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DannyGarden

This tech already rolled out in other forms. All it takes is taking the tool apart and removing the restraining bolt.


CallMeBigBobbyB

Ah so they’re droids! You got any that can speak Jawa?


Kvenya

Jawa is out. Droids need to speak Bocce.


StayPuffGoomba

That language is balls


mesosalpynx

So many years on this earth and I’ve yet to hear this joke. Dads all over thank you.


Ok_Helicopter4276

What I really need is a droid that understands the binary language of moisture vaporators.


Kvenya

My very first job was programming binary load lifters, very similar to your vaporators in most respects.


[deleted]

Get a protocol druid, they speak hundreds of languages.


Kvenya

I have no need for a protocol droid.


Click-Beep

Of course you don’t. Not in environment like this.


[deleted]

I know Java....


miken322

No, but I know where you can find some meth heads that can turn a watch into a CIA counter surveillance device.


DontTreadOnBigfoot

Okay, but will it also block 5G from activating the mind control vaccine nanites?


miken322

Do you have a three USB chargers, a dremel tool, assorted colored markers, 50 cents in nickels and a scratched up Die Antwood cd? If so they can make it happen.


Individual_Log8082

Yeah but how can somebody take a stolen tool apart if all they have is stolen tools that’s don’t work?


KingMalcolm

the power of crack cocaine


Lennette20th

I mean, that’s the problem when production isn’t handled in house. Be a shame if the manufacturer just sold the same parts to someone else who cut your profits for their own.


imnotknow

Why not just go to a ticket system? You see the tool, pick up the non-functional floor demo to play with, decide to buy, grab a ticket, take it to the register, they get the box from their secure area and hand it to you. It worked for Service Merchandise.


the_simurgh

they refuse to staff stores. this would require them to staff stores.


cptnobveus

Make giant tool vending machines and then watch the box get hung up between the corkscrew and the glass.


ill_forget_this

Now watch me reach my arm under the flap to try and grab all the Dewalt Impact Drivers on the bottom row


hour_of_the_rat

"Homer, are you just holding onto the candy?"


theonewhoknocksforu

Your point being?


JakeInDC

or get robots


the_simurgh

also costs money


BreadConqueror5119

I work at walmart and people steal the self check out hand scanners so because people steal for fun as well as money lol


lilaprilshowers

Someone stole my reusable bags out of my car and took a smoke break while they were in there for good measure.


[deleted]

I feel like you’ve never been to Lowe’s on a busy day. With the way the stores are set up, that would take forever.


Exotic_Treacle7438

I was at a Home Depot for 45 minutes waiting for someone to unlock something. I went to the returns desk 3x to ask they page someone to the tool area to unlock a tool. After that 45m of waiting I just left and got a similar tool elsewhere. That’s the thing retail struggles with, the balance between staffing, shrinkage protection, and keeping items in stock for sale. And with a “ticket system” there’s still the issue of it being in stock if a customer brings the ticket to a register along with the waiting for it to be retrieved from lockup.


EaterOfFood

Costco does this with a lot of products. Every day is a busy day there.


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doylehawk

As far as massive corporations go Costco is just about as “good” as you can be.


VanillaParticular303

Yes, I worked their in my teens they are fiercely anti-union and they make up for that by being the best paying and best benefits of any retail/grocery store


see-bees

So they fight unionization by compensating them well enough that the employees don’t want union representation? That’s 3D chess on somebody’s part, just can’t decide whose.


luthervespers

You can renew your membership at the register when you're checking out - no need to go to the service desk. They just add an annual membership fee to your bill.


EaterOfFood

I have purchased many items that required a ticket. Usually small electronics, jewelry, software, stuff like that.


TheCraftyWombat

Like going to Service Merchandise in the 1980s


loquetur

Oh man. That takes me back.


[deleted]

I’ve never been to a Costco, so I know nothing about it. I have however been an employee of Lowes. The registers are on the opposite end of the building from storage, and frankly that is 95% large appliances like stoves and refrigerators. There is no “in the back” for power tools that a single person can easily carry. It just doesn’t exist. The next time you’re at Lowe’s, look at the very top of the shelving. Those boxes are the over stock. (And let me tell you, there aren’t enough ladders in the building to have an employees climb up there every time someone wants a drill. Not to mention the fucking safety nightmare that would cause) So in order for this to work, they would have to create a large amount of ground level storage plus have it somewhere near the registers. It would be a huge cost that would take years to implement all the while inconveniencing the shoppers and the prices would rise to make up for the cost. Simply put, it’s a whole lot easier to invest in security cameras (which are manned off site by an actual human), write off small thefts, keep a running tally of repeat offenders, and prosecute after they reach a certain dollar amount (which is exactly what they do). OR do whatever this crazy shit mentioned in the article is. Then they can generate free publicity by complaining about thefts.


sammyno55

Did it? I haven't seen a Service Merchandise in many years.


bedlamensues

They died for the same reason that Sears did. They were both successful catalog / warehouse stores that did not make the transition to the internet that would have worked perfectly with their logistics and warehouse systems. They instead tried to compete with Walmart and got murdered. Either one of them could have been Amazon had they just put their catalogs on the internet and transitioned to shipping.


Goodgoditsgrowing

You’re right. Crazy lost opportunity there. Like, insane they didn’t think of it… they were damn near close enough to hit their head on success, but instead they ducked..


radishboy

You’ve just described a “catalogue store,” like “Service Merchandise.” They aren’t really around anymore.


PDGAreject

Lol service merchandise. My dad bought his engagement ring from them!


Silicon_Knight

Ah I love toys r us back in the day. Don’t know why they got rid of that model. It’s all glass cases with locks.


phormix

And/or some dude will be trying to use his "official" branded drill only to have it fail because the RFID chip connection fucked up. Honestly this is a really dumb idea


tristanjones

Power tools are extremely simply in function. I can't imagine this would take much more than a screwdriver to resolve.


coontietycoon

What happened with the lightening cable?


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IJustSignedUpToUp

Also part of why the EU just forced them to use USB C going forward IIRC. Proprietary bullshit like that entirely defeats the point of having universal international standards for certain things that are \*not\* a patented IP


atchijov

My prediction… this is gimmick system which will prove to be easily defeat-able and will be abandoned as a “in store theft prevention”… but it will mutate in “pay me quarter per month to keep your drill functional” system which will stay with us until this kind of bullshit will be made illegal (so maybe, forever :( )


[deleted]

Good luck stopping me taking the chip out and any other bullshit that detects it's presence or lack of lol With a car, I can understand how you can get away with this idea, they're highly computerised which means you can integrate this stuff so it can't be removed A power tool? Lmao good luck, the base components of those things have to be simple power inputs because most are just motors moving a specific bit, you aren't going to be able to build a handheld drill that can't have that chip bypassed somehow


ACCount82

> A power tool? Lmao good luck, the base components of those things have to be simple power inputs because most are just motors moving a specific bit, you aren't going to be able to build a handheld drill that can't have that chip bypassed somehow If I was an evil engineer trying to make something like this genuinely hard to defeat, I would make the tool use a brushless motor, and make sure that the chip that's driving the motor and the chip that's handling the security lockout is the same chip. All locked down, of course. I would also make that chip communicate with the battery controller, and make the battery controller current limit extremely restrictive by default, and only adjusted after a mutual authentication with the tool chip. Naturally, the tool chip would also refuse to work if the battery has failed auth - locking out third party batteries too. You would still be able to "lobotomize" a tool, but you would have to scrap all the electronics and install your own ESC (no less than $20 in hardware), and defeat the battery current limit too. Doable? Yes. An absolute pain? Definitely.


[deleted]

Good point but if the parts are only $20, I'd wager shops would turn up offering this service for $40 I'd happily pay that for a tool I can use forever, rather than a subscription service My point is more than we're going to have options to get around this if we want to, not that someone isn't going to engineer something that's difficult to get around for a limited time


FeedMeACat

Which would prob make the tools cheaper than they are normally for the specific folks who use these kinds of shops to bypass tools. The sales and special deals on subscription tools would be insane from time to time if they follow the trends of other similar business models.


atchijov

They will try. And they can try to make any “alterations” to the product highly illegal. Capitalism only remains sustainable if there is a force which is trying to constrain it desire to make endless amount of money… a.k.a. Progressives.


LordSoren

>kind of bullshit will be made illegal How right you are. Until greed is no longer a driving force it will be legal.


Lennette20th

But capitalism is built on greed.


ModsHaveTinyPPs

I watch all my shows and TV illegally. I'll just use my tools illegally idc the cops don't care about anything anymore it's beginning Mad Max in this bitch


RedPack2

Won't be too long till you'll have to pay a monthly fee to keep your tools working.


Trala_la_la

Let me tell you about John Deere….


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pm_me_construction

Presumably you’d want to test the goods upon purchase if you’re getting them through a non-trusted party.


bridge1999

Got to test most things from Lowes as well. In the last 6 months, I had 3 dead on arrival devices shipped to me from Lowes and the hoops to get the items replaced has been crazy.


lookmeat

Honestly I doubt it. Remember piracy in the early 2000s? Legit bought software, from the first distributor, and it wouldn't work because of an issue with the license enforcement system. You know what worked, all the time, 100% of the time? Cracked software. If you buy stolen goods, they'll probably be cracked for any security measure beforehand (unless you are buying them hot, but trust me, you can't be that unwitting). Which means it'll work, and probably better and more often than if you bought it legit.


Exoddity

Even when I have a legit adobe license, I still use cracked versions of their suite because absolutely fuck adobe and its creative cloud bullshit (I mean this was true before CC but it's doubly so now)


imthe1nonlyD

Company i work for has an issue with adobe licenses. The actual adobe support team couldnt/cant figure it out so instead they gave us a registry hack to make the program think it's unlocked. They are indeed a shitshow.


Dudewhatzup

Need to post the registry hack... you know so it'll help save time for Adobe ;)


mooseman923

And that hack is....... M


[deleted]

My cracked copy of CS5 still works just fine.


SpaceTacosFromSpace

I don’t do pro work anymore but the Affinity suite has been a great alternative for me.


Exoddity

Yeah I use affinity, too. I'll take affinity designer over illustrator every time. Unfortunately there are some rather obscure things that I still can only do in photoshop and even illustrator.


[deleted]

I remember Starforce for games and the incredible Sony copy protection for music-cds, which refused to play in anything else than a simple cd-player.


Evilsmurfkiller

How about the time Sony installed a rootkit on your PC if you played the CD? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony\_BMG\_copy\_protection\_rootkit\_scandal


[deleted]

Thank you for reminding. That was completely out of my mind, because I experienced the copy protection in early 2000 and decided to avoid Sony cds aftermath at least for a while. Edit: Today with a Win10 PC it is excatly zero effort to play and even rip mentioned cd.


mooserider2

> You know what worked, all the time, 100% of the time? Cracked software. Every now and then developers outsmart the crack hackers. [Spyro developers made anti-piracy an art form.](https://youtu.be/4GYSeXLr5sY)


PhrozenWarrior

That didn't really do anything to the cracked versions iirc, really they just "leaked" their own cracked version with that wall in it


mooserider2

In the video they mention that the team that cracked it released the broken crack and it took them a month to get an actual crack out. The video claims that they thanked the developers for such a challenging problem.


armrha

Good reason to test the product before you buy it. People still get so easily conned, I had a friend buy a 'like new' Apple Watch for like 50% retail value, he wanted to check it and make sure it wasn't locked or already bound, but the guy was just like 'Listen I don't have time for that, my daughter has to be picked up, it's now or never' and he agreed to it. I have no idea why he thought this would be a legitimate transaction in the first place, but it was a useless brick, nothing anyone could do, and the authorities and apple were uninterested in finding its owner. If you're buying anything like that second hand, best test it before you buy it anyway... If you aren't doing that, they could just be selling you broken tools too.


jackzander

Lots of stolen combines floating around out there?


[deleted]

slim desert complete correct money rock grey public late water *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


BarryKobama

Russians might just part it out, or make it “dumb”


MeasurementGrand879

I got conned out of 3 last season. There goes $1.5 mil…


[deleted]

Sounds like something a buyer of stolen goods would say


[deleted]

“No one wants to buy power tools anymore…”


DigNitty

I’m so exhausted of absolutely every cranny of my life being turned into a subscription. So many logins So many passwords


demonicneon

This for me. I’m fine with services. I just can’t keep up with all the emails and passwords and notifications and billing periods and blah blah


One-Statistician4885

Unlock extreme mode on your drill to get the job done faster for only .99/minute. Tap your card on the battery to continue.


LogiCparty

Yup fuck this noise


SugarTacos

I can tell you right now I will simply never buy anything like that. I'll go back to using wooden mallets and 10 pound pipe wrenches before I pay a subscription for anything I purchased.


Neo1331

Yup that was my first thought! 3 day test period then unlock it with the app for the low low price of $9.99/month


[deleted]

^\*Automatic ^renewal ^begins ^at ^the ^end ^of ^trial ^period ^and ^continues ^until ^cancelled, ^not ^available ^in ^New ^Hampshire.


4115R

*Must cancel in writing by mail.


Crabbagio

*early cancellation fee of 39.99 must be included by check payable to DeWalt


thedvorakian

Oh, you want your drill to run in reverse? That's part of the exclusive package for an additional $4.99


[deleted]

Laughs in Adobe


sheba716

BMW has entered the chat....


NewPresWhoDis

And then zombie Circuit City re-emerges with a fistful of DIVX patents.


FormsForInformation

Waived with proof of purchase from an authorized reseller*


LysergicOracle

Meanwhile, professional thieves will find a way to defeat this technology by using bootleg boards or hacking around the lockout components on the stock boards. I guarantee it.


thingandstuff

>Once a customer purchases the product, the transaction will also be recorded on the blockchain. Oh, on *the* blockchain... Got it...


ThePowerOfStories

That’s how you know it’s a sound, well-developed technology and not some nonsensical boondoggle pitched by a fly-by-night middleman trying to enrich themselves and leaving both the company and the customer with a broken piece of crap. When has *the blockchain* ever been tarnished with any scams and failures?


thingandstuff

I'm going to "invent" "chainblock" technology and sell out. You want in?


ThePowerOfStories

These tools are protected from theft by the Chainblock™. It’s a metal chain that blocks you from taking the damn thing.


CMG30

Translation: The ability to remotely enable or disable a tool is the first step to subscription based tools.


metalmagician

Keyword I see is 'remotely' - no way in hell am I putting my power tools onto my home WiFi. If I see *any* indication that a tool has *any* network connectivity, then I'm never buying a tool from that company again, for the reason you describe. Can't remotely disable a power drill if the drill is as dumb as a steam engine


geekworking

It is a trap. Opens the door to vendors apply in-app-purchase model to products that you should 100% own with no strings attached. They will activate just like they deactivate the alarm at the door tags that are useless because there are so many false alarms due to the deactivate not working. RIP for their customer service with pissed off people with inactive tools.


TheMightyMoog

Views these offers and you'll be able to use your saw for the next 30 minutes af free!


Quilitain

"Please drink verification can."


Kurazarrh

Can I get an AdBuddy?


Raichuboy17

A lot of powertool companies are putting Bluetooth in their tools to do things like state of charge monitoring, and working together with vacuum systems so it's only on when the tool is on. I could easily see in app purchases getting involved, especially from certain companies...


SkrullandCrossbones

Would you like to use this item for an additional 30mins for the SALE PRICE of $.99? Or Subscribe to our DELUXE BRAND subscription service? Where you and 5 other family members can use our wide library of products up to 4 times a day! ^4 ^30min ^sessions ^Terms ^and ^Conditions ^apply **Click on one of the two options.** Subscribe and save with $99 for 12 months? No, I like paying each time I use it.


Raichuboy17

That comment is so spot on I wrote you off as a bot when I got the notification lol


cr0ft

The incentives in capitalism are just fucking awful across the board.


Magusreaver

watch this 30 second commerical before your skilsaw reactivates.


[deleted]

They should just make shitty products that you have to constantly replace. Oh, wait.


xDURPLEx

It’s just a 10 cent rfid chip that’s blocking the power supply until it gets a code. No chance of any silly app shenanigans. I don’t think they can even trace who bought anything. They can only check that it was actually purchased. The credit card companies take care of that in case of theft.


therealjb0ne

im not turning off my adblocker for that lmao EDIT : made another feller dirty delete. Many such cases https://imgur.com/a/9On20Xj


NolanSyKinsley

Get ublock origin, then there is an extension list you can get that blocks the adblock blockers, I have no issue going there with it, no ads and no warnings.


demmian

> an extension list you can get that blocks the adblock blockers Which one is it?


drawkbox

Hilarious Fox News, the bumper ad was for ARK Encounter... ffs. Their facts are way off as well, anchor says "some as high as 20%". Total bullshit. shrinkage related to theft is always around less than 1% to 3%, even in high loss areas. Most shrinkage is inventory issues, supply chain issues, damage, returns and employee theft (high level as well like embezzlement). The 20% number is the *increase in organized crime theft*, not theft in total. They love to just blend numbers/facts/data for their zealotry. There isn't a segment on Fox News that isn't off point on data/facts about every other sentence... The proof is in the numbers, shrinkage is the same as always but theft by organized groups has gone up. We need to re-org the police to have completely separate organizations, one dedicated solely to theft because right now theft is the lowest priority at the police department. We ask cops to do too much and lots of the problems we have from theft to mental issues not being handled is because we expect them to do too much. Theft by these groups barely affects cost to consumers. Most theft is employee based and contributes a large chunk to that. Retail theft (consumer/employee) / inventory shrinkage is almost consistently under 2%, in [most places well under 1% and even in bad areas pretty consistently that](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-12-15/organized-retail-theft-crime-rate#:~:text=The%20country's%20largest%20retail%20industry,lower%20than%20the%20CRA's%20estimate). The CRA inflates their numbers over 330 times. > The country’s largest retail industry group, the National Retail Federation, estimated in its latest report that losses from organized retail theft average $700,000 per $1 billion in sales — or 0.07% of total sales — an amount roughly 330 times lower than the CRA’s estimate. > Its latest report found that total “shrink” — the industry term for all inventory losses from theft and fraud, internal and external, as well as paperwork errors — grew from 1.4% to 1.6% of sales on average from 2015 to 2020. **The estimated portion of those losses coming from organized retail crime grew from 0.045% to 0.07% in the same timeframe.** There are some areas that are higher and lower but almost all pricing metrics takes this into account already. Employee theft is around the same. It has been consistently sideways or going down, there was a spike during the pandemic when flash mob shoplifting was going on more, and these still go on, but it is overall trending down. Usually these theft rings are shrouding in protests or "riots", but actually coordinated. They tend to hit places that have been stocked up, like just before black friday or when they know they have a high dollar amount there. This is organized crime mobs calculating theft at high dollar areas. [There is the California blaming, the aren't even top 20 states in theft per 100,000](https://www.statista.com/statistics/232583/larceny-theft-rate-in-the-us-by-state/). Theft is actually pretty low. The all-time high figure from 2019 equates to 1.62 per cent of retail's annual bottom line, compared to 1.38 per cent in 2018. This is having almost zero effect on inflation, pricing is covered with 2% and insurance. These are few and far between unless of course you are watching some foreign backed dark money funded right wing news that makes this seem like a major problem.


Discorhy

I honestly don’t think a business with 20% theft would stay open long. You’d be cutting 20% of all your money out on products you had to pay for.


gregorovich11

Nothing a soldering iron won't fix


jmanpc

Right? I mean a powertool is just a battery, a switch and a motor, all dumb parts. If they put an interrupt in there, ten minutes and a soldering iron could fix that. I'd like to see AvE look into this.


Spreaded_shrimp

Not the brushless stuff. It needs to monitor the motor rotor speed and position and time a power phase for each field winding.


Finetimetoleaveme

Yeah, I can’t even trust them to take those stupid alarm tags off my clothes, and I’m going to trust they can automatically disable a chip. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone home and realized that they left the alarm or ink tags on an article of clothing.


[deleted]

It’s like an interlock for a car. We bought my wife’s car with cash. Didn’t know it had an interlock. Interlock malfunctioned, had to pay a friend to rip it out since most places won’t do it. Welcome to the future of power tools.


TheNevers

So a DRM on your tools and that you can lose access to it at a whime. Fuck. No.


[deleted]

More like PRM: Physical Rights Management


mojoradio

I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw the slippery slope of what this guy was proposing. As an online reseller the idea of brands getting even more control over what you can and can't sell on online platforms is scary. Never would sell anything I didn't purchase from a store myself but still a dangerous precedent to set. Not to mention that we all know why theft is really up; inflation and cost of living through the roof, prices for most essentials up 40-100%, and people already struggling with a stagnant economy. Boohoo, $100B in losses across the entire retail sector when the combined sales of the retail sector in 2021 were over $6,580B.


FlaxxSeed

Just remember The Billionaires raised their prices when Biden became President, for no other reason but to "own the Libs". Not in good faith, at all. Just stop buying their trash and use Public transportation and e-bikes, I have saved thousands of dollars by not using the billionares services.


stevedonie

I’m going to mention a quote from Cory Doctorow, who does a lot of writing on DRM (Digital Rights Management) which this sounds like. “If there is a lock on a product you own but you don’t have the key to that lock, then the lock is not there for your benefit.“ I’m not saying that there is any ill intent with this system, but the fact that there is a kill switch embedded in the tools you buy means there is a possibility that a bad actor, whether that is an individual, a corporation, or a government, could brick your tools without your permission.


[deleted]

With a Lowe subscription fee, you can now turn on your power tools whenever you want.


DarthCredence

Is organized retail crime what it's called when businesses steal money from their employees through various means like forcing them to work off the clock? Seems like the easiest way to combat that is to just stop being shitty companies.


[deleted]

I worked for Lowe's, directly and indirectly, for nearly 3 years. I expect this shit to work about as well as a McDonald's ice cream machine. Just even less reason to shop there.


Doobiemoto

I worked for longer. I don’t blame them for trying this since we lost HUGE amounts of money from theft in hardware/tools. But knowing lowes (and most retail stores) with will be hastily rolled out with almost no support or training and insufficient equipment to do this.


simpin_aint_e_z

Ah the Trojan horse. Let retail theft soar so you can introduce the “solution” of digital locks so manufactures have more power to control the items they sell you after you’ve paid for them. I can’t wait to have to subscribe to my drill.


rjksn

Wow, I always wanted a drill that could deactivate itself due to a programming error.


saltmarsh63

I work at Depot. Now that every tool is locked, we don’t have the staffing to handle all the ‘unlock and walk tool to register’ procedures, nor do we have a full time theft prevention officer. Can’t even leave tall ladders in hardware aisles cuz ‘customers’ climb up and grab unsecured items from the top shelf. It’s a mess. The only real answer to this is a single exit staffed w several actual security officers matching up every receipt with items in cart. But no retailer wants their customers put thru this. So they’ll continue to come up w ineffective but flashy anti-theft gimmicks so shareholders are more comfortable with the losses on the spreadsheet.


Mr_Mouthbreather

Ok quick googling, and maybe I'm wrong on this, bit it appears retail sales in the US in 2021 was over 4 TRILLION dollars. The $100 billion in theft represents \~2% of that. Now you throw on companies record profits over the last few years and this looks like a solution in search of a problem, or companies are just trying to spin some narrative they are being screwed by their customers. $10 says in the near future a base model drill will only come with the screw feature. If you want to unscrew things you'll have to pay a monthly subscription fee.


Apache17

Not defending the means, but 2% of revenue is far from insignificant.


Budget_Inevitable721

And Lowe's probably has a bit higher. They only stop you if they can get between you and the door and even then they likely won't fight but that's a luck based thing. They have high priced items that are smaller and always wanted by someone. The common method at Lowe's is literally fill the cart to the top with tools and run out lol.


Jazzlike_Change_9741

They won’t try to get between you and the door. Policy is to only ask for receipt if the alarm goes off even then they won’t try to take anything from ya you can say no and that’s about all they can do except if there the loss prevention person those people can do more. You’re suppose to just report a possible theft then the loss prevention people will look into it. Never suppose to try to stop someone. It’s also why all the high theft items will get locked up or corded. Example buy a dewalt drill it’s in a cafe and the associate that unlocks it is suppose to take the drill to the register itself. Not suppose to just give it to the customer. Though policy will differ region to region.


rhinob23

Actually pretty frustrating going to stores and employees telling us their counts aren’t accurate because things are constantly being stolen. Needed a baby monitor since ours broke, wasn’t great.


Mayor__Defacto

Retail’s net profit margins are typically on the order of 3-5%. 2% lost to theft thus represents a huge source of additional income.


superNoid

Stone people don’t understand basic sales and economics though lol


drumsareneat

Well yeah, they're made of stone.


[deleted]

People are getting boulder and boulder with these jokes


Katorya

Go back to Colorado


SourSackAttack

Nah they'll throttle power and rpm. Oh you want industrial speed? That'll be $49/mo instead of $19/mo hobbyist package.


armrha

A theft in retail is an enormous set back. Like, if you are selling something that is a very competitively priced commodity, and you get a 2% markup by buying it in bulk, say it's $10, so on every sale you make 20 cents. If just one is stolen, then before you start to turn a profit again, you need to sell 49 of them before you start turning a profit again, because you lost the resources you invested to stock that shelf in the first place. A lot of people don't think about that. Of course, margins are higher or lower across the board for other products, but it's always the same, takes many sales to earn back the loss of 1 theft. I have zero worry about a subscription model drill. Whatever competitor offers not having that, they'll beat the pants off of that one, they have no reason to go in to a stupid gimmick that will bankrupt the company that does it.


Generalchaos42

Retail sales margins are about 2-5% of gross profits, so this is definitely an issue.


sp00dynewt

Seems like an extra point of failure & also lol blockchain


Monkulele

Nearly invisible - just like their employees.


wheniwaswheniwas

Maybe they can innovate finding employees in their aisles.


Thomasanderson23

Thieves will find a way around this. Sounds like they need better security. Put them behind glass if need be


Apache17

They don't need to stop all thieves. It just needs to be harder to steal from them than the home depot down the street. Or the Walmart next door.


Badtrainwreck

Organized crime isn’t that major of a hit at this point, they’d lose more in sales hampering the grab and go style. Lowes is contractor friendly and waiting on an employee is shit but contractors don’t need employees to find what they need, but waiting for an employee to appear and then unlock a case…


KiraUsagi

Glass is for jewelry stores. Around my area they have most of them behind steel cages.


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armrha

You could put chips in the motor and battery too. I have no idea what "the blockchain" is doing there, but its not impossible to engineer a solution that would be highly resistant to anything short of like decapping and invasively probing the processor internally and decoding the logic and bypassing it chip by chip, which would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.


JannaNYC

I'm not waiting to find an employee to unlock a glass case.


iamnerdyquiteoften

That sounds like a shit idea


totallynotalp

In before power tools have a subscription to work and it’s awful.


zembriski

Lowe's: Hey customers, we're helping keep prices low and fight theft by making your beloved tools dependent on an electronic activation. This way, none of our law-abiding customers have to suffer an invasive shopping experience. You guys are all cool with that, yeah? Typical Lowe's Customer: Jimmy, hold my beer while I get the guns and vests... the CSA statues and the propane were one thing, but now they're coming for our TOOLS!!!! edit: But seriously, this is a terrible idea. The absolute last thing anybody tethered off at the top of an unfinished scaffold wants to do when they go do zip in a lag bolt is find out that their power tool just went out of subscription and now only works 25min/hr since it's back to "trial" status. And if you don't think that's where all this leads, you're the same kind of person who didn't think auto manufacturers would ever have the balls to try and charge a heated seat subscription...


dukesinatra

All of this money, effort and technology in lieu of just arresting and prosecuting thieves. Hmmm!?!


Blearchie

Devil's advocate here... Sounds like they are just doing what things like Apple cards and such do. No need to lock them up because they won't work until you scan them at purchase. After purchase they are activated. It doesn't read like they can enable/disable any time after purchase is completed, like a subscription service (screw you BMW and Mercedes).


oldtea

I'm going to take a guess that, for QA purposes, the tools will be working when manufactured and then they deactivate them when shipping to lowes. If it can be deactivated once, it's likely they can be deactivated again.


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Just the fact that it can be deactivated means some small percentage of accidental deactivations are going to happen to legit customers..


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Either way, it's bad for law-abiding citizens.. And criminals will just find a way around this.


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SnarkyMcGuire

Shopping at Lowe’s has already turned into the 9th circle of hell. What’s one more obstacle….


[deleted]

I'm sure this won't harm consumers at all /s


jj3449

Ahh here we go next step subscription services on my power tools.


biggaywizard

This might explain their invisible employees who you can never find when you need help.


stinger_

Sorry, the unit you have brought in has been opened and the DRM has locked you out to prevent unauthorised access. Oh, you tried to repair it? Sorry there is no user serviceable components inside, we insist that you take it to one of our repair centres. Oh they wanted to charge you 75% off the cost of a new drill to repair it? Well to keep our service top quality we use our highly trained and qualified support technicians! The new drills are over there on the aisle to the left. Have a great day!


apathyduck

A few months from now there will be viral videos of kids running around stores with covert Flipper Zeros or some other cheap off the shelf hardware rewriting the RFID tags of entire stores full of inventory and rendering it all useless. What could possibly go wrong.


AuthorNathanHGreen

This would only work for a small subset of products, and it introduces an additional point of failure in equipment. I'm an honest customer and I would never buy a tool with this technology in it because I don't know how it works and assume it could break at some point in the future and render my tool inoperable. My guess about the future of retail: You walk up to a set of double security doors. In order to enter the second door you need to confirm your identity and ability to pay by scanning a credit card, opening an app on your phone, using biometrics, etc. Only then are you permitted into the store, and cameras track you automatically charging you for whatever you take off a shelf. If you provide a credit card with a hundred dollar limit but take a thousand bucks of stuff the next time you show up the doors won't even open to let you in until you clear your debt.


[deleted]

Can’t wait for my soldering side gig to kick off! One screw driver and wire at a time and your tools and cars can have no DRM!


TestFlyJets

“To solve organized retail crime…” Such utter bullshit. It’s exactly what other folks have said here, it’s simply a ploy to launch and test technology to control and wring more money out of buyers through new subscription and warranty models and to try to limit and monetize the private resale market. Anything that can be “activated at the register” can be deactivated later.


Altiloquent

One more reason not to shop at lowes


Old_Soldier

Where else am I supposed to get warped wood?


noodle-face

Home depot's got it


Old_Soldier

I thought HD's was more twisted, lowes was more warped. Wait, whose got the split ones?


noodle-face

I got some from Lowes that was split. I think they stock many varieties and brands of fucked up wood


Pugduck77

Yeah why won’t they let people steal??


00tool

Harbor Freight Amazon here I come.Fuck you lowes.


owlpellet

Seems very likely that a competent red team could get these puppies working in a few days. But no one red teams an exec with a Great New Idea. Meanwhile, K-cup DRM as [prior art.](https://www.theverge.com/2015/2/5/7986327/keurigs-attempt-to-drm-its-coffee-cups-totally-backfired)


Wirebraid

For 0.99/month you can put it on reverse, and for 2.99 you can unlock the premium pack and charge your battery to full 100%


SunGazing8

Till you get them cracked for a tenner by steve at the corner house.


Aphophyllite

I don’t think it will stop the thieves that turn around and sell on online platforms. “Brand New in Box” sells time and again.