August2021 - 16

founded in 1981. Lock America's drilland
pick-resistant locks, along with
its security hardware, are designed to
deter and prevent brute-force attacks
against vending machines, ATMs and
kiosks. They also provide key control,
replacing the original low-security
shipper locks installed on original
equipment with locks uniquely registered
to each client.
He added that Lock America,
together with its consultants, stays in
close touch with its customers and
industry associations to gauge worldwide
security issues and continually
address new threats and concerns as
they arise.
" The increase in crude physical
attacks has led us to develop
additional security hardware and
locks, particularly locks for ATM
and vending machine enclosures, "
Morahan said.
In addition to locks and a variety
of keyway options and systems, Lock
America offers custom-designed and
off-the-shelf security hardware, as well
as developing solutions to its customers'
unique security problems.
" With more than 40 years in security,
Lock America remains confident
that it can overcome and solve new
"
The increase in crude
physical attacks has led
us to develop additional
security hardware and
locks, particularly locks
for ATM and vending
machine enclosures. "
Rich Morahan,
Richard Morahan Associates
security challenges, " Morahan said.
REMOTE CONTROL
Panoptyc, a newcomer to the industry
founded in 2019 in Detroit, already
equips more than 1,000 micro markets
and almost all of the industry leaders
with artificial intelligence software
and state-of-the-art camera systems
to alleviate theft. Larceny is the No. 1
concern operators have when considering
whether to open an unattended
location and a huge threat to profitability
for existing micro markets.
The industry consensus, according
to Panoptyc founder and chief
executive, Mac Bolak, is that theft in
micro markets accounts for about 4%
of sales, which is around $3,000 each
year in the average micro market.
According to industry surveys, the 4%
theft rate at unattended open markets
is double that of attended retail.
" So, that's not as bad as some may
think, but also, there's a lot of room for
improvement and that's where Panoptyc
comes in, " he said.
A micro market equipped with
Lock America's cam,
pad and puck locks have
more than 6 million key
codes.
Panoptyc's smart camera and artificial
intelligence technology reportedly
achieves 255% theft reduction, which
puts thousands of dollars a year per
market back in the operator's pocket.
" With the reduction in on-premises
Images by Lock America Inc. workforce due to the pandemic, some
operators have concerns that their
markets aren't being tended to as much
as they were pre-COVID-19, " Bolak
said. " Even with businesses still operating,
many place restrictions on who
can enter from the operator side. In
some cases, route drivers are allowed
in markets, but management is not.
This makes it difficult to keep up with
inventory, merchandising and maintaining
your peace of mind that your
markets are being inspected and cared
for as they had been pre-COVID-19. "
Since the early days of micro markets,
operators have relied on DVR
systems to give them visibility into
the self-checkout stores, but much
of the legacy video technology has
become obsolete and cumbersome to
view remotely.
" Issues like complicated port
forwarding and limited data compression
from existing DVRs restrain the
amount of remote market viewing and
oversight that operators can effectively
do, " Bolak pointed out. " As a result,
these days, they may only be remotely
viewing and cross-checking some
number of their locations. "
On the other hand, Panoptyc's
technology detects the most suspicious
behavior at micro markets. It
looks at anomalies and suspicious
alerts within the data.
" Then we use what our cameras
are seeing, basically through computer
vision, which is a subcomponent of
artificial intelligence, " Bolak explained.
" Then, we investigate to determine
whether the reason for the 'blip' is
theft. If we conclude that it is, we provide
our customers with the data and
the images that prove it. "
Panoptyc's technology is evolving
to stay ahead of theft in micro markets.
OPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
The one great difference in the way
businesses have operated throughout
the pandemic is that personnel
have been encouraged to work
16 Automatic Merchandiser * August 2021
August2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August2021
