Foodstuffs South Island will continue to use facial recognition tech in the three Christchurch stores involved in its recent trial.
The trial, conducted from October 2025 to January 2026, aimed to identify and manage individuals with a history of serious and harmful in-store behaviour. During this period, 531 confirmed matches with people of interest were recorded, with no misidentifications or false positives.
Staff reported repeat offenders were less likely to return to trial stores, and incidents involving threatening or harmful behaviour dropped, allowing teams to intervene earlier and reduce risks to customers and employees.
This tech will now extend to New World Stanmore, following a three-month trial that demonstrated measurable safety improvements.
Kent Mahon, Head of Retail for Foodstuffs South Island, said the trial results give confidence that the technology can be deployed carefully and responsibly.
“The focus has always been on reducing harm. The trial showed we can do that while keeping accuracy high and respecting customer privacy,” said Mahon.
The three trial stores will continue using FR, with New World Stanmore joining. There has been interest from other stores dealing with harmful in-store behaviour, although no further rollouts have been confirmed.
Each store will undergo privacy, legal, and risk assessments before implementation, and prominent signage will alert customers that FR is in use. Foodstuffs South Island will continue to monitor system performance and will update the list of stores using FR on its website.
List of stores using facial recognition
- New World St Martins, Christchurch
- PAK’nSAVE Papanui, Christchurch
- PAK’nSAVE Moorhouse, Christchurch
- New World Stanmore, Christchurch (from Monday, 8th of June 2026)
