By AG News Staff<\/p>\n\n\n\n Faced with a shoplifting epidemic that has battered California retailers for years, Grocery Outlet is fighting back with technology. Customers are not thrilled about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Emeryville-based discount grocery chain has begun installing facial recognition software called SAFR at a handful of Bay Area stores, including its Pleasant Hill \u201cBargain Market\u201d location, CBS News San Francisco reported<\/a>. Customers walking through the doors will find signs warning them the system is in use, a disclosure the company says is meant to keep shoppers informed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rollout comes as California tries to combat a shoplifting problem that has spiraled out of control. FBI data cited by CBS shows theft in the state has jumped 50 percent since the COVID-19 pandemic, a surge that has forced retailers from big-box chains to neighborhood grocers to spend millions on security measures, or in some cases, shutter stores altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For June Guerrero, who spent years managing a retail store, the new technology is a welcome and overdue response to a problem she saw firsthand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI worked for years as a manager of a store and the theft was just unbelievable,\u201d Guerrero told CBS News. \u201cI agree with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not every customer sees it that way. Barbara Jackson told the outlet she\u2019s uneasy about having her face scanned every time she shops for groceries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI do understand, but invading my privacy with my picture, I don\u2019t agree on that,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cYou gotta find a better way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shopper Steve Burdette raised a different concern: the risk of the system misidentifying innocent customers as thieves. \u201cIt could lead to a lot of problems, I think for companies and businesses and people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SAFR president Charisse Jacques pushed back on the notion that the technology amounts to mass surveillance. She said the company does not maintain a database of every customer who walks through the door, retains information on suspected shoplifters only for a limited window, and does not share data with outside agencies \u2014 including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the New York Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" All the Demonrat lawlessness makes the surveillance state technology more palatable, but will people avoid it like we do Krogers? https:\/\/amgreatness.com\/2026\/07\/17\/california-grocery-stores-use-facial-recognition-technology-to-combat-theft\/ By AG News Staff Faced with a shoplifting epidemic that has battered California retailers for years, Grocery Outlet is fighting back with technology. Customers are not thrilled about it. The Emeryville-based discount grocery chain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18042,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18040\/revisions\/18042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-28-1024x682.png\")
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