Your Phone May Soon Open Locked Display Cases in Stores

A surge in shoplifting in some areas has store owners walking a tricky line—they must create a welcoming space for customers to shop, while also deterring theft. And though locking merchandise inside cases can spoil that friendly shopping vibe, so does using a blowtorch to clear out a New York Walgreens of their merch. Among the measures business owners are testing out is a techy product cabinet called the Freedom Case. Its touchscreen allows customers to use their phones to pop open locked cabinets that store items such as pricey lotions or medication.

• Per CNN, Freedom Case gives customers the choice to use their phone numbers or a store's app or loyalty card to receive a 4-digit code via text. After entering the code, they're free to access the locked products without calling over an employee.
• "You're making this value exchange," Joe Budano, CEO of Freedom Case maker Indyme, tells Axios. "You're trading some form of personal information." His company says 85% of customers opt to make that trade.
• Some liquor stores are using anti-theft cases to create a self-service experience for their customers. The chain Schnucks has adopted the practice in 40 of their locations, reports KSDK.
• A relative handful of people with sticky fingers might be to blame for the uptick in shoplifting in some places. The New York Times reports that 327 people were involved in one-third of shoplifting incidents in New York City last year—and those few hundred people had a record of being arrested (and rearrested) 6,000 times.
• According to Axios, other measures store owners are testing out to beef up security include license plate recognition cameras placed in parking lots, glitter-sized RFID tags used to track stolen goods, and AI cameras that use face-matching technology to detect repeat offenders.

(More stories about theft.)