Roundy’s Deploys POS Video Auditing Solution

Roundy’s Supermarkets has deployed a shrink management solution to strengthen its asset protection program by focusing on centralized and objective auditing to identify and reduce losses at the point of sale.

The grocer is installing Camden, N.J.-based Agilence’s Hawkeye software -- which is sold through IBM’s Retail Store Solutions team – at 25 stores, and plans to expand the system to 25 more stores this year.

Roundy’s expects the system to minimize point-of-sale losses that stem not only from traditional shrink activities, but also operational and training errors. “Agilence’s technology gives us a tool to identify areas of POS losses that we suspected were taking place but couldn’t confirm or quantify,” said Mike Santimauro, VP of loss prevention at Roundy’s. “We now have better visibility at the point-of-sale and can see how operational and training issues impact profitability.”

According to Agilence, much of Roundy’s suspected losses were occurring in its self checkout (SCO) lanes. Agilence enabled the grocer to confirm these losses so that it could effectively address the issues impacting its profitability. For example, Agilence’s Hawkeye uncovered that a podium clerk unknowingly overlooked a customer committing fraud at the SCO, even though the clerk had briefly assisted the customer. Roundy’s not only discovered a new fraudulent activity, but also realized the need to re-train its employees to more closely observe customer behavior at the SCO.

“Our team of analysts monitor the point-of-sale, including self checkout lanes, to help retailers not just uncover fraud and traditional shrink-based activities, but also to pinpoint operational and systemic issues that can be more costly as they extend chain-wide,” said Derek Rodner, VP of product strategy at Agilence. “With Agilence’s query tool, grocers like Roundy’s can combine more than 40 variables to quickly identify profit-margin robbing activities that occur at the point-of-sale.”

Additionally, Roundy’s is leveraging Hawkeye’s AdCheck feature to prevent the substantial losses that can occur from poor promotion execution. The feature ensures that Roundy’s weekly circular offers are entered correctly into the POS system and that store employees are properly executing the promotions at the point-of-sale. Because AdCheck can pinpoint promotional issues early on, Roundy’s can immediately correct the issues before they cause significant shrink, according to the vendor.

Here’s how the system works: Hawkeye’s item-level synchronization software pulls data directly from the POS systems and marries the data with video in real-time. Each individual item scan and key punch within a transaction is linked to its associated video image. As a result, Roundy’s can instantly view both the data and cashier activity for each suspect line-item in a single screen, allowing analysts to view up to 50 times more transactions a day than any other tool on the market. These capabilities enable retailers to uncover hidden losses, including operational and systemic issues.

Milwaukee-based Roundy’s operates 155 stores throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois.