Daylight savings time is over and for most of us in the U.S. (yes, there are a few exceptions) we have moved our clocks and groaned at the loss of a precious hour of sleep. We have to adjust and get used to the change and eventually we do. For our personal lives there isn’t a lot of impact, once we are used to it we do benefit from the additional daylight and get to enjoy more outdoor activity. The time change is useful as a reminder for changing batteries in smoke detectors. You may even use it as a point when you will start planning your summer vacations. For business owners daylight savings time can be a reminder that it is time to conduct a store physical security review. Time changes may not impact us much individually but for retailers there is an impact for the building, employees and your customers.
How does daylight impact your business? With more daylight you may want to take a look at your parking lot lighting. Are the lights on the exterior of the building set to timers? If they are it would be appropriate to set them to the new hours of dusk. Lights turning on too early wastes energy and drives up electric expenses. Having lights come on when it is already dark makes a parking lot feel unsafe and will keep shoppers away from your store. In an article from Buildings.com titled “4 Parking Security Essentials” by Jennie Morton, 11/30/2012, the author states, “Give your lighting a hard look stresses Geary Robinson, parking and transportation services director for Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and a member of IPI. Dark shadows that can conceal aggressors, reduced visibility for pedestrians and vehicles, and inadequate color rendering all chip away at safety.” The article continues, “Not sure if your parking area has a lighting problem? Look at the behavior of visitors. If people feel compelled to use their headlights in your garage or cars are grouped in your lot closest to light poles, these activities indicate that users may be uncomfortable with the level of darkness.” (Emphasis mine). If lighting is not adequate or if lamps are out, this is the perfect time to get them replaced. If you lease your property a call to your property management company is in order to get lights repaired or replaced.
Since we are talking about a thorough physical security review of the building I would recommend testing fire exit push bars. Are they alarming properly? Do the doors open easily? I once had a set of fire doors that would not close properly after testing the push bar and we could not reset the alarm. What if the opposite had been the problem? What would have happened had the doors not opened properly in an emergency situation? You cannot assume that systems will work simply because you want it to be so. While you are at the fire doors, check the fire exit lights, make sure they are lit. This can be difficult with some lights. While they may seem dim to you, some are designed this way. Ask the fire department to come to the store and test the lights to ensure they meet code requirements. By auditing and testing you identify potential issues and get them repaired so you can depend on them in the event you need them. You could also avoid hefty fines for safety violations in case of an inspection by the Fire Marshall.
Include testing of your burglary and fire alarm systems at this time. Your alarm system company should be able to walk you through a test of the burglary alarm system. Testing door alarm points and any motion sensors your store may have. You may also need to do a break glass test to be sure your system will pick up front door and window glass breaks. Fire alarm tests and sprinkler riser tests can be conducted through a third party vendor. You don’t need to be the expert in how to conduct the tests, just be sure to get them done.
Many people associate spring with a fresh start. Give your business a fresh start annually, use this time of the year as a reminder to check your safety measures. Keep your customers and employees safe while protecting your business from unnecessary fines or lawsuits.
When I was a Loss Prevention Manager we would catch a shoplifter or a dishonest employee and recover merchandise. Depending on the type of case we would sometimes hold the evidence for a few days until the court hearing other times it could be much longer. If a shoplifter refused to plead guilty or requested a jury trial cases could be held up for months if not longer. I had several cases that went on for more than a year. Felony shoplifting cases and juvenile cases in our jurisdiction often meant lengthy wait periods depending on caseloads in the court. I also recall at least one shoplifting case in which the lawyer for the defendant requested extensions three separate times hoping that I would not appear for the hearing and the case would be dropped. No dice, I showed up for each hearing and finally the lawyer entered a guilty plea. The problem with the lengthy cases was that we would have to hold the evidence until the cases were settled. In some situations the police department held the recovered merchandise, such as when they stopped the suspect after the suspect fled the store. When merchandise has to be held for long periods it is possible for it to sit in evidence and be forgotten about. For stores that are too small to have security or Loss Prevention Departments management may be storing that evidence and no one is thinking about following up on cases with their police department or court.
I recently read over an article opining the phrase “sales cures shrink”. While the author touched on both sides of the coin, I found it interesting that in today’s retail climate, anyone would think that you can simply sell your way out of losses. Let’s cut to the chase here; we’re not bringing in 20% increases over last year, hell we’re lucky to come in flat to last year. Online giants like Amazon are eating up market share like never before and if brick and mortar don’t do something fast, sales will continue to slump.
If you were asked what area of your store would present the most opportunity for employee theft and fraud, what would you answer? The checkout lanes where cashiers have access to the register, the ability to pass merchandise,
Light-When someone is looking to do no good to your property, they feel more secure if it looks like no one is home. The key is to confuse them and make them feel unsure. Remember, most burglars are lazy. If they are not sure about your house, they will move on. So you should have at least two light timers (three is better) set up and running seven days a week. These should be in different areas of the home and should come on and off at different times. Use the random or security feature found on most timers. This will vary the on/off time every day just a little in case someone is watching the house for a pattern. 
Each year retailers take inventory of their merchandise, counting what they have in the store, reconciling that information against sales receipts, vendor credits and receipts and markdowns. Usually the result is some amount of shortage or merchandise shrink due to merchandise that cannot be accounted for and losses due to certain markdowns and damaged products. I have in rare instances seen overages, but those are usually the result of offsets from prior year shortages often attributed to paperwork errors. The store objective each year should be to improve upon the prior year inventory result. Certainly the best case would be to have zero dollar shortages every year, but that is not a realistic expectation. I try to explain to employees that if one package of gum were to be stolen during the year, you have incurred shortage. There are steps a store owner or manager can take to work towards that yearly improvement and shoot for a zero dollar shrinkage year.
customer transaction.