Emergency Alert System (EAS) Sample- Western MA, 1999-2000

When a store uses electronic article surveillance (EAS) to combat shoplifting, it places a small sensor on each item of merchandise. When an item is legitimately purchased, the sales clerk is supposed to remove the sensor to prevent an alarm from sounding as the customer exits the store. In an actual survey of 250 consumers, 40 said that if they were to set off an EAS alarm because store personnel (mistakenly) failed to deactivate merchandise leaving the store, they would never shop at that stor