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- 14 February 2005
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A while ago I had an alarming problem myself.
Harvey Norman, Harris Scarfe, Myer, Target, Big W, David Jones, Coles, Woolworths... Hobart, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney...
Wherever I went, the alarm would go off. Alarmed when I entered the store, and alarmed again when I left. Browsing without actually buying anything became a real nightmare.
In due course I did a bit of experimenting at Big W and found that my wallet was the trigger. Not sure why, but rearranging the cards, specifically to have the normal ATM card and my Visa card in specific positions, fixed the problem most times.
Then the alarm went off again. Finally a shop assistant with a bit of initiative (Harris Scarfe for the record). They passed my wallet over some machine which has since fixed the problem completely. How it works I'm not sure, but it's been fixed. All my cards still work fine.
My stress level still goes up a bit every time I walk past one of those scanners though since I've been stopped and searched hundreds of times (literally). Furnishing a new house was a real nightmare, being searched probably 10 - 15 times in the space of a single day, several of those at the same store. Funny how it took so long to find a shop assistant who knew how to fix it. This went on for some years...
All that said, I understand why shops have these scanners and it's much like being searched at the airport (on the subject of which, I've often wondered how anyone who does legitimately work with explosives deals with this - would there not be traces on their hands, skin etc that would be detected and prevent them from flying?)
My time being alarmed did teach me one thing though. There is a major flaw in shop security past which you could easily take just about anything of reasonably small size. I won't provide the details, but I've noticed that at least some Myer and David Jones stores have addressed it whereas it is wide open at many other retailers.
Harvey Norman, Harris Scarfe, Myer, Target, Big W, David Jones, Coles, Woolworths... Hobart, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney...
Wherever I went, the alarm would go off. Alarmed when I entered the store, and alarmed again when I left. Browsing without actually buying anything became a real nightmare.
In due course I did a bit of experimenting at Big W and found that my wallet was the trigger. Not sure why, but rearranging the cards, specifically to have the normal ATM card and my Visa card in specific positions, fixed the problem most times.
Then the alarm went off again. Finally a shop assistant with a bit of initiative (Harris Scarfe for the record). They passed my wallet over some machine which has since fixed the problem completely. How it works I'm not sure, but it's been fixed. All my cards still work fine.
My stress level still goes up a bit every time I walk past one of those scanners though since I've been stopped and searched hundreds of times (literally). Furnishing a new house was a real nightmare, being searched probably 10 - 15 times in the space of a single day, several of those at the same store. Funny how it took so long to find a shop assistant who knew how to fix it. This went on for some years...
All that said, I understand why shops have these scanners and it's much like being searched at the airport (on the subject of which, I've often wondered how anyone who does legitimately work with explosives deals with this - would there not be traces on their hands, skin etc that would be detected and prevent them from flying?)
My time being alarmed did teach me one thing though. There is a major flaw in shop security past which you could easily take just about anything of reasonably small size. I won't provide the details, but I've noticed that at least some Myer and David Jones stores have addressed it whereas it is wide open at many other retailers.