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TJX, the parent company of TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Serria, HomeSense, and HomeGoods, said will begin equipping some employees with body-worn cameras similar to those worn by police, the Boston Globe reported. The company started testing the initiative last year.
The company operates nearly 3,400 stores nationwide.
A call to the Framingham, Massachusetts, headquarters of TJX for comment was not immediately returned.
The company disclosed the move in an earnings call in May. Officials said they hoped the cameras would provide angles and evidence not seen by overhead security cameras but also act as a deterrent.
"It's almost like a de-escalation where people are less likely to do something when they're being videotaped," said Chief Financial Officer John Klinger on an earnings call, per CBS News.
A TJX spokesperson added that only specially trained employees would be equipped with cameras, and the company would not turn over the recordings without a subpoena.
The National Retail Federation said TJX isn't the only company turning to body-worn cameras as a deterrent to shoplifting. More than 35 percent of companies surveyed by the group said they were considering it, and 11 percent had already begun pilot programs to test its effectiveness.
In the most recent nationwide data, shrinkage — industry parlance for products damaged or stolen that cannot be sold — increased from $93.9 billion in 2021 to $112.1 billion in 2022, according to the retail federation. That represents 1.4 and 1.6 percent of profits lost respectively.
However, it's unclear how much of that increase was solely because of shoplifting.
Many companies have taken to locking up high-target items such as health and beauty products and requiring employees to retrieve them for customers to deter theft. This strategy would be difficult for a store such as TJ Maxx, which has a revolving inventory that can change daily.
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