Preventing Shoplifting Today

April 28, 2016 by Leave a Comment

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The reasons associated with shoplifting and  employee theft are many.   Shoplifting is now considered one of the most widespread crimes in the United States, and according to the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (NASP)  there are about 550,000 shoplifting incidents daily.  The billions of dollars lost to shoplifting and employee theft robs not only the store, but the consumer and the communities where they are located. Security measures to prevent shoplifting still seem to fall short, and retailers across the nation invest heavily in the most up to date security systems for their store.  For more about this and other topics, follow the links below.

Loss Prevention Strategies in a New Age of Natural Selection

There are times when each of us must challenge our convictions and embrace change.

We live in a time of great change. We work in an industry where our ability to adjust to the needs of the customer and the dynamics of a global market sculpt the landscape of retail. We serve in a profession that demands that our loss prevention strategies adapt and adjust to business strategies, our retail partners, and the many elements that can impact company profitability. This isn’t exactly breaking news. We know this. We preach this. We embrace these principles as a critical aspect of what we do. Why then, are there those that are so resistant to certain types of change?

Why do some applaud advancements in technology, but fail to take advantage of the technology that’s available right at their fingertips? Why do some advocate the value of training and education, but fail to support an industry certification program? Why do some lecture their teams on the power of information, and then not take simple steps to stay informed? How is it that we can see the train coming and stand on the tracks rather than jumping on board?

The First Line of Defense

Retailers look to make exterior customer spaces safer

The combination of shootings — by terrorists or otherwise — and other workplace violence has put the retail industry on edge. Stores, restaurants and shopping centers struggle with strategies to protect employees and customers inside their locations, as well as in the parking area outside.

There are few patterns as to how and why the violence takes place where it does, and scant data to support any particular hypothesis. Such violence doesn’t occur on a daily basis, and is just infrequent enough that occurrences generate news alerts on social media and local radio, video lead-ins for the nightly news and headlines in daily newspapers.

Already in the first three months of this year, the industry has seen such incidents as a fast-food employee accused of killing his manager in the restaurant’s parking lot in a Kansas City suburb; a discount store manager in Mobile, Ala., who police say was shot to death by a man he lived with; a 23-year-old clerk at a Norfolk, Va., convenience store shot in the chest during a robbery; and an attempted robbery at a cash loan store in Irving, Tex., that turned into a hostage situation when the armed robber grabbed a female employee to use as a shield as he attempted to get to his car for a getaway. The robber/kidnapper was shot and killed by a responding police officer.

Ten Cheap and Easy Shoplifting Prevention Tips

We’ve put together ten tips that you can use as a business owner to reduce theft and shoplifting at your business. Most thieves shoplift on an average of 1.5 times a week; with nearly $25 million worth of merchandise stolen every day. The following is a list of proactive steps you can take to reduce your losses due to shoplifting.

1. Prevention is your best protection. A business that announces they don’t tolerate theft will often be passed over in favor of a more “friendly” store. Signage and cameras (real or realistic-looking fakes) discourage many would-be shoplifters. Postacrime (www.postacrime.com) has a variety of effective signage and prevention tools. Decals on windows, fitting room mirrors and display fixtures will let the criminals know you’re watching them closely. Many police departments post advice and precautions on preventing retail theft; the Salem, Oregon police department (http://www.cityofsalem.net./export/departments/police/tips_for_preventing_shoplifting.htm) offers very practical information on protecting your business.

2. Trained employees are your best weapon against shoplifting. Just the act of greeting a patron or offering help lets a shoplifter know that he/she is being watched and the employees are attentive. Employees should watch for inappropriately baggy clothing, lingering in corners and unusual attention to traffic and employees. Occasionally a shoplifter will have a partner to create a distraction such as an argument or fainting; employees should designate one or more to react in such a situation while the others continue to work.

 

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Is Your Loss Prevention Team Ready?

April 20, 2016 by Leave a Comment

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Employee theft, shoplifting, and administrative mistakes are the three major sources of retail shrinkage in the United States.  Shoplifting according to the National Association for Shoplifting prevention, is done by millions of people and is costing the country billions of dollar’s worth of merchandise that is being stolen.  The millions of dollars spent by these retail stores to prevent shoplifting, is minor considering the billions of dollars lost by employee theft and shoplifting. Among other preventive measures your retail store is taking, is a well trained prevention team included?  For more about this topic, follow the links below.

Bar the Door

Anti-theft glass makes storefronts less vulnerable to break-ins

With all the talk about the very real need to protect the security of customer information and an enterprise’s data, it can be easy to forget the reality of in-person threats to a retail establishment. Theft and other forms of shrinkage are no small matter — in 2014, retailers reported average shrinkage of 1.4 percent, according to the most recent National Retail Federation/University of Florida National Retail Security Survey. That equates to $44 billion.

Shoplifting and organized retail crime represented 38 percent of inventory shrinkage for the 100 retailers that participated in the survey; in 2014 the average dollar loss was $318 per shoplifting incident. Criminals gain access in any number of ways; some brazenly walk in during operating hours while others break in while the store is closed.

A gas station/convenience store owner in Daytona Beach, Fla., experienced a number of storefront break-ins that involved criminals smashing the glass of the front door.

How to implement smarter employee theft detection

No retail business wants to believe that they might be subject to theft from their own employees. Unfortunately, it is a very real problem. It might be stealing items on their person, or exploiting employee discount privileges to significantly reduce the price – either way, employee theft can account for as much as 28 per cent of unexplained inventory loss globally, according to the recent Global Theft Barometer Report.

In order to prevent it, it is first important for employers to be aware why employees might feel the temptation to steal – from financial pressures in their personal lives, to general disgruntlement with their employers. But irrespective of the emotional reason that causes employees to consider stealing, it all boils down to something very simple: they think they can get away with it.

Deterring employee theft

A deterrence, of course, breaks the urge to do so. Whilst establishing predetermined consequences of theft will of course work to an extent, implementing a sophisticated detection system is arguably the most effective deterrent. Prevention is the best form of protection when it comes to retail shrinkage.

Coaching Lessons for Managing Your Loss Prevention Team

Loss prevention managers should know that the strength and quality of their teams can be directly proportional to the results achieved by team efforts.

Some of the most rewarding experiences in my work life have involved building teams. It has always been my opinion that the strength and quality of your team is directly proportional to the results.

With responsibility for loss prevention, new store development, and service operations, my primary function at work is leading teams of individuals to success. After 20+ years of retail experience, I thought I understood loss prevention team leadership. But in raising and coaching my son, I learned some things that have changed the way I view my teams at work.

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Ideas to Decrease Employee Theft

April 18, 2016 by Leave a Comment

meetingpic.Employee theft continues to rise.  In some retail settings it’s surpassed customer theft.  There are a variety of reasons for the increase.  One of them is that many managers have a hard time believing that “My people would do such a thing”.  And because they have a hard time believing it they don’t take steps to combat it.

Here are some of the things they say: “It’s not in my personality to believe the worst of people.”  “I try to promote a family atmosphere.”   “I don’t want to offend the honest employees by punishing everybody for the few bad apples”.  “I don’t want to be a security guard.”  “I want my store to be a place where people like to come to work.” 

But, whether you want to believe it or not, chances are your staff has, is and will steal from the store.  So, what do you do?  How do you balance stopping the thieves, while not alienating the honest people?  Conscientious managers struggle with these questions.  Here are a few answers.

Do surprise register checks – Random cash drawer reconciliations let everyone know you’re paying attention, while not singling anyone out.  It’s business, not personal.

Highlight inventory control – Have all staff members take turns helping you spot check inventory records with actual product.  Let them know you take missing items and incomplete records seriously.  Employee theft thrives on a manager’s inattention to detail.

Check the tapes – Tell and show your employees that you check the tapes.  Are the z-tape’s numbers sequential?  If not, why not and who’s responsible?  What are the average “no-sale” numbers (x-tapes)?  Do they go up on a certain shift or day?  If so, why and who was working?  Asking for explanations is not the same as making accusations.

Promote anonymous tips – We all have ideas about “narcing, snitching and tattling,” many of them negative.   But, it’s one of the most effective ways to stop workplace fraud.  It gives people the chance to step forward without fear of retaliation.

However, a tip is not a fact and shouldn’t be seen as one.  It’s a starting place for you to carefully look into the accusation.  A tip can’t be used to get back at someone or unfairly accuse them if you are thoughtful and cautious about pursuing it. 

There isn’t a way to completely stop employee theft.  But, if you make it difficult most won’t try it and others will get caught quickly, which increases staff morale.  Honest, hard working people don’t want to work in a store where management turns a blind or incompetent eye on dishonesty.  They want a store that’s fair, openhanded and safe for everyone.

Nicole Abbott is a professional writer who’s had over 150 articles published.  She’s a business consultant and former psycho-therapist with over 20 years of experience in mental health, business and addiction.  She’s a coach, lecturer, trainer and facilitator.  She has conducted over 200 workshops, trainings, presentations, seminars and college classes. 

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Preventing Shoplifting In Your Business

April 13, 2016 by Leave a Comment

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Many people steal because they need the rush of the theft.  Some steal because they have a mental illness, and many others steal out of necessity.  The reasons of why they steal are many and varied, but the fact is that retailers big and small and consumers like you and I have to pay for the theft.  Retailers make you pay a bigger price for the things you buy to counteract the money they are loosing with the shoplifting.  The fact is that as a society, everybody looses.  What kind of protection can you have as a store owner to prevent shoplifting in your store?  Are all systems equally effective?  If you have questions about loss prevention systems and what are the best ones for your business, contact us and we will be happy to talk to you.

To read more about this topics, follow the links below.

Kids used as distraction for stealing

By Victoria White

Shoplifting continues to be problematic for retailers with some people even using their children to get away with stealing goods.

Retailers said a group of adults and children went into optometrist stores in the Napier CBD last week, with adults taking items while the children were used to distract staff.

The stores realised the connection when stolen goods from one store were left at the next one hit.

At Specsavers Optometrists the group got away with three pairs of glasses.

Co-owner Mark Blades said there had been “a bit of theft of late”.

“It happens all day everyday,” he said, “it’s nothing new to me, I’ve been in retail for a long time.

“It’s unfortunate but it happens in all societies.”

Another retailer, who did not want the name of her store reported, said the group had taken $500 worth of goods from her shop.

“It was a gang of four adults and four children,” she said. “They used distracting tactics … the four kids were running around the shop and the adults were taking things, one was trying to get behind the counter.

“It was four adults using their young kids as part of the crime which is really sad.”

Staff were able to get the group’s car registration number, and identify the people for police.

ECSO starts neighborhood watch for businesses

Having alarms, locks and security grates are a good way to protect a business, but there are other ways to increase security.

One of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office’s suggestions is involving friends and neighbors.

The ECSO has launched a free crime-prevention program for local entrepreneurs called the Business Watch. The concept is simple. It’s like a neighborhood watch, only for businesses.

Lynnea McCray of the Sheriff’s Office’s Community Services Unit said that the goal of the program is to facilitate better communication between businesses and the Sheriff’s Office, as well as share information that can help prevent and solve crimes.

“A lot of times in a neighborhood, you don’t know your neighbor but you should,” McCray should. “It’s the same with businesses. They should definitely look out for each other.”

Through the program, the Sheriff’s Office plans to create contact lists of businesses based on types and regions. So if a store owner notices someone passing counterfeit bills or shoplifting, they can quickly send out an email the Sheriff’s Office will use to notify investigators and the employers’ peers.

Police ID Walmart worker killed by shoplifting suspect; gunman on the loose

Authorities have identified the Walmart worker who they say was shot and killed by a suspected shoplifter outside of Atlanta.

Lilburn police Capt. Thomas Bardugon tells news outlets that 25-year-old Jaseramie Dion “JD” Ferguson was shot Sunday night when he and another guard approached a man who was attempting to steal three televisions from the Lilburn store.

Police released a photo of the suspect from surveillance video. They say the man fled in a red or dark red four-door sedan, leaving the TVs behind.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Ferguson was a married father of three and had worked at the store seven months when he was shot.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is assisting in the probe.

 

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Are You Confused ?

April 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment

EASAre you confused about how to stop shoplifters? Many Retailers are. Often I hear something like “I have a CCTV camera system to stop shoplifters”. The reality is that shoplifters couldn’t care less. Cameras are a very tiny deterrent to a shoplifter. They know you do not have the time or payroll dollars to actively watch. And it is easy enough to create a diversion or simply take your merchandise and move to another location in your store that does not have camera coverage. 

Keep in mind that Loss Prevention Systems also sells and installs cameras. So I have quite a bit of experience with this subject.  Cameras are great tools but they have their limits. They are great for employee theft prevention and investigation, robbery prevention, burglary prevention and so on.  But cameras are NOT proactive (passive)in the case of shoplifting. The shoplifter will be long gone by the time you figure out what is going on if at all. 

However, a Checkpoint EAS system is PROACTIVE.  It is working 24/7 even when you or your staff are not paying attention. Checkpoint Systems labels and hard tags are applied to your merchandise and if the thief tries to steal you products the Checkpoint System at the doors goes into alarm. We can even send an instant message to your cell phone or other mobile device at that time. 

A Checkpoint System never takes a day off, is never sick, doesn’t want a pay raise, and doesn’t want a $15/hour minimum wage.  Don’t you wish your staffing was that simple? 

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WHEN YOU THINK THEY CAN’T GET ANY DUMBER

April 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment

shoplifting4Everyone I know loves a good “dumb criminal” story. In fact, I can’t go a day without someone (store managers, district managers, executives, family…) asking me to tell a crazy shoplifting story. I have a top 10 list that I usually gravitate towards, but after yesterday, I may have to change it to a top 11.

It was about 7pm and I was finally leaving my office (my office in a store). In order to get to the front door, I have to walk right down the middle of the highest theft area of the store; footwear. Most days, I put my blinders on and try to bee-line to the door, but on this day… well she just caught my eye. No, it wasn’t the girl of my dreams…

As I’m walking down the main walkway, out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of this woman placing a pair of shoes in her purse. Let me build you a mental picture for just a moment. This was a large woman; think Oprah Winfrey in The Color Purple big. And tall. She had to be pushing 6ft3in. She was wearing a dark green pajama dress, with slippers and curlers in her hair. I did not want to confront her; I was, in fact, a little scared. ☺

I radio for one of the store’s agents, but as luck would have it, they’ve left early for the day. It’s just me and the jolly green giant. I had a decision to make; I could go through and make the apprehension, or try and recover the product that she had concealed. To heck with it, let’s have a little fun. So I continued observation and watched as she methodically placed about a dozen or so pairs of shoes in her purse. She then began her slow walk towards the front of the store. Not having an agent in the store, I grabbed one of the managers, who just happened to be former LP. I knew she wouldn’t mind getting in on the action.

As Ms. Banner made her exit, I (scared that she may break me in half) approached her and identified myself as LP. The reaction was just as I thought it would be. She proceeds to a verbal assault that would make reading me the riot act look like poetry. At the very least, I want to recover my merchandise (and hopefully keep my bones in one piece). I reach towards the basket and grab the purse with my product inside. She, quicker that I thought she could move, races around the shopping cart and tries to remove it from my hands. After all, it is her purse… who cares if it contains MY merchandise?

Before she could get it from me, I quarterback hiked it to the manager, who didn’t miss a beat and caught it mid-flight. The manager then tossed it into the storage closet that happened to be open and slammed the door shut. (It locks automatically.) Hulk didn’t think that was funny and flipped the shopping cart over on its side and commenced to beating the door. For a minute there, I thought she’d be able to make it in. She overheard me desperately pleading with dispatch to get me an officer ASAP and she took off through the parking lot. I have to say, it was quite amusing to watch a woman of her stature running through the parking lot in slippers.

She actually was able to flee the store before the police arrived and I first was pretty upset that after all that I went through, I didn’t have her identity. At least I had my product back, right? The officer finally shows up a little later and takes my report. I take him inside to photograph the purse and the stolen product. After I pulled 13 pairs of shoes out, I noticed there was a large wallet at the bottom. Inside was her state ID, driver’s license, library card and several credit cards all with her name on them. I promptly signed a warrant for her arrest.

Would you believe that the next day, she called the store manager and told her that she had “lost” her wallet while shopping in the store? The store manager, unaware of what happened, transferred the call to me. She had no idea she was talking to the guy she almost broke in half and I actually convinced her that the wallet had been turned in to the lost and found and that she could come on by and pick it up. She did. As soon as she stepped foot in the store, she was promptly arrested by two of the counties’ finest.

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DO YOU NEED A BURGLAR ALARM?

April 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment

240x600Often overlooked for small businesses is the dire need for a suitable burglar alarm system. I talk about EAS placement and CCTV all the time. Those are rendered absolutely useless is someone busts in through the back door. If your burglar system isn’t up to standards, you run the risk of losing everything.

I think (and hope) that all of you have at least a basic intruder alarm system set up with a reputable monitoring service. I want to go a little further than that and give you some insight on what I’ve seen that works and what really doesn’t. I’ve seen plenty systems over the course of my career and while I’m not an expert on alarm systems, I have common sense (something that seems to be lacking the higher you progress on the retail ladder).

Every store, no matter the size should at the minimum have motion detection and depending on your assortment, shock sensors. If you’re not familiar with the latter, they are generally designed for placement on solid walls (think a firearms cage in a sporting goods store, or the cement wall surrounding the vault at the local bank). These alarms trigger if there is a significant shockwave, i.e explosion, or perhaps a vehicle ramming through. Very important to consider depending on your particular assortment and layout. Motion sensors on the other hand are far more common and should definitely be part of your security system. As the name implies, they detect motion.

One thing my company struggled with for years was false alarms. We were actually paying thousands of dollars in false alarm fines to our local police department one year at this one particular store. Almost every night, the motion sensor would trip, police would be dispatched and we’d find no evidence of a breach. We eventually discovered that we had a cat that was taking up residence and wandering the aisle at night. We eventually changed the trigger to dispatch police from one motion activation to no less than 4 before we would dispatch police. This helped out tremendously and we’ve since implemented that practice to all of our stores.

One other thing we found that didn’t quite work with the motion sensors was our outdoor storage yards. If the wind blew a little too hard, or if animals would slip in, they would trigger a police dispatch. What we did was configure the dispatch to only trigger if there was an outside motion trigger coupled with a breach of gate. By a little trial and error, we found the best solution to keep our store protected, all while eliminating any false alarms to our local police department.

Usually attached to any burglary alarm system is the fire alarm system. I bring this up as I want to talk about a technology that we’ve just begun implementing in our stores over the past 6 months that I think is definitely worth the investment. That being delayed egress fire exits. We had stores in this one market that were being just absolutely hammered with fire exit run outs. We had groups of people that would load up shopping carts full of buggies and push out of the fire exits where an idling pickup truck is waiting. We struggled to stop this trend and were hit with a brick wall; until we tested out the delayed egress.

If you’ve never seen these in action before, they’re pretty awesome. What happens is pretty simple. If someone attempts to open a fire exit, the door has a 10 second delay; meaning the alarm sounds, but the door cannot be physically opened for that time period. The only way this is circumvented is if the fire alarm is activated; then the door opens immediately. The first time our fire exit bandits hit a store with the new doors was priceless. The look of sheer terror and panic on their face as they tried to get out the store, but couldn’t was pure awesomeness. This install, while an investment, has already shown to have not only great potential, but has already given us results.

As with any system, there isn’t a “one size fits all” plan. I encourage everyone to do their own homework when it comes to protecting your store when you’re not there. I guarantee that you can find a balance between your store needs and your budget. While with any new system, there is always an investment to be made, think of this as an investment that you can’t afford not to take.

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Retail Security

April 5, 2016 by Leave a Comment

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Retail security is a big concern for retailers.  Billions of dollars are lost yearly due to employe theft and shoplifting.  But having the security in place is not necessarily enough, training personnel-Management and hourly employees-is as vital to the success of the effectiveness of the security system as the security system itself.  It is true that many of the big retailers across the United States spend millions of dollars a year in security systems for their stores, but they also spend millions of dollars in cybersecurity as well.  The threat is real and the cost of a security breach is all too present.

For more about this topic follow the links below.

Retail Security: How Can Biometrics, Video Analytics and Other Innovation Cut Record Theft Losses and Boost Commercial Performance?

Retail crime hit a 10-year high in the 2013-14 financial year, with the £603m losses recorded by UK retailers 18% higher than those racked up in the previous 12 months.

Despite this, the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) annual crime survey also revealed that the volume of theft offences actually fell 4%. While conventional security technology – primarily CCTV and electronic product tags – has been effective at reducing petty shoplifting, a surge in gang-related bulk theft is soaring.

The average value of goods, money or services stolen now averages £241 per incident.

Clearly, the security industry must evolve its approach to tackle this growing threat.

As Retail week Live packs up for another year, we asked several security experts how the industry is harnessing – and could harness – the latest cutting-edge technology to improve not only retail security, but commercial performance too.

RBTE 2016: Data security must be retail’s priority in 2016

Essential Retail caught up with PCI Security Standards Council international director, Jeremy King, to talk all things related to data security in retail. King is speaking at RBTE in London, this afternoon.

Essential Retail (ER): What should be key data security priorities for organisations in 2016?

Jeremy King (JK): Simply put, reducing risk and making data security business-as-usual. Organisations cannot afford to do anything less -not with 90% of large organisations and 74% of small organisations suffering data breaches, and the average cost of a breach reaching well over £3 million.

The European government is introducing new regulations to protect customer data this year, which puts added pressure on organisations to demonstrate their data security efforts. Even though these regulations will not come into effect until late 2017 or early 2018, good data security takes time and effort, so organisations need to make this a priority now.

ER: What about top threats or areas of concern for retailers?

JK: Phishing continues to be an easy way for attackers to get into merchant systems – but it’s something that can be prevented. Retailers need to be aware of these attacks and others and train their employees on how to spot them and protect against them. This is where incidence response comes in. If we take the example of phishing, on average it still takes an organisation 23.7 days to resolve a cyberattack caused by phishing or social engineering! Improving security controls and processes to identify and detect attacks quickly, using the PCI Data Security Standards, and establishing an incidence response should also be a key concern for organisations in 2016.

The DIY Approach To Retail Data Security

As retailers tend to have more pressing day-to-day concerns than security — namely, selling their products to customers — it can be tempting for them to regularly presume, in acknowledging the endlessly escalating battle between cybercriminals and protective measure technologists, that the experts in the latter group will develop something to counteract whatever the bad guys come up with in short time.

Sometimes, that assumption is accurate.

In the recent instance of the XSS security vulnerabilities that befell the online shopping cart Zen Cart, for example, the company acted quickly to solve its own problem.

When researchers from Trustwave’s SpiderLabs Research team sussed out weaknesses in the Zen Cart application that could allow malicious actors to gain access to cookies, sensitive information and site defacement of online merchants that used the shopping cart, they informed Zen Cart of the situation and immediately began working with the company to develop a fix.

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Investing In A Security System For Your Store

March 31, 2016 by Leave a Comment

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Many big retailers do not think twice about investing in CCTV systems for their stores. Among other theft preventive measures, CCTV systems’s cost is minuscule when compared to the theft these retailers face.  Many small retail shops forego the use of CCTV systems or other preventive measures due to the cost involved initially, although the losses they suffer are more substantial than those associated with the cost of a loss prevention system.  If you are thinking the investment you are doing to prevent theft is not worth the cost, think again.  The retail industry loses billions of dollars yearly due to employee theft and shoplifting. Acquiring a security system for your store regardless of the size is worth the investment.

For more about this topic, follow the links below.

Loss Prevention Essentials: Electronic Article Surveillance Technology Helps Enhance Sales and Protect Profits

Systems must be properly managed in order to be effective.

Electronic article surveillance, or EAS, systems have long been a staple in the battle to curb shoplifting. Retailers over the years have collectively spent millions of dollars to protect their merchandise from shoplifters and, in some cases, their own employees. Like many major expenses, when the technology is first purchased and installed a concentrated effort is made by the loss prevention teams to train store associates on the proper processes and procedures that need to be performed in order to realize the most benefits that the technologies deliver. But like other big purchases one makes, time and in-attention to details takes their toll. Liken to the shining new toy that you got as a child for Christmas long ago, as time goes on and the allure of the toy begins to diminish, it all too often starts to be ignored. Technology investments like EAS often suffer the same situation, exit alarms start are dismissed without action, proper tag placement on merchandise begins to stray and even the simple process of testing the systems to ensure they are working are overlooked.

HBC settles race complaint from shopper, agrees to educate staff on profiling

​HALIFAX – The Hudson’s Bay Company has agreed to educate its staff on racial profiling as part of a settlement in the case of a now-deceased Nova Scotia grandmother allegedly accused of shoplifting a rug.

African Canadian Kathleen Viner filed a complaint with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission alleging that two employees discriminated against her at a now-closed Zellers store in Greenwood, N.S., in 2008.

Viner, then a 77-year-old grandmother of 13, was stopped by a security guard “and made to feel she had stolen a rug,” according to an affidavit from her daughters, Shelley and Donna.

Viner provided proof she had bought the rug, but the incident left her shaken, her daughters said.

OBPD attempts to help local businesses prevent shoplifting

Osage Beach
Retail loss is one of the most challenging aspects of doing business.
According to the National Retail Federation, shoplifting accounts for 38 percent of an estimated $44 billion in retail losses each year. Inventory shrinkage includes shoplifting, employee/internal theft, administrative errors and vendor fraud or error.
The Osage Beach Police Department wants to help area merchants slow that retail loss, a loss that ultimately is passed along to consumers.
The OBPD hosted a Meet and Greet Partnership Meeting recently with nine retailers to discuss retail theft issues, to give pointers and allow retailers to share tips and trends. Several area businesses, law enforcement, financial institutions and prosecuting attorneys were invited.
Sgt. Arlyne Page, communications officer with OBPD, said the department began a crime prevention program in 1981, and more recently has held meetings with Osage Beach Premium Outlet managers to coordinate prevention efforts among retailers. Target store management encouraged meetings last spring, and a month ago asked the OBPD to host a meeting on shoplifting and retail and digital fraud.

 

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Retail Stores Fighting Shoplifters

March 24, 2016 by Leave a Comment

shoplifting5In the UK the number of women apprehended for shoplifting has increased, and has been linked to the fact that they do no longer get government benefits.  In the United States shoplifting has increased with millions of dollars lost due to shoplifting every year, and the increase in prices has led many thieves to shoplift items that were unthinkable not too long ago.  With the increase of beef prices for example, the number of thieves stealing package meat has reached an all time high. Stores across the country are even considering putting anti-theft packaging on their meat products to prevent thieves from shoplifting it.

For more about this topic, follow the links below.

Retailers Fight Theft at Every Turn

As workplace theft remains a constant issue for retail operations, c-stores continue to look for new means to complement tried-and-true theft prevention strategies, as 2016 progresses.

Theft by employees, of both stock and cash, is now among retailers’ top three areas of concern, according to the “US Retail Fraud Survey 2015” conducted by Retail Knowledge, a retail fraud and loss prevention firm. Cash theft, which grew 2% in 2015 is the second biggest concern followed by administrative loss (23%) and shoplifting (11%).

“We can see from consecutive surveys that the amount spent by companies on loss prevention offline has dropped over 30% in the last two years,” said Mark Emmott, director of Retail Knowledge. Meanwhile, money spent on online loss prevention has doubled. “It may be that cutting budgets on loss prevention in some areas have made it easier, in a tough economic environment, for good people to make bad choices,” he added.

NOVEL STRATEGY
This past January, Crime Stoppers and Canada-based Mac’s Convenience Stores joined popular Canadian comic book hero, Captain Canuck, as part of the comic’s 40th Anniversary edition. The issue is being distributed exclusively and free of charge at Mac’s, and through local Crime Stopper programs across Canada.

Retail Security: How Can Biometrics, Video Analytics and Other Innovation Cut Record Theft Losses and Boost Commercial Performance?

Retail crime hit a 10-year high in the 2013-14 financial year, with the £603m losses recorded by UK retailers 18% higher than those racked up in the previous 12 months.

Despite this, the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) annual crime survey also revealed that the volume of theft offences actually fell 4%. While conventional security technology – primarily CCTV and electronic product tags – has been effective at reducing petty shoplifting, a surge in gang-related bulk theft is soaring.

The average value of goods, money or services stolen now averages £241 per incident.

Clearly, the security industry must evolve its approach to tackle this growing threat.

As Retail week Live packs up for another year, we asked several security experts how the industry is harnessing – and could harness – the latest cutting-edge technology to improve not only retail security, but commercial performance too.

Operation Molten Iron targets retail theft

JEFFERSON COUNTY — The Jefferson County D.A.’s office says it’s spent several weeks working with Vestavia Hills and Birmingham police to investigate a retail crime ring. During the operation, about $55,000 worth of merchandise was stolen from stores. To stop thefts, the agencies worked with retail chains operating around the county. Those retailers donated merchandise, and offered help from their workers.

The efforts resulted in three arrests- and the D.A. says more are on the way. Law enforcement officers also recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in vehicles and store merchandise. They also found 15 pounds of marijuana in one location.

 

 

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