A shop anti-theft alarm that answers a question
Stop stock walking out of your shop. In Trakora Retail an RFID tag on protected stock is cleared when the item sells at the till, so the gate buzzer sounds only on a tagged item that left unsold — not on every piece of metal. Three real rules back it: a gate alarm on an unsold item, an after-hours scan alert, and a rapid-scan alert for till abuse.
Why the gate knows the difference between a sale and a theft
A plain electronic article surveillance (EAS) gate reacts to a live tag — so a forgotten deactivation makes it scream at a paying customer, and staff end up switching it off. Trakora ties the tag to the sale: the till clears it. The gate is then asking one question — was this item paid for? — instead of reacting to metal.
Tag the stock worth protecting
An RFID tag goes on the lines you choose to protect. Tagging is per line, not all-or-nothing.
The till clears the tag
When the item is sold at the till, its tag is cleared against that sale, that cashier and that branch.
The gate checks, then decides
A tagged item at the door that the till never cleared fires gate_out_unsold — and the buzzer sounds.
Three shipped alert rules, each a real behaviour
These are actual rules in the retail module — not marketing categories. For each one: what fires it, what you see, and what you do about it. Thresholds and hours are configured per shop, so no fixed number is stated here.
An unsold item left through the door
A tagged item crosses the gate reader with no sale cleared against its tag at the till — the item left without being paid for.
The buzzer sounds at the door, and the console logs a gate event naming the tag, the branch and the time, marked as an unsold-tag alarm.
Stop the item at the door on the spot, or review the logged event later against the till record to see what walked and when.
Read range and the exact trigger geometry depend on your doorway and tag — measured on site, not fixed here: —. This is loss prevention, not a fiscal control.
A scan happened when the shop was closed
A till scan or a gate event is recorded outside the branch's declared trading hours — a sale rung, or stock moved, when the shop should be shut.
An after-hours alert naming the branch, the till or gate, and the timestamp, so an out-of-hours event is flagged rather than buried in the day's totals.
Check who was on site, match it to the cashier and shift, and decide whether it was legitimate late work or something to question.
Trading hours are set per branch, so the window is your configuration, not a fixed value: —. This pairs with the security module's after-hours movement rule — a scan here, movement there; cross-linked, not duplicated.
Scans coming through unusually fast
An unusually rapid burst of repeat scans or transactions at one till — the signature of sweethearting (passing goods to a friend) or void-abuse at the counter.
A rapid-scan alert against the cashier, the till and the shift, so a pattern shows up in the numbers instead of as a manager's hunch.
Pull the cashier report for that shift, look at the voids and repeats, and handle it as a documented pattern rather than an accusation.
The "too fast" boundary is tuned to your shop's normal pace, so no rate is published here: —. No Tanzanian retail competitor names this specific check — it is a real differentiator.
What the anti-theft log looks like
Gate events and till alerts in one list, coloured and worded — status is carried by the word, never by colour alone. Realistic Tanzanian data, not a stock photo.
| Time (EAT) | Branch | Rule | Detail | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14:06 | Kariakoo | gate_out_unsold | tag RF-0034291 | Alarm — unsold tag |
| 22:47 | Mwenge | after_hours_scan | till T-02 | Alert — after hours |
| 15:19 | Kariakoo | high_velocity | cashier Juma K. · till T-02 | Alert — rapid scans |
| 12:41 | Mwenge | gate_out_unsold | tag RF-0031884 | Cleared at till |
What this anti-theft cannot do
Set your expectations
- Only tagged stock is protected at the door. An untagged item passing the gate does not fire gate_out_unsold — tagging is your choice per line.
- This is loss prevention, not a fiscal control. It does not issue a TRA fiscal receipt, and this page claims no EFD/VFD integration or approval.
- An alert is a flag for a person to act on, not an automatic accusation — the cashier report is the evidence, the alert is the prompt.
- Thresholds, trading hours and the rapid-scan boundary are configured per shop and are — here; the real values are set with you, not published.
- RFID gate read range depends on the doorway and the tag and is measured on site before purchase — it is not promised as a number.
Anti-theft questions
What makes the gate buzzer sound?
A tagged item passing the gate reader whose tag was not cleared by a sale at the till — the gate_out_unsold rule. It is answering "was this paid for?", not reacting to metal.
Do I have to tag every product?
No. Tagging is per line — tag the stock worth protecting and leave the rest untagged. Only tagged stock is watched at the door.
How is this different from a normal EAS gate?
A plain EAS gate reacts to a live tag, so a missed deactivation alarms on a paying customer. Trakora clears the tag at the till, so the gate only sounds when a tagged item genuinely left unsold.
Can it catch a cashier passing goods to a friend?
The high_velocity rule flags unusually rapid repeat scans — the sweethearting signature — against the cashier and shift, so you review the report rather than accuse on a hunch.
What does it cost?
The gate hardware and tags are quoted per deployment in TZS, on top of the per-till subscription. See the pricing page and the hardware page.
More on retail
Ready to stop stock walking out?
Tell us your doorways and the stock you want to protect and we will scope the tags, the gate and the alerts in TZS.