Bunnings has introduced facial recognition technology across all of its North Island stores, saying the move is aimed at reducing retail crime and improving safety for both staff and customers.
The latest stage of the nationwide rollout began on Tuesday; the retailer is extending the technology to another 32 North Island stores. It follows an earlier trial in mid-April at two of its Hamilton locations.
“Our Hamilton rollout has given us a positive foundation, and during this initial phase we’ve focused on responsible implementation, including through team training, our internal processes and community engagement, and this gives us confidence to use FRT across our North Island stores,” Melissa Haines, Bunnings General Manager New Zealand, said.
Haines said the final decision on identifying potential offenders would rest with staff, not the technology.
“Threatening incidents in our New Zealand stores have more than doubled over the last four years, and we’re using a range of measures to keep our team and customers safe.
“FRT is an additional tool that helps us address this rising problem by identifying serious repeat offenders and allowing us to act early to prevent incidents.”
Bunnings said it will keep working with customers and Māori communities as the rollout continues, explaining how the technology operates and the reasons behind its use.
It is also working with a Māori sovereignty expert and has woven tikanga Māori principles into how the approach is being developed and applied.
The company said the rollout was shaped after it reviewed findings from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s 2024 facial recognition trial carried out by Foodstuffs North Island.
The OPC inquiry found Foodstuffs’ trial complied with the Privacy Act, but only because it had strong privacy safeguards in place.
Although the system captured the faces of every shopper entering the store, the OPC said the high level of privacy intrusion was brought down to an acceptable level through safeguards such as rapid deletion.
The trial scanned 225,972,004 faces, with 99.999% deleted within a minute. It also generated 1,742 alerts, of which 1,208 were confirmed matches.