for context i just bought 3 bags of beef jerky from 5 below and they all had one of those square tags with the lines on them and i only scanned one 3 times at the self checkout how do they get deactivated
Edit [https://imgur.com/a/c3DFJFg](https://imgur.com/a/c3DFJFg) here’s a picture of it
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All of the bags have the same bar code, so scanning any specific bag should not matter or cause one to be deactivated and another not to be. As far as I am aware, none of the RFID tags can tell when you have purchased the good, they are just supposed to be removed before you exit the store, and if you leave the store with them they set off the alarm.
Honestly at 5 Below they might just have put fake security tags on the beef jerky.
Some tags if you place them down on the scale it deactivates them magnetically. The magnet does not know how many tags are there and deactivates them all.
They don’t, the deactivating is done by checkout staff. Items with real antitheft tags are supposed to automatically flag self service checkouts (you’ll get a “staff assistance required” message) so they can come over and deactivate it.
So either they are just fake visual deterrents or their door alarm isn’t working.
Bar codes are only unique to the product but every RFID tag ever made has a unique code in it so each beef jerky bag has its own unique RFID code but they all have the same bar code.
When you rung it up, it pinged all the RFID tags at or very near that register and looked for an RFID tag on that product that it had not already marked as pending purchased. As you scanned the beef jerky each time, it found another one of your bags of beef jerky nearby by its unique RFID tag and added it to its list of pending purchased products. That is why they sometimes insist that you put the product in a bag as that is one area where it scans the RFID tags. When you paid, it took all the pending purchased RFID tags it scanned for your purchase and marked the list of them as purchased which made them safe for you to exit with that list of RFID tags anytime within the next few hours without setting off the alarm.
If an RFID tag that was not purchased goes past the door scanners, the alarm goes off. If you try to pay at the register and it detects an RFID tag that was not scanned, the attendant is called.
Assuming OP is referring to tags like [these ones](https://a.co/d/1T2mWwm).
Ever wonder why at self checkout you must put all items in the bagging area, there’s a device that deactivates the tag within a certain proximity.
At grocery stores its common to see the cashier slide the item over a separate small (usually gray or black plastic spot on the register) which deactivates them, some are now built in to the barcode reader area.
You must have put them all in the bagging area hence close enough to be deactivated.
I was in Safeway a few months ago and did a similar thing, had 2x boxes of Spindrift, scanned one, put it in the bag area then went to scan the other but the barcode was scraped so put that one in the bag area and grabbed the first one to scan again and it stopped me, on the screen it showed the view from a camera overhead which showed me swapping the items (each one had a box and number on it in the video), and it called the employee over to check on it.
Was Vegas cardroom level security at a Safeway self checkout.
But for your question it’s a proximity sensor, not foolproof but works pretty well!
If you click the link and scroll down you’ll see what a stand deactivation device looks like (recessed gray square built into the check out stand), nowadays for self checkout they are a bit larger and built into the “bagging area” underneath and not visible.
The stickers are an antenna with a very simple chip in the center that responds something akin to “I’m here!” when they get close to the panels at the door. Those panels are constantly sending out signals akin to “Anyone out there?” with enough power to power up the chip in the stickers. If the panels get a response then they sound an alarm.
The register or the bagging area has a similar device as the device door panels looking for an “I’m here!” message. But instead of sounding an alarm like the doors do, it kicks off a magnetic pulse generator that fries a simple fuse in any stickers near by (it can also demagnetize your credit cards). Once that fuse is blown, the sticker stops responding to the “Anyone out there?” signals.
The larger removable spider wraps, bottle tops, plastic boxes and punch tags do not have the fuse, so they aren’t deactivated by the magnetic pulse generator.
Only high dollar items have security tags. Other tags are used for inventory tracking. I have a hard time believing beef jerky is a high dollar product that gets stolen often.
The tags don’t know where they are or what you’re doing.
Imagine you’ve got a cute little animal that whistles, except when it’s wet. The animal is blind, deaf, and can’t really feel anything except that it’s wet. It doesn’t know if you’re moving it somewhere in your purse or just walking it out the door.
But at the door, there’s another critter that’s really good at hearing cute little animals that whistle. And if you try to walk one past it, it squawks very loudly.
It’s kind of like that, except security tags aren’t disabled by getting wet, they’re disabled by magnetism. And they don’t whistle, but they emit radio waves. They don’t know where they are or what you’re doing with them, but if one of them is emitting the particular security radio waves when you’re walking through the door, the door alarm goes off in response.
They may not have been anti theft tags. They may have been inventory tracking tags.
Or if they really are RFID, the detector may have sufficient intelligence to compare what just passed thru with what was just bought in the last couple of minutes and assume if three bags of beef jerky were just bought and three bags just passed thru the detector, they are likely the same bags so don’t alert anyone.
Or, if those bags were placed on the counter they may have been deactivated even if you only scanned one of them.
Or the employees got sick of hearing the alarm go off and either turned off the detectors at the door or deactivated all the tags in the store. Sometimes stores turn off the detectors because they don’t want to hear the alarm and simply having them there doing security theater is enough to greatly reduce theft.
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