Smile! Walmart May be Adding Special Cameras to NJ Stores

🔴   Retail giant Walmart is testing body cams on some employees

🔴   Shrinkage accounts for millions in lost revenue each year

🔴   Retailer says new cams are not intended to catch theft

If you've been to a Walmart recently, you can probably agree that they seem to give you many reasons to stay away and shop online.

The parking lots are miserable to navigate, half the store is locked behind plexiglass, and after checking yourself out, you're subjected to a search.

To be fair, shrinkage (shoplifting) is costing retailers like Walmart billions in lost revenue each year.

People seem to have decided to simply stop paying for stuff.

To combat the theft, aside from the aforementioned plexiglass, Walmart has cameras, lots of cameras, throughout their stores, and in their parking lots.

Youtube has tons of cop videos.

Among the most interesting, are the videos where they respond to shoplifting calls at Walmart.

Watch one of those videos, and you soon realize that from the moment you get out of your car, until you exit the parking lot, you are being recorded by Walmart cameras.

Someone has decided that they need more cameras.

So now, Walmart is testing bodycams on their store security people at select locations.

The company said the body cams are not being used as a loss-prevention tool, but rather are supposed to "improve worker safety."

According to a statement by Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union,

There’s too much harassment that goes on throughout the year, but especially during the holiday season ... it’s even worse.  Everyone is stressed out. If they can’t find the item they’re looking for, they get upset and whom do they blame? They blame the shop worker.

They don't say exactly how these bodycams will de-escalate situations.

Walmart isn't alone in trying this tact.

I mentioned this to a friend of mine, and her response seemed pretty logical.

She said that rather than employ bodycams, '"they should teach better customer service skills."