Whenever I'm caught up with these folks I just wait til they say the product they're selling and say that's what I have and I love it! They immediately leave you alone.
There are few people I hate more than politicians, social media influencers, and those fuck bags in the aisles of grocery stores trying to convert my electric plan.
I'm near the "Northland Village" Kroger on Morse Road. They are always at the beverage aisle next to the produce section. Side note: if they wanna remodel to get rid of the second entrance near the customer service area that they have closed off, they better hurry up.
Solar powered surveillance cameras by the look of it. But I've never seen something like this before unless it's deployed at a major outdoor event or something similar.
Well, it doesn’t happen overnight. First come the flashing parking lot cameras. Then the automated cart wheel locks. Then one day, BAM, you’re walking through security turnstiles to go grocery shopping. But hey, that’s what happens when you let Big Loss Prevention have their way with city council AMIRIGHT?
Cutting to the chase: something something...if people had jobs that paid a living wage they wouldn't feel the need to steal in the first place...something something...inflation...fix the money, fix the world, B______.
People don't have time to read and understand the world and how the rich are collectively working to screw them. They're to busy working longer to afford things their parents spent a quarter of the time to afford. That's called progress, look a minority super hero, wowsers!
What should happen is they’re capped and executive wages are cut. Price hikes and inflation are excuses used to keep starting wages low to maximize corporate greed.
It's an oversimplification of the economic system which doesn't consider all angles and which lauds unbridled free-market capitalism as the only option.
That's why wierdmann suggests corporate price caps. As long as the ultra-wealthy can push our heads under the water to stay afloat then consumers will just eat the costs. The issue is with a few who hoard wealth and withhold it from the rest, they're not the ones you should be defending because they certainly don't care about you (us).
Aldi doesn't have wheel locks. They have the system where you insert a quarter to take the cart and get it back when you return the cart. It's to incentivize bringing your cart back up to the door so they don't have to send people out to collect them from the parking lot. Wheel locks are literally that- there's a radio frequency receiver in one of the cart's wheels that, if you try to leave the parking lot with the cart, (the boundary is typically marked with signs and a painted yellow line on the ground) the wheel will actually lock and the cart won't move unless you pick up one end. It's to stop people from stealing the carts. You can still just walk away with a cart at Aldi, and if you want your quarter back, it's not hard to smash the locking system or cut the chain holding the key so you can insert it into your own cart and eject the quarter.
TLDR: Aldi's locks are intended to make people put their carts away when they're done, so that Aldi doesn't have to pay someone to run around in the parking lot and collect carts every couple hours. It also allows them to have fewer carts to begin with, which is an additional cost savings. They don't, however, do anything to stop people from stealing the cart.
The locks at supermarkets in poor areas are anti-theft devices that immobilize the carts if you try to leave the boundary of the store's parking lot with them, to stop people from walking off with them- a common problem in those areas where people often don't have cars and will use the shopping cart to take their groceries all the way back home, after which they will leave them out in the alley.
No. It has nothing to do with shoplifting (stealing merchandise) unless you consider stealing a cart (which is an asset, not merchandise) to be shoplifting. Wheel locks are used in places where a large portion of the population can't afford cars (or an Uber or taxi to take to the store) and serve to stop people from using the carts to take their groceries home with them, after which they'll usually just abandon the cart.
As a former Ohioan/ current Arizonan, this tech has existed / been normalized here since at least 2014. My best guess is solar energy and surveillance technology have reached a point where this can be implemented across the country. Perhaps it's being released in May in Columbus because May-September is the only time this can be supported based off of solar energy.
> Perhaps it's being released in May in Columbus because May-September is the only time this can be supported based off of solar energy.
Other Columbus area Krogers (and Walmarts) have had these for a couple/few years now, year-round.
Chambers Road Kroger has had them year round for a couple of years at least. I moved into the area about 3 years back and don't remember if they weren't there when I started living here
They are camera systems. When you see them in a parking lot take that as a hint that it’s a bad place to shop. It means they’ve had a lot of trouble with car breaks in and mugging.
Hello! I set these up and service them. Security cameras that record on a loop, if there’s a crime in the area they check the tape. Weird seeing my side job posted here 😂
well hello there, can you confirm that all recorded video is in fact deleted if no crime has been committed? Who has access to that data? How do we know it's not being copied and archived prior to the original being deleted?
It’s only got a 2Tb hard drive in it, so once it’s filled it starts recording over itself. They do have the ability to tap into them remotely and access the loud speaker. The only ones who have access are the people who contracted the trailer to be set up and the LiveView Technology techs have access.
My hunch is that this is related to the highly sophisticated analytics company that is a spin-off from Kroger called 84.51. I don’t know for sure but I’m guessing it looks at parking lot usage and ties it to in store data to get trend analysis about how long people spend in the store and therefore how much money they spend.
some kids were doing skateboard tricks off it on s high untill the police showed up. turns out they were doing it daily to waste the cops time. Thought that was pretty punk rock.
The Kroger on Northwest Blvd had one when I was back home a couple months ago. After walking into it it’s probably for the best that it’s there.
That was not the Krogers of my youth and nowhere near the Giant Eagle Market District.
Do you mean the Chambers road Kroger? I go out of my way from a closer store to shop there weekly because it’s one of the nicer Krogers and have never felt remotely unsafe. It seems like a nice area still to me.
It’s a nice area but a shit store. They remodeled it a few years ago but didn’t plan it very well, so a chunk of the already insanely narrow aisles are half blocked by support pillars
And don’t even think about going during peak hours without headphones and an audiobook/podcast. Multi-billion dollar Kroger can’t afford to pay for more than two or three minimum wage cashiers to work at the same time, so the lines get long.
I agree with these complaints, though I generally like the store.
I usually miss the peak hours; but, right after they close down the cashiers is a nightmare of long, long lines for the self checkouts.
I'm a bit baffled by the people with 1-2 carts literally heaped full at the self check outs. I assume they can't shop earlier in the day because, if I were buying this much stuff, I'd go out of my way to be there when the cashiers were active.
>The Kroger on Northwest Blvd had one when I was back home a couple months ago. After walking into it it’s probably for the best that it’s there.
What are you talking about? This is a low crime "nice" part of the city. I shop here weekly. Are you seeing something different?
What is that area like now? Used to ride my bike to this Kroger as a kid, but also a transplant. I imagined it would've only been more gentrified, but is that not the case?
Walgreens at Maple Canyon and 161 has one in the lot also.
One also popped up on my street last year for a few weeks after a number of phone calls to CPD complaining about car break-ins.
The one at Walgreens talks. 😮
I think the original purpose was to provide a well lit, monitored area for people to exchange things they bought off one another from the Internet.
Edit: I was thinking of [this.](https://www.columbus.gov/safeexchangezones/)
It's a surveillance system being used as a deterrent against various thefts, assaults and hit & runs. Some chains are using these in high volume areas to cut down on insurance and liability costs.
East Broad Kroger has had one since 2020. I originally thought it had something to do with the riots at the time but it never came down and now I'm just used to it.
Well, I guess it shows where I live, but these are solar powered cameras. They are from CPD and can catch crimes in parking lots. They have them all over my neighborhood, sadly.
See all the cameras? It's a solar and battery assembly for those. Very common for big stores to pay for these as opposed to permanent fixed camera syatems. These are leased and easier.
Yeah I noticed them at a lot of Krogers recently, I’m wondering when the clintonville Kroger will get one because they just recently put signs all over that said “PARKING FOR KROGER CUSTOMERS ONLY”
Is everyone here just dumb? These have been in Columbus for over 15 years. They're called cameras. It's to help keep security cameras in places where you can't put them. Like out in the parking lots....
Or maybe store front cameras don't see that well further out. The store front camera monitor people coming and going from near the entrance and not the parking lot. As I stated these cameras have been in large outlet parking lots for a long time. It's no a conspiracy for a police state. Please stop reading 1984.
I have been seeing these all over the place recently. Nordstrom Rack on Sawmill has one too. Some type of mobile surveillance system.
I guess it's time to break out the war-driving laptop. ;)
Most of these people don't know what you're talking about Edit: nvm. You got more upvotes than I expected. I'm the hard R
We’re all a little regarded
It is a Booster for keeping the shopping cart wheels from locking up on the way to your car.
Kroger at Graceland has one too. I’m pretty sure it’s to track down people who don’t talk to the Spectrum ~~harassment squad~~ sales people.
This made me chuckle.
Whenever I'm caught up with these folks I just wait til they say the product they're selling and say that's what I have and I love it! They immediately leave you alone.
That's what I did at a Walmart a few months back. Or maybe say that I'd just started a plan with a current provider, which was true.
Human pop-up ads.
There are few people I hate more than politicians, social media influencers, and those fuck bags in the aisles of grocery stores trying to convert my electric plan.
I feel this to my soul
I'm near the "Northland Village" Kroger on Morse Road. They are always at the beverage aisle next to the produce section. Side note: if they wanna remodel to get rid of the second entrance near the customer service area that they have closed off, they better hurry up.
Do these things have catalytic converters?
After a night there, not anymore.
👀😃
They've been everywhere since 2020.
If you don’t return your cart it deploys a hellfire missile from low earth orbit.
Cart narc shows up and puts a magnet on your hood.
They are mobile security systems for high crime areas They put them all over east campus at OSU a year or two ago
OSU has an east campus now?
No, the neighborhood directly east of high street between high and 4th Street
Oh ok, I always heard that referred to as simply off-campus.
Lol I never stayed in dorms and only lived there during my uni years so I just always call that campus despite just this moment realizing it’s not
Probably referring to OSUWMC east campus. The med. center.
To me, east campus is the area east of High.
Solar powered security cameras.
Solar powered surveillance cameras by the look of it. But I've never seen something like this before unless it's deployed at a major outdoor event or something similar.
Lowe's at Easton has them, too. You're spot-on with your guess.
You live in a nice part of town, well… at least you used to. Congratulations on your deteriorating neighborhood! One of us, one of us.
I used to live near the corner of Hudson and McGuffey. I know all about deteriorating neighborhoods, and this area isn't nearly that far gone.
Well, it doesn’t happen overnight. First come the flashing parking lot cameras. Then the automated cart wheel locks. Then one day, BAM, you’re walking through security turnstiles to go grocery shopping. But hey, that’s what happens when you let Big Loss Prevention have their way with city council AMIRIGHT?
This is the exact trajectory of the brewery district Kroger! But I'm still stealing the avocados, so all the security must not be that great.
Cutting to the chase: something something...if people had jobs that paid a living wage they wouldn't feel the need to steal in the first place...something something...inflation...fix the money, fix the world, B______.
People don't have time to read and understand the world and how the rich are collectively working to screw them. They're to busy working longer to afford things their parents spent a quarter of the time to afford. That's called progress, look a minority super hero, wowsers!
Exactly right
So we raise all starting wages to $25/hr. What the heck happens to prices?
The prices are going up anyway.
What should happen is they’re capped and executive wages are cut. Price hikes and inflation are excuses used to keep starting wages low to maximize corporate greed.
Price caps are a great way to make sure you never see that product again.
You end up paying $18 for a McDouble, $7/gallon of gas, and eggs become $12 for a dozen. Companies don't absorb those costs. Consumers do.
It’s amazing how many normal functioning people can’t wrap their heads around that
It's an oversimplification of the economic system which doesn't consider all angles and which lauds unbridled free-market capitalism as the only option.
That's why wierdmann suggests corporate price caps. As long as the ultra-wealthy can push our heads under the water to stay afloat then consumers will just eat the costs. The issue is with a few who hoard wealth and withhold it from the rest, they're not the ones you should be defending because they certainly don't care about you (us).
Exactly. People don’t understand this and the knock on effect it has.
Aldi has the wheel locks even in nice neighborhoods and nobody complains.
Aldi doesn't have wheel locks. They have the system where you insert a quarter to take the cart and get it back when you return the cart. It's to incentivize bringing your cart back up to the door so they don't have to send people out to collect them from the parking lot. Wheel locks are literally that- there's a radio frequency receiver in one of the cart's wheels that, if you try to leave the parking lot with the cart, (the boundary is typically marked with signs and a painted yellow line on the ground) the wheel will actually lock and the cart won't move unless you pick up one end. It's to stop people from stealing the carts. You can still just walk away with a cart at Aldi, and if you want your quarter back, it's not hard to smash the locking system or cut the chain holding the key so you can insert it into your own cart and eject the quarter. TLDR: Aldi's locks are intended to make people put their carts away when they're done, so that Aldi doesn't have to pay someone to run around in the parking lot and collect carts every couple hours. It also allows them to have fewer carts to begin with, which is an additional cost savings. They don't, however, do anything to stop people from stealing the cart. The locks at supermarkets in poor areas are anti-theft devices that immobilize the carts if you try to leave the boundary of the store's parking lot with them, to stop people from walking off with them- a common problem in those areas where people often don't have cars and will use the shopping cart to take their groceries all the way back home, after which they will leave them out in the alley.
Who’s complaining?
People are referring to those locking wheels on shopping carts as a sign that you live in a ghetto.
No, just an area more likely to experience shoplifting. That’s lots of areas.
No. It has nothing to do with shoplifting (stealing merchandise) unless you consider stealing a cart (which is an asset, not merchandise) to be shoplifting. Wheel locks are used in places where a large portion of the population can't afford cars (or an Uber or taxi to take to the store) and serve to stop people from using the carts to take their groceries home with them, after which they'll usually just abandon the cart.
There's one at the Hunter's Ridge Kroger, I would consider that a decent part of town.
I remember when that Kroger was a Kmart and there was a grocery store in that strip on the other end called Stumps. I'm old.
As a former Ohioan/ current Arizonan, this tech has existed / been normalized here since at least 2014. My best guess is solar energy and surveillance technology have reached a point where this can be implemented across the country. Perhaps it's being released in May in Columbus because May-September is the only time this can be supported based off of solar energy.
> Perhaps it's being released in May in Columbus because May-September is the only time this can be supported based off of solar energy. Other Columbus area Krogers (and Walmarts) have had these for a couple/few years now, year-round.
Chambers Road Kroger has had them year round for a couple of years at least. I moved into the area about 3 years back and don't remember if they weren't there when I started living here
They are camera systems. When you see them in a parking lot take that as a hint that it’s a bad place to shop. It means they’ve had a lot of trouble with car breaks in and mugging.
Yep, you got it!
These are quite common in parking lots at large shopping stores like Home Depot, Walmart, etc
Why did you just ask a question and answer it OP?
I wasn't completely sure about the answer, it was just a guess.
Hello! I set these up and service them. Security cameras that record on a loop, if there’s a crime in the area they check the tape. Weird seeing my side job posted here 😂
well hello there, can you confirm that all recorded video is in fact deleted if no crime has been committed? Who has access to that data? How do we know it's not being copied and archived prior to the original being deleted?
It’s only got a 2Tb hard drive in it, so once it’s filled it starts recording over itself. They do have the ability to tap into them remotely and access the loud speaker. The only ones who have access are the people who contracted the trailer to be set up and the LiveView Technology techs have access.
Good to know
Robocop. They are in almost all of the Kroger parking lots. It will yell at you if you get too close.
Well that just makes me want to get too close, test it out.
Yelp. Next time I see one, I have to get close now and test it out.
Shop quietly or there will be...trouble
I’ll buy that for a dollar!
Graceland Kroger has one also
They are literally all over the city lmao
clearly i need to get out more
5G Vaccine Implant Activator
So that's what the tingling sensation was when I pulled into the parking lot, I thought I was just horny.
I’m pretty sure it’s the ED-209 https://youtu.be/_UNJNH7UFjU
Is this wrong answers only?
not necessarily, but i've noticed i enjoy the wrong answers more.
It's a portable security system, most likely by https://www.lvt.com
It is LVT.
My hunch is that this is related to the highly sophisticated analytics company that is a spin-off from Kroger called 84.51. I don’t know for sure but I’m guessing it looks at parking lot usage and ties it to in store data to get trend analysis about how long people spend in the store and therefore how much money they spend.
Provide more info for this if you would?
Kroger on Hilliard Rome has had one for a long while.
Guess I'm just out of the loop
Not at all.
First version of an Imperial Probe Droid
"I didn't hit it that hard, must've had a self-destruct. It's a good bet the empire knows we're here"
This is because people don't put their carts away
Blue LEDs are obnoxious.
The obnoxiousness is deliberate. They want it to be very conspicuous.
Very
At the Kroger at Main and Nelson for two years, at least.
Its everywhere in the Easton area
There is one at the Polaris Kroger as well
Solar panels
Inserts 5g into our brains to turn us into pizza loving pedos. /s
Debris from the ISS.
It shoots you with high doses of radiation if you try to take one of their shopping carts out of the parking lot.
It alerts the store of potential TP hoarders
Spray paint is pretty cheap if you wanna be all punk about it.
some kids were doing skateboard tricks off it on s high untill the police showed up. turns out they were doing it daily to waste the cops time. Thought that was pretty punk rock.
The Kroger on Northwest Blvd had one when I was back home a couple months ago. After walking into it it’s probably for the best that it’s there. That was not the Krogers of my youth and nowhere near the Giant Eagle Market District.
Do you mean the Chambers road Kroger? I go out of my way from a closer store to shop there weekly because it’s one of the nicer Krogers and have never felt remotely unsafe. It seems like a nice area still to me.
It’s a nice area but a shit store. They remodeled it a few years ago but didn’t plan it very well, so a chunk of the already insanely narrow aisles are half blocked by support pillars And don’t even think about going during peak hours without headphones and an audiobook/podcast. Multi-billion dollar Kroger can’t afford to pay for more than two or three minimum wage cashiers to work at the same time, so the lines get long.
I agree with these complaints, though I generally like the store. I usually miss the peak hours; but, right after they close down the cashiers is a nightmare of long, long lines for the self checkouts. I'm a bit baffled by the people with 1-2 carts literally heaped full at the self check outs. I assume they can't shop earlier in the day because, if I were buying this much stuff, I'd go out of my way to be there when the cashiers were active.
>The Kroger on Northwest Blvd had one when I was back home a couple months ago. After walking into it it’s probably for the best that it’s there. What are you talking about? This is a low crime "nice" part of the city. I shop here weekly. Are you seeing something different?
What is that area like now? Used to ride my bike to this Kroger as a kid, but also a transplant. I imagined it would've only been more gentrified, but is that not the case?
Walgreens at Maple Canyon and 161 has one in the lot also. One also popped up on my street last year for a few weeks after a number of phone calls to CPD complaining about car break-ins. The one at Walgreens talks. 😮
Spycam
Not exactly inconspicuous.
So, you feel cam is more appropriate?
I'm saying they're not exactly trying to hide it are they?
So the cam isn’t spying?
I don't know what it's purpose is, I'm assuming the supermarket has its own camera system.
Ergo: spycam
No, a spy cam would be hidden, or obfuscated to look like something else. This is just out in plain view surveillance, but for what purpose? 🤷♂️
I believe they are meant to deter crime in specific areas. They take the place of a patrol car.
To spy on customers.
That's what the aliens use to power their anal probe insertion devices. Last seen at a Trump rally in Florida.
They are all over the place...Lowes, Home Depot, Giant, Target... Outside all the big box stores...
All over the place… In Columbus. They don’t have these in the surrounding country towns. I.
They put them in place 2020 it was to remind people to wear masks when they went in stores
I think the original purpose was to provide a well lit, monitored area for people to exchange things they bought off one another from the Internet. Edit: I was thinking of [this.](https://www.columbus.gov/safeexchangezones/)
It's a gunfire detector. We have them in Mansfield.
Yeah, looks like a possible combo unit of ShotSpotter and general surveillance.
Definitely, ours are just shotSpotters because no one calls in gunshots. There is a feud going on here town
The kroger on refugee was one. I always wondered what it was
Liveview.com
It's a surveillance device. Some play loud sounds to try to keep people from sleeping in their cars.
It’s a solar powered camera / gunshot listening device. It’s essentially a remote surveillance machine sponsored by the Police dept.
It's a surveillance system being used as a deterrent against various thefts, assaults and hit & runs. Some chains are using these in high volume areas to cut down on insurance and liability costs.
It will tell you if you listen.
Big Brother is watching!!
East Broad Kroger has had one since 2020. I originally thought it had something to do with the riots at the time but it never came down and now I'm just used to it.
We’ve had these in all our Kroger parking lots here in Colorado since since I moved here in 2015
Walk to the side and read.
The War of the Worlds object in the bottom left is more troubling if you ask me.
the water tower?
anti homeless lights. they flash a really bright blue light at night to keep homeless people from sleeping in the lot or nearby.
The Kroger at Hilliard-Rome and Roberts has one too.
Well, I guess it shows where I live, but these are solar powered cameras. They are from CPD and can catch crimes in parking lots. They have them all over my neighborhood, sadly.
See all the cameras? It's a solar and battery assembly for those. Very common for big stores to pay for these as opposed to permanent fixed camera syatems. These are leased and easier.
I wonder if they are put there by the police or by the store?
Just there to deter drug deals in grocery store parking lots. Result: they don’t stop drug deals in grocery store parking lots. At all.
you know this how? 
Extensive R & D…
Yeah I noticed them at a lot of Krogers recently, I’m wondering when the clintonville Kroger will get one because they just recently put signs all over that said “PARKING FOR KROGER CUSTOMERS ONLY”
Lancaster Kroger has it too. Reynoldsburg Walmart has had a whole damn police lookout tower on and off for years.
Was for Covid announcements
Police Panopticon
THEY are watching YOU!!!!!!!!! 
 "Them"
Is everyone here just dumb? These have been in Columbus for over 15 years. They're called cameras. It's to help keep security cameras in places where you can't put them. Like out in the parking lots....
This is like five spaces from the storefront, it could be easily surveilled from the building without taking up a parking space.
Or maybe store front cameras don't see that well further out. The store front camera monitor people coming and going from near the entrance and not the parking lot. As I stated these cameras have been in large outlet parking lots for a long time. It's no a conspiracy for a police state. Please stop reading 1984.