Electronic tagging in action: a case study in retailing

Abstract

In the last two decades electronic tagging (also known as electronic article surveillance or EAS) has been used in an increasingly diverse range of UK shopping environments. It is also used for other purposes including library security (Burrows and Cooper, 1992) and, more controversially, in the control of prisoners (Berry and Matthews, 1989). The use of this technology in security or crime prevention has expanded without a corresponding growth of research into its effectiveness. This paper aims to help to fill that gap by evaluating the use of tagging systems in a retail setting by a chain of microcomputer dealers.