Before the Missouri State Fair, Mike and I went to Menards to get some new chairs to take to our tents. I chuckled a bit at having to go through turnstiles to enter the store. That's so pre-digital age. I mean, where else today do you go through turnstiles? So, what gives? Do the turnstiles still serve a function at Menards, or is it just something left over from another era?

Turnstiles have been around forever—okay, more like the first millennia. According to Turnstiles.us, farmers were the first to use them; at that time, they were just stiles made from wood. These gates allowed farmers to pass through adjacent fields while keeping their livestock in one place.

Turnstiles appeared in commercial and business facilities in the early 20th century. In 1913, Clarence Saunders installed turnstiles in his first Piggly Wiggly store in Memphis to prevent the self-service supermarket from becoming overcrowded. The first public use of turnstiles happened at Hampden Park Stadium in Glasgow, and in 1915, they were installed at Blackpool Pleasure Beach to control the summer crowd.

Before the age of cell phones, digital tickets, and computers, turnstiles were pretty common. I remember Walgreens using electric gate turnstiles at its entrances. Growing up, you'd also go through a turnstile when they ripped your tickets at a Cubs or White Sox game. You also saw them used in stores, like Menards does today.

So why does Menards still use turnstiles? There isn't a lot of information out there about this. Over on Reddit, the thought is to stop theft. With the turnstiles working, the gate closed, and the service desk paying attention, it's pretty hard to walk out of Menards' entrance with a cart full of stuff you didn't pay for.

However, at our sister station in Duluth, Ken Hayes found out why Menards is still using turnstiles, which serve a few different purposes for the store.

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First, they help guide people to where the store wants them to enter, creating a specific traffic flow. Second, they're a theft prevention measure. When people have to pass through a controlled entry point to get into the store and go through a checkout lane to get out, regardless of whether they buy something, it creates a psychological deterrent to shoplifters. Third, turnstiles control access points to the store, which makes it easier to track people and keep the store safe. Finally, the turnstile is an old-school method of counting customers who enter the store. Menards can use this data to analyze the busy times of the day or the busiest days of the week.

I don't know if we'll see a return of turnstiles to grocery stores, drug stores, and other retail places as a theft-deterrent measure, but with shrinkage a huge retail issue, it wouldn't surprise me.

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