Shoplifting is a major problem in many brick-and-mortar retail stores, and stealing and then selling power tools seems to be a profitable business for some criminals. To combat this situation, Home Depot starts selling power tools, they won’t work unless activated at the checkout counter.
According to a 2020 survey in the United States, “organized retail crime” cost retailers US$719,548 per billion in revenue.After a thief was recently arrested Theft of power tools worth more than $17,000 From Home Depot. Although many stores put high-value items in locked display cases, Home Depot believes that this strategy will have a negative impact on sales, so they have worked with suppliers to add an internal termination switch. Although diehard criminals may find a way to disable this feature, Home Depot seems to hope this is enough to persuade most criminals to find easier targets elsewhere.
We really want to touch one of these power tools to see what this kill switch looks like and how it works. Something such as a Bluetooth activation relay is an option, and it may even be something that is directly integrated into the motor controller. If it can be used, we may choose something that uses a coil to receive power wirelessly and requires a unique code. For their sake, we hope that this is not something that can be deactivated with just a large magnet.
thank you for your hint [Garth Bock]!