Enterprise-wide video monitoring for retail
BJ’s Wholesale Club is a membership retail chain in the United States. After older DVRs began failing, the retailer upgraded to the Security Center Omnicast™ video system. The team now manages thousands of cameras across 135 locations, enhancing security, loss prevention, and retail intelligence.
The company
BJ's Wholesale Club introduced the warehouse club concept to New England in 1984 and has since expanded to become a leading warehouse club operator in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts, the company operates more than 180 locations in 15 states, 102 gas stations and three main distribution centers, and sells everything from general merchandise to fresh meat and perishables across its retail enterprise.
The challenge
The company's legacy DVR system could not effectively help BJ's maintain the most secure and safe retail environment. Poor video quality led to lengthy and ineffective investigations; video storage space was limited; and bandwidth limitations restricted the ability to remotely view surveillance footage. As the legacy system was reaching end of life, BJ's was spending more time resolving issues with its DVRs, than using them to its advantage.
The solution
Unified platform
The open architecture platform allows BJ’s to integrate the video system with other third-party systems such as video analytics, POS, and access control, facilitating investigations.
Bandwidth savings
BJ's was able to preconfigure camera settings and frame rates for live and recorded video and chose lower quality video streams for remote viewing, optimizing bandwidth at each store.
Around-the-clock reliability
Failover and redundancy features ensure the team always has access to live and recorded video. This means if a shoplifting or fraud incident occurs, they’ll always have evidence of it.
Retail intelligence
BJ’s is uses the Omnicast video system to gather a better understanding of where a store could modify its processes to prevent loss or other security incidents.
“We’re definitely happy with the Omnicast system. It is reliable, user-friendly, and flexible enough for us to make changes in configurations depending on the store.”
Charles Delgado, Vice President of Asset Protection
Results
BJ's has deployed Omnicast at 75 locations and plans to have another 60 locations online over the next year for a total of 135 locations at the project's completion. According to Delgado, having Genetec as a trusted partner made all the difference, “Genetec went above and beyond to provide support and training for our integration team. This speaks to the strength of Genetec’s support structure and its commitment to its clients.
Since installing Omnicast, BJ’s security team now has the superior video quality they need to accurately identify potential suspects, vehicles, and merchandise theft in stores. The Omnicast system allows BJ’s team to manage thousands of cameras across the enterprise, while giving each store the flexibility to set its own parameters for storage and recording schedules.