
I don't think any stores have a designated numbered "location", unless maybe a few individual stores have come up with 'secret' codes for particular locations or depts in the store. AND I doubt that very strongly. No one at our store (managers included) know anything about it.
I've heard at least 8 different recordings so far......... sometimes the "location" is mentioned first, then the 'code" and a few have it vice versa.
It's all SO dumb. Kroger Corp and the InStore Audio Network needs to regroup on this one................and have a long discussion on how to make some more recordings that are more believable.
These stupid "Security, Monitor Location 52 for Code 19" , "Security, monitor location 73 for code 19" and similar announcements continue on and on, day after day, week after week, and now they've been going on for about 3 or 4 months now.
One thing I noticed which Kroger upper echelon might not have realized is SO phony and revealing:
The announcements ALWAYS occur very "cleanly" and "perfectly timed" only in between songs. In other words, as soon as one song ends, the announcement comes on. Then,right after the security sound byte is over, another song starts.
Has anyone with half a brain realized that if these were authentic, real announcements, they would occur at totally random times, and the announcer would have to interrupt songs that are currently playing? You would hear someone 'cut in' to the song to make a security announcement, (just like associates have to "cut in" to a song to page someone that they have a phone call, or dial an extension number, etc) , not wait until a song is finished before saying anything that might indicate some shoplifting is going on right at that moment. DUMB!!
I am a 14 year custome, shop there everyday, cant stand the new security fake loop! Going to drive 5 miles away to go out of the way to a different store. Live in a nice neighborhood but feel like the store is thinking that All their customers are stealing from them every time Im in the store. A fellow customer commented she doesnt feel safe in the store. Weird Big Brother Orwellian Dysotopian shopping experience, could you imagine Nordstroms running this loop? CEO must be a serious idiot. Store has a ghetto feel now.
Kroger has a lot of shoplifters! Enough that they've closed many stores over the past couple of years, mostly in lower income urban areas, due to high theft rates. They've also had to cut down on the amount of 24 hour stores. In my area of 15-20 stores, most were 24 hours, now there are only 2, the rest are open 6:00-1:00. The fake security announcements & fake "recording in progress" monitors are a desperate attempt to deter theft. At my store, when the announcements first started a year or so ago, it was common to have spooked (no pun intended) shoplifters ask "What did they just say? What does that mean?" Now they're used to it and don't even hear it. Which gets me to my point, if you don't like the security announcements, too bad! If you had a business that was being robbed daily, you'd do everything in your power to deter it from happening. Blame goes to the entitled thieves who think they are owed everything in life. Gotta love 'em...or you're a racist...right?
Kroger has a lot of shoplifters! Enough that they've closed many stores over the past couple of years, mostly in lower income urban areas, due to high theft rates. They've also had to cut down on the amount of 24 hour stores. In my area of 15-20 stores, most were 24 hours, now there are only 2, the rest are open 6:00-1:00. The fake security announcements & fake "recording in progress" monitors are a desperate attempt to deter theft. At my store, when the announcements first started a year or so ago, it was common to have spooked (no pun intended) shoplifters ask "What did they just say? What does that mean?" Now they're used to it and don't even hear it. Which gets me to my point, if you don't like the security announcements, too bad! If you had a business that was being robbed daily, you'd do everything in your power to deter it from happening. Blame goes to the entitled thieves who think they are owed everything in life. Gotta love 'em...or you're a racist...right?
Of course Kroger has a perfect right to try to deter theft. Who can blame them?? But you might be missing the point of these posts........this attempt to deter theft is a very shoddy, bumbling attempt. Poorly executed ideas!!
It should include more REALISTIC soundbytes. It wouldn't be that much more expensive to record a number of more real-life-sounding recordings that don't sound so "cut and dried" and obviously canned.
In all honesty, on the list of things that Kroger does that need vast improvement immediately, their pre-recorded security announcements are at the bottom of my list of concerns. Intentionally operating stores and departments on skeleton crews with not enough hours or people to do the job even close to adequately would be at the top!
