When I was young I thought that when the barcode was scanned it made it so that it wouldn’t trigger the alarms, but when you have multiple items of the same thing the cashier usually just scans one item multiple times. So how do the security scanners know that you’ve paid for something?
In: Technology
Most registers use the barcode to identify the item. That combination of thin and thick bars with spaces matches up to a specific item in the database. That database probably knows how many of the item they have, so scanning that one item 3 times, does two things: it charges you for the item 3 times and takes 3 of them out of the inventory, marking them as sold. The scanners at the door have a completely different technology. They don’t know anything about bar codes. Instead, they trigger when specific electronic items pass through. Often there is a small computer chip in an item, which can be deactivated by rubbing it on a square pad near the register. In books, sometimes you will find a little tab that looks like a computer circuit board. That is the trigger for that item at the exit sensor. There are various items that will set of that sensor near the door. The loss prevention people are creative, trying to stop shop lifters. But that system and the bard code system you see at the register are not integrated.
They don’t work for every item, though I’m sure the stores would like you to think that. The stores attach transmitters to items that are popular targets of theft (concealable like clothing, high value like electronics, or compulsive like liquor), and cashiers must remove them at checkout. These transmitters are typically designed to be hard to remove without special tools and also to make the item unusable if you don’t remove it. Everything else is just protected by security cameras and guards.
They’re not security scanners. They’re price scanners. The barcode is just info on what the product is so the computerized register can include it in the purchase. So if you have 10 cans of the same soup, the cashier can scan one can ten times and capture what is being sold.
Some items have a security tag as well (but usually not in grocery stores) and they are deactivated typically by passing them over a scanner that deactivates the tag.
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