It is the first question almost every property manager asks, and usually within the first two minutes: you want to put an unattended store in my lobby — won't people just take things?
It is a fair question, and the honest answer is that in the traditional open-shelf format, yes, some of them do. The industry has published numbers on exactly how much. What matters for your building is not whether shrink exists, but which format you are actually being offered and whose balance sheet the loss lands on.
The number the industry publishes
Operators responding to the 2024 State of the Vending and Micro Market Industry report reported 4% shrink on average. For context, William Blair's analysis of unattended retail notes that the National Retail Federation puts average retail shrinkage at 1.6% of total sales — and that 89% of micro market operators run above that benchmark, specifically because there is no staff oversight.
Nobody in this industry should be quoting you zero. An operator who tells you shrink is not a thing is either new or not counting.
Why the open-shelf format leaks
A traditional micro market is a room: open shelving, a cooler, and a self-checkout kiosk. Nothing physically stops a person from picking up a product and walking out. The controls are behavioural — cameras, signage, inventory counts, and, as William Blair puts it, trust, which works best in a controlled-access environment and less well everywhere else.
A condo or apartment lobby is a semi-public space. Residents, guests, trades, delivery drivers and anyone who follows someone through the door all pass through it. That is precisely the environment in which the honour-system model is weakest — and it is the reason a lot of buildings looked at micro markets a few years ago and passed.
What the smart store format changes
The format most Toronto buildings are being offered now is not the open room. It is a locked glass-front smart store, and the difference is architectural rather than behavioural. William Blair describes the mechanism directly: smart stores require the customer to tap or dip a payment method before accessing or entering, then use cameras, RFID sensing and embedded scales to identify and charge for what was removed.
Put plainly: the door does not open until a valid card is authorised. There is no transaction to walk away from, because payment comes first and the shelf comes second. The 2024 industry report is blunt about the result — smart coolers "virtually eliminate the risk of shrinkage," which is exactly why operators started deploying them in locations that were never secure enough for a traditional micro market.
That is the category your lobby actually qualifies for.
"The honour system was never going to work in a semi-public lobby. Tap-to-open removes the honour system entirely — the door is the control."
The question underneath the question
When a property manager asks about theft, the real concern is rarely the snacks. It is exposure: if this goes wrong, is it my problem?
In a properly structured placement, it is not. The operator owns the equipment and owns the inventory sitting inside it. Product that goes missing is the operator's write-down, not a line in your operating budget and not a reserve fund item. The property contributes floor space and two standard outlets — nothing that can be stolen and nothing that depreciates on your books.
But "properly structured" is doing real work in that sentence, and it belongs in the agreement rather than in a conversation. Before you sign anything, get written answers to five things:
- Who owns the equipment and the inventory? It should be the operator, explicitly, in both cases.
- Who bears shrink? If any structure passes losses back to the property — through a revenue share on gross, a minimum guarantee, or a "shared loss" clause — you have taken on retail risk without a retail team.
- Who do residents call? If the answer is your concierge, the operator has quietly outsourced support to your staff. It should be a support line residents contact directly.
- What is the liability coverage? Ask for the certificate of insurance and read the limit, rather than accepting "we're fully insured."
- How does it come out? Removal terms, notice period, and who pays — in writing, before installation.
Why the operator is now the variable, not the category
This matters more in 2026 than it did two years ago, because the field has gotten crowded. Veteran operator Pete Virnig told Vending Market Watch after this year's NAMA Show that a couple of years ago there were three or four smart cooler companies; today there are 25 to 30.
Property managers are going to get pitched, repeatedly, by operators with very similar-looking equipment. The hardware is converging. What does not converge is who chooses the assortment, how often the unit is restocked, whether anyone answers when a resident has a problem, and what happens in month eighteen when the novelty is gone.
The demand side is not in doubt. A Canadian resident amenity study reported by RENX found 84% of renters want the ability to pick up a missing ingredient or a quick snack without travelling far, and 60% specifically want a cashier-less store in their community. With national apartment vacancy at 5.1% and rising for a ninth straight quarter, buildings are competing on daily experience again. The question is no longer whether residents want it. It is who you let install it.
Built by a retailer. Not a vending company.
The Merchant Group™ brings 30 years of retail experience — Walmart, Staples, and Starbucks — to every building we serve. Shrink is a number we have managed professionally for three decades, which is why we would rather show you the industry figure than pretend it does not exist.
We operate TapStore™ micro markets across Etobicoke and Toronto: locked, glass-front, tap to pay, walk away. We own the equipment. We own the inventory. We carry the loss. Your building provides the space, two outlets, and Wi-Fi access.