It’s hip to hate Future Shop and Best Buy; Future Shop comes from a long and storied Canadian tradition of pushy salesfolk, and Best Buy carries a cross-border rep for being a big box store full of less-than-helpful blueshirts. In my experience the reputation is unwarranted, but even I’ve had my fair share of “God damnit, Future Shop!” moments in my time–both before, during, and after working for them.

Maybe you felt a little schadenfreude when you heard that these two big box stores were duped by thieves, taking back dozens of pieces of clay in sealed iPad boxes. It’s funny to watch the little guy stick it to the man, but that’s not what happened here; this was a concerted effort by organized crime, and it’s going to hurt you and I more than it will hurt either of these big dealers.

Why this sucks for us:

There was, up until a short time ago, an implicit agreement between retailers and consumers in Canada: if it’s sealed in the box, it’s an easy return. If it looked legit, it was legit, and the customer service kids at the desk would be happy to process the return back to the form of legal tender that you originally used.

Thieves are going high tech though, using heat guns to strip security stickers from boxes so there are no tear marks on opening, and resealing them with professional shrink wrap machines. Make no mistake, these weren’t cling-wrap and hair-dryer jobs; the thieves had high production values.

What it means is that even if a product is returned factory new, Future Shop, Best Buy, London Drugs, Staples, and everyone else is now left with one of two choices. First: trust that the consumer ISN’T a thief and return it unopened. Or second: follow the first rule of loss prevention–everyone is out to steal from you–and open the package to verify the contents.

This means that any item returned at cash is coming back as an opened box, an inventory status that these two retailers have struggled with for almost a decade. Open boxes mean price reductions, which may seem good for consumers at first. But those price reductions mean a loss of gross margin, which is a retailer’s lifeblood. As gross margin erodes it means belt-tightening for the retailer, meaning fewer sales, less staff, and stores that aren’t as clean or as pretty.

This isn’t an overreaction; when you’re faced with perpetual loss of high-cost, low margin products like an iPad, your only choice is a nuclear option–even if it’s for a short time. Future Shop, Best Buy, et. al need to convince thieves that this isn’t a profitable route–meaning things are going to get worse for the rest of us in the meantime.

What can be done?

The “carefully weighted” pieces of clay is an impressive ruse, but ultimately unnecessary; your average “register biscuit” (as a friend of mine was so fond of calling them) has only the vaguest idea of what an iPad weighs and wouldn’t give a slight variation a second thought. It does eliminate weighing the product as a solution.

In my mind, there are two solutions: we need to see inside the box, or we need to know for sure that the product is in there.

Hungry eyes

Ultrasound is a poor choice as it won’t penetrate some types of packing material. X-ray is harsh, and adding powerful cancer-machines at the retail level isn’t feasible for host of obvious reasons. That leaves clear packaging, which may, in a way, be worse. It’s hard to get into, requires petroleum products for cheap packaging, and isn’t biodegradable until you get to expensive options. Every one of these options adds significant cost to an already low-margin industry.

I sense… iPad

RFID could solve the issue… if it were embedded in the product itself. RFID or Radio Frequency ID is a small, no-power chip that is readable from a variety of distances with low-cost readers. The problem here is that a) it adds cost to the product, b)requires space inside and c) violates the end-users privacy as there’s no easy way to remove it that would remain secure for store inventory. RFID is currently in use in some Wal-mart stores in the states, but the chips are embedded in packaging, not products.

This sucks.

So we’re left with price increases and fewer sale options due to (rightly) paranoid retailers, or poor packaging options, or privacy violations–all of which carry higher costs and worse service.

Thanks, iPad thieves. You’re awesome. Hope it was worth it.