New ZealandRetail and e-commerce2025 – ongoingFoodstuffs South Island
Facial recognition for harmful in-store behaviour
Foodstuffs South Island retained facial recognition after reporting 531 confirmed matches in its trial
Problem
Participating supermarkets faced repeat visitors with histories of serious or harmful in-store behaviour. Staff needed to identify those visitors early enough to intervene.
Approach
Foodstuffs South Island trialled facial recognition at 3 Christchurch stores from October 2025 to January 2026. The stores continued using it after the trial. The cooperative required privacy, legal and risk assessments before implementation at additional stores.
Results
Takeaway
The cooperative reported no recorded misidentifications during the trial. That observation did not establish how often the system missed people of interest.
Categories
- Size
- Large enterprise
- Industry
- Retail and e-commerce
- Business function
- Production and quality
- Innovation type
- Process innovation
- AI technology
- Computer vision
- Adoption
- Vendor solution
- Goal
- Quality and risk
- Evidence
- Company's own claim
Sources
Source summaries
The cooperative reported 531 confirmed matches and no recorded false positives during its trial. It retained the system at the trial stores and announced an additional Christchurch location.
Full details are in the original sources.
