The Siren Board

We (Father and I) were at the pick n save store and I noticed an alarm different from the others. It seemed to be a model of Gentex commander (Not 4). It was a green strobe and white body. There seemed only to be three of them. (We eventually walked around the entire store and I saw no others) And they were all mounted by doors that had some sort of sensor on them. We were minding our business when it started going off as I saw a lady run out with a chip bag. It was being used as a stealing alarm. (Edit: It was sounding in chime mode on code 3.)

I'm not that surprised to be honest, I recall that there's a McDonald's in my area that has a beige* System Sensor SpectrAlert classic above the door that leads to the Co2 tank storage room (for the carbonated drink fountains), I'm pretty sure it's for some kind of Co2 leakage alarm of some kind, but I cannot say without certainty.

In these instances, I believe there are specially made "general notification" devices, like the Gentex you saw (although... Between a fire alarm NA and a General notification appliance... They're just the same, except the general notification one won't have the "FIRE" labels and usually will be beige or white).

*: it actually was supposed to be white, but given it's located in a kitchen, after the years it got a gnarly grase buildup on it. Either way it's still pretty cool to see one of these in Europe of all places

We also have these Gentex Commander 3's in some UK supermarkets (Lidl, Sainsbury's, to name a couple), but were rebranded as Potter units instead.

I believe these units here are mainly used when ever someone takes a shopping basket out of the stores, in which the alarms would go off on Code 3 Chime. This mainly occurred at my local Sainsbury's, with the alarm itself being mounted outside the main entrance.