I Went Inside America’s Top Lab to Prevent Shoplifting. It Was More Revealing Than I Could Have Imagined.

They call it “Justin’s General Store,” and in theory, there is no place on Earth harder to steal from. Every item sits beneath a chandelier of cameras. The clothes are tagged with sensors that screech or squirt ink, the baby formula sits on shelves that actively monitor weight fluctuations, the razor blades hang on kinked display hooks, and the Tide Pods are incarcerated behind various plexiglass cases, under lock and key. It is the future of retail, and it’s all in one place at the University of Florida. “Nobody in the world has this complete of capability,” Dr. Read Hayes told me. Dr. Hayes is the executive director of the Loss Prevention Research Council and the steward of America’s leading lab to prevent shoplifting, located in muggy Gainesville, Florida. It’s not just Justin’s, the si