According to the statistics by the National Association for Shoplifting prevention the habitual shoplifter steals 1.6 times a week. And although that is an alarming amount, the fact is that theft by employees surpasses theft by the outside shoplifter. The amount they steal is alarmingly higher compared to what the outside shoplifter takes from the store. So how do you prepare your business to mitigate the loses it will suffer from employees and shoplifters alike? Is having up to date inventory data readily available one of the solutions? Is prosecuting the employee no matter the amount the way to go? For more about this and other stories follow the links below.
To Stop Or Not to Stop the Shoplifter: Is This Still a Question?
A male shoplifting suspect has been coming into store 153 three times a week for as long as anybody can remember. Store management has even attributed this guy as a major cause of the store’s shrink woes that have put them on the corporation’s “target store” list for the last two inventory cycles. As the store’s loss prevention agent, you have tried to stop him in the past, but it seems like you have always been just one step behind him and unable to make the shoplifter apprehension.
“Today is going to be different,” you say to yourself.
You can feel it. Today he is finally going to get what’s coming to him, and, more importantly, your apprehension dry spell is going to end. No more excuses needed for the boss. Today you are going to be stopping the shoplifter that nobody else has been able to get.
You have spent the last ten minutes following the suspect through the store, tracking him carefully from the moment he entered. You know and understand the steps of the apprehension process. You have observed him approach, select, and conceal multiple computer accessories that you estimate to be worth over $200.
Seven things retail can teach us all about data security
TalkTalk’s Dido Harding isn’t the first CEO to receive advice from cyber experts safely installed on the This Morning sofa and she won’t be the last. The boardrooms of British Gas, Vodafone and Morrisons have all recently played data-breach bingo and we all now accept it’s ‘when’ not ‘if’.
But retailers have been dealing with theft for a very long time. They call it ‘shrinkage’ – when stock leaves a store by any non-legitimate route and surprisingly, shoplifting comes a distant second to theft by staff. Since retailers need staff they’ve had to concentrate on mitigation rather than eradication.
The information security community would do well to take heed here. The biggest tool most companies have against the insider threat – data theft by staff – is a strongly worded statement. Even then, access to information is so poor that management can’t deliver on any threats. Too much attention still goes on preventing the external attack – the shoplifter.
Retail security is a term with two very different and distinct meanings in the retail environment. In one aspect, retail security is an outdated and understated term for a critical sales support function. In the early years of the profession, most companies called this aspect of the workforce the “Security” or “Protection” department. Security teams served as a real and visible force to combat losses in the stores. Uniformed guards would stand at the doors or walk the selling floors. Undercover security agents were eventually brought on to catch shoplifters. Security managers coordinated these efforts, and also handled internal theft issues. Programs typically assumed a reactive and one-dimensional approach; responding to issues as they occurred and working to keep the stores safe and secure. Unfortunately, while this reactionary approach was often expected and requested by retail leadership, it was not conducive to true retail success.
Over the years, responsibilities continued to increase, and these departments were looked at in a different way. It became increasingly apparent that in order to benefit the overall organization the industry would have to evolve, embracing the concepts of retail shrink reduction and incorporating concepts critical to the retail culture.
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