Store Crime Has Local Leaders Waging War on Dollar Stores
Cities across the country are pushing back on dollar stores in part because of crime

As Dollar Stores Proliferate, Some Communities Say No

More than 70 proposed dollar stores have been rejected since 2019, a report shows. It's a small number compared with those that opened but evidence of opposition to the industry.

There is a movement of municipalities across the United States that have pushed back against the dollar store industry's rapid growth during the pandemic.

Since 2019, at least 75 communities have voted down proposed dollar stores, while roughly 50 have enacted moratoriums or other broad limits on dollar store development, according to a new report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an organization that is critical of corporate retailers and their impact on communities.

By comparison, from 2015 to 2018, about 25 communities voted down proposed dollar stores while only six enacted moratoriums or ordinances limiting their growth.

Rural, Republican-leaning communities in places like southern Virginia and North Carolina are pushing back against dollar stores. (In 2020, President Donald J. Trump easily carried Morgan, Minn.) And leaders in cities like Toledo, Ohio, and Birmingham, Ala., have also mounted opposition, saying the stores are fueling crime and unhealthy food choices. Across Georgia, 18 cities and towns have restricted dollar store development, according to the think tank's report.

Ms. Cochran-Johnson, a Democrat, was elected to the ommission in 2019. The next year, she persuaded the commission to pass a moratorium on dollar store developments in DeKalb County.

The moratorium ended in December, but the county is putting into effect new requirements for dollar stores, including that they install video surveillance in their stores and parking lots and turn over security camera footage to the police within 72 hours of a crime.

Regarding the issue of crime, Dollar Tree said, "We continually invest in deploying proven crime-reduction technologies in stores located in higher-crime areas and use risk-based analysis and tactics to reduce incidents in our stores." The company added that it turned over surveillance footage whenever law enforcement requested it. nytimes.com


Walmart Crime Closure?
Some shoppers say Walmart is closing an Albuquerque store over rampant crime

The Albuquerque Police Department reportedly had 708 calls to service at or near the store in 2022.

The San Mateo Boulevard store is set to close on March 10 after opening in July 1985, according to Walmart spokeswoman Lauren Willis. The store has 287 employees, all of which are eligible to transfer to another store in the area.

Walmart did not answer questions about whether crime rates at the Albuquerque location were responsible for the decision to close it. But Albuquerque police officers had their hands full with the store in the past year. The Albuquerque Journal reports that 708 calls were made requesting police service at or near the store in 2022.

"There is no single cause for why a store closes," Willis told Insider. "We do a thorough review of how a store performs and weigh many factors before making the difficult decision to close a facility."

She added that the Albuquerque Police Department "has been a great partner and we are extremely appreciative of their efforts to combat crime at this store."

The Walmart is one of at least eight stores closing soon across five states and the District of Columbia. These closures come months after Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon warned in December that select "stores will close" if high theft rates didn't slow down.

The San Mateo Boulevard store itself is located in Albuquerque's International District, which has been called by locals the "War Zone" for decades due to high levels of criminal activity. businessinsider.com


Mall Shootings Prompt Apple Store Closure
Apple Shutters Store in North Carolina After 3 Shootings in 75 Days

Northlake Mall in Charlotte, North Carolina saw a third shooting incident in 75 days

An Apple store in Charlotte, North Carolina saw its doors closed permanently on Wednesday, following three nearby shootings in three months, Bloomberg reported. The store in Northlake Mall was open for business in the morning, before staff were told that the location would be closing immediately, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.

The previous night, the mall suffered its third shooting in 75 days - and second in February - according to local news station WSOC-TV.

Nobody was injured during the incident outside a Macy's store, police said, nor was anyone hurt after a single shot was fired on February 5. An incident on December 15 outside a jewelry store in the mall, however, saw a 19-year-old charged with attempted murder, per WSOC-TV.

The Northlake Mall Apple store's website says it is "temporarily closed" at the top. A statement reads: "In preparation for a new store we plan to open in the Charlotte area early next year, we will be permanently closing Wednesday, March 1st at 4pm."

Plans for that new store were underway before the shootings, Bloomberg reported, but people familiar with the situation told the outlet that the recent violence contributed to the decision. businessinsider.com


New Mexico's Retail Theft Bill Update
Editorial: Get retail theft bill to governor's desk

"There's no question that organized retail crime is having a detrimental impact on the bottom line for New Mexico businesses, especially small ones. This cowardly crime also means higher prices for New Mexican consumers - it's time to crack down on organized retail theft."

- Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Jan. 30 news release

Our governor was channeling every retail business owner and every law-abiding customer in the state when she announced her support of House Bill 234, which will target the plague of theft rings that send folks out to steal $499.99 over, and over, and over again.

State Attorney General Hector Balderas made the case for HB 234 last year, saying "it is more profitable now to go and steal from our local retailers than it is to sell drugs and guns in New Mexico." He told KRQE-TV "what's occurring is you have major drug dealers sending out armies of shoplifters into these retail centers, and they're stealing these goods and exchanging them for fentanyl and other drugs."

So it is heartening that so far, our state lawmakers are listening and voting to finally protect our businesses and our consumers. As Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce says, "employees are scared and employers feel helpless."

HB 234, sponsored by Albuquerque Democrats Marian Matthews, Natalie Figueroa, Antonio Maestas and Speaker Javier Martínez, has been honed to focus on aggregating the crimes so these repeat shoplifters are charged with felonies, not misdemeanors, and on the coordinated and planned gang element of the crimes.

The bill is headed to the House floor, where it deserves swift passage. Ditto for the Senate.

The governor has made it clear she sides with business owners and consumers on this one, that no one should feel scared and helpless in the face of rampant retail theft. Let's get HB 234 to her desk and take back our retail operations, for N.M. business owners and consumers. abqjournal.com


Record-Breaking Theft Across the Globe
Record retail theft puts pressure on Australian supermarket giants
Retail theft has hit record levels in Australia, government statistics show, putting pressure on grocery giants Woolworths Group Ltd and Coles Group Ltd that are already struggling with soaring supply costs and freight blockages.

Store theft rose 23.7% in New South Wales, the home state of a third of Australians, from 2021 to 2022, state government figures showed on Thursday, the fastest year-on-year increase since records began in 1995.

Queensland, Australia's third-largest state, had the highest monthly rate of shop stealing on record this January, according to publicly available police data.

The data underscores concerns raised by analysts and social researchers that surging living costs - from grocery shelf prices to power bills to mortgages - will drive up crime. That may impact profit at Woolworths and Coles, which together ring up two-thirds of Australian grocery sales and noted rising store theft in trading updates last month.

"Supermarkets operate on very thin profit margins. You only need a small change in the stock loss to have an impact on profitability," he added. Supermarkets refer to goods lost to theft, expiry or payment error as stock losses.

Woolworths and Coles declined to comment. On a Feb. 22 earnings call with analysts, Coles Chief Operating Officer Matt Swindells said the company was experiencing "elevated theft" and was investing in staff training and technology to counteract it.  reuters.com


'Crime Doesn't Pay': Chicago Violence Sinks Mayor's Re-Election
Lori Lightfoot's critics sound off on Chicago mayor losing re-election

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat, lost her re-election bid Tuesday night, and critics are celebrating the end of her term.

Under Lightfoot, Chicago has seen soaring crime rates, which became a theme of her opponents' criticism. In 2021, homicides in Chicago rose to their highest numbers in 25 years, outpacing other crime-ridden cities like New York City and Los Angeles.

Throughout her tenure, the mayor has been blasted for her poor relationship with law enforcement, as the city's police department lost a significant number of officers in recent years amid the rise in crime.

After the mayor's defeat, critics wasted no time in expressing their pleasure on Twitter that Chicago will soon have new leadership, touching primarily on the city's crime wave.

Gianno Caldwell, a Fox News political analyst whose brother was killed in Chicago last summer, wrote that the Lori Lightfoot "experiment" is "officially over. Thank you, CHICAGO."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., wrote, "Lori Lightfoot. Crime doesn't pay."  foxnews.com


NYC agrees to pay up to $6 million to hundreds of protesters roughed up by the NYPD during George Floyd demonstrations

WS Chamber Public Safety Roundtable covered police training, crime trends and more
 

 
How COVID Impacted Business Budgets
Reconsidering Financial Budgeting after a Pandemic

Business budgets might not look quite the same after COVID-19. With these tips, companies can get back on track with their budgeting in the post-COVID world.

After years of dealing with the impact of COVID-19 on their budgets, companies are beginning to get back to a sense of normalcy. Businesses may be able to stick more closely to their budgets, but creating a budget in the post-COVID world might look a little different than it did before.

1. Know Your New Normal - Across every industry, major adjustments were made due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of those changes may be scaled back, while others are here to stay. New health standards, work-from-home options, online shopping offerings, and supply-chain adaptations may become permanent solutions for businesses. When building a budget after COVID-19, businesses must determine what the new normal is and how it will affect cash flow moving forward.

2. Forecast, Forecast, Forecast - With some pandemic-related hardships in the rearview mirror, forecasting can enable businesses to take a look at past performance and anticipate how to get through economic uncertainty that may loom on the horizon.

3. Rebuild Your Emergency Fund - When it comes to an emergency fund, size matters. Plan for major events with a large enough fund to cover expenses for several months.

4. Payback Is a Cinch - Be sure to understand what needs to be paid back and whether forgiveness guidelines have been met. Decide the best way to pay back debts.

5. Be Realistic - Using more conservative estimates for revenue and growth can keep goals more in line with reality. This is an opportunity to look at where the company is headed. cpapracticeadvisor.com


The Post-COVID Lockdown Retail Comeback in China
From condoms to cosmetics, China sales grow as lockdowns end
The world's top consumer and luxury goods companies have seen sales of everything from cosmetics to condoms grow in China since Beijing ended strict COVID-19 curbs, another sign that the world's No. 2 economy is reviving after the pandemic.

Upbeat comments on Wednesday from Reckitt Benckiser, Nivea-maker Beiersdorf, Moncler and Puma came after data showing China's factory sector grew in February at the fastest pace in more than a decade.

"After a very volatile January, with traffic still heavily impacted by the release of COVID restrictions in December, we see a clear turnaround in retail sales starting in February," he said in a briefing for analysts. reuters.com


FBI director says COVID pandemic 'most likely' originated from Chinese lab
"The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Wray told Fox News in an interview that aired Tuesday. "Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab."

FDA authorizes first at-home test for both COVID and the flu

Troops discharged for refusal of vaccine now have pathway to rejoin military

Stores Shift from City Centers to the Suburbs
Another Blow to City Centers: Retail Stores Move Outward

Major brands are eschewing both downtowns and malls in favor of smaller residential locations in the US, compounding the financial strain of office vacancies.

After Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. closed a large store in Water Tower Place, a mall near Chicago's city center. It was one of a spate of pandemic-related retail closures in downtown urban neighborhoods that have since become permanent. But the clothing retailer had other plans in store.

At the end of 2021, the company opened a new boutique-style shop in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, where a large customer base was making online purchases.

It's part of a pattern among US retailers that are abandoning malls and large-format stores in city centers in favor of neighborhood locations that aim to serve the work-from-home generation. And while retail presence is shrinking in many big cities, apparel retailers' brick-and-mortar locations are growing overall. They're just moving outward, with smaller footprints in residential neighborhoods.

Brands including Macy's Inc. and Kohl's Corp. have taken on similar strategies, experimenting with new formats and neighborhoods. Macy's Chief Executive Officer Jeff Gennette said in January that customers now want to shop in the ZIP code in which they live, noting that "off-mall is quite attractive."

While the shift serves the retailers themselves, allowing them to meet their customers closer to home, it threatens both metropolitan downtowns and traditional malls that for decades benefited from tax revenue and foot traffic generated by shoppers. Cities have already been suffering from a steep decline in office occupancy - which is currently at about 50% of pre-pandemic levels - and fewer retail stores in dense urban areas will only add to the trouble of luring people back. bloomberg.com


Judge Orders Starbucks to Reopen Stores & Reinstate Workers
Sen. Bernie Sanders is also forcing a vote to subpoena Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz

Starbucks committed 'egregious' violations in battling union, judge rules

The judge's order requires the company to stop a long list of behaviors and reinstate workers who began a nationwide union drive

Starbucks committed "egregious and widespread" violations of federal labor law while trying to halt union campaigns, ruled a federal administrative law judge, who ordered the coffee giant to reopen closed stores and reimburse backpay and damages to employees who launched a nationwide organizing drive at the company.

Starbucks showed "a general disregard for the employees' fundamental rights," Judge Michael A. Rosas wrote in a 220-page order released Wednesday.

In resolving an extensive case that combined 33 unfair labor practices charges from 21 stores in the Buffalo area, Rosas held that the company retaliated against employees affiliated with Starbucks Workers United as they began a union drive in 2021. Since then, 268 of the roughly 9,000 company-owned U.S. stores have voted to unionize, and Starbucks's interim chief executive Howard Schultz has drawn the ire of liberal political leaders.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said Wednesday that he would force a vote to subpoena Schultz as part of a hearing about unionization efforts at Starbucks.

"To order a company to reopen stores that it's closed should be embarrassing for Starbucks," said Rebecca Givan, an associate professor of labor studies at Rutgers University.

Rosas's order requires Starbucks to halt a sweeping list of behaviors that include: retaliating against employees for unionizing; promising improved pay and benefits if workers renounced the union; surveilling union-supporting employees while on-site; refusing to hire prospective employees who back the union; and relocating union organizers to new stores to halt the group's activity, overstaffing stores ahead of union votes. washingtonpost.com  cnbc.com

RELATED: Starbucks employees sign petition to reverse return to office mandate and stop alleged union busting


Register Now: 2023 ISCPO Global Supply Chain Security Conference

April 11-13 at the 7-Eleven Store Support Center in Irving, Texas

There will be a wide range of topics related to global supply chain security, Ecommerce, industry trends, and investigations. As in year's past, the conference provides a great venue to network with global industry peers, transportation/logistics professionals, law enforcement, and select vendor partners.

We encourage Solution Providers to participate in this event. Those interested should submit requests to Rhett Asher at Rhett.Asher@iscpo.org or Byron Smith at Byron.Smith@iscpo.org.

Agenda Topics

• Social Media Investigations
• Workplace Violence and Police Interaction
• Human Recourses in a Challenging Labor Market
• Unions in Supply Chain
• Human Trafficking in the Supply Chain
• Global eCommerce Security

By attending the conference you'll stay ahead of the latest technologies, manage risk across all supply chain channels, and bring best practices back to your company.

   Register now


Walmart and Poshmark are the latest to cut jobs as layoffs creep into the retail world
Here's the full list of major retailers that have laid off workers in 2023.

Dollar Tree ramping up store growth as momentum continues
Dollar Tree operates 16,340 stores across 48 states and five Canadian provinces

Consumer confidence slips again in February, Conference Board says

Retailers Face a Growing Number of Cyber Threats
Fortifying Your Retail Operations in the Face of Growing Cyber Threats
In today's fast-paced retail and consumer industry, the shift towards hybrid shopping is rapidly changing the way retailers do business. As the shift to hybrid shopping persists, however, it also creates new security challenges for retailers and wholesalers to protect sensitive customer information and its supply chain network.

To protect themselves and their customers, retailers and wholesalers must take proactive measures to stay ahead of the curve in terms of technology and security. Here are some key recommendations to keep in mind:

1. Stop Blaming the User: Traditionally, the blame has been placed on the user for clicking on malicious links, but it's time for the focus to shift towards training and providing the right technology to protect users from falling victim. Implementing strong multi-factor authentication (MFA) can prevent unauthorized access and limit the impact of a potential attack. Additionally, retailers should regularly monitor their systems, restrict access to servers and applications to the minimum required carry out their jobs, and design their networks such that in case of a breach, its impact can be contained and confined to a specific region.

2. Reduce your Attack Surface: Prioritizing discovery of sensitive assets on your perimeter, understanding your exposure to phishing attacks and reducing those attack surfaces further contribute to holistic security. Finally, organizations must extend their asset management programs to include source code, credentials and other data that could already exist on the internet or dark web.

3. Speed up Response Times: Quickly identifying and mitigating threats can help minimize the damage and prevent a ripple effect throughout the supply chain. For retailers, a rapid response to a cyberattack is crucial in protecting their customers' sensitive information and financial data. With numerous transactions being processed every day, a breach in security can lead to widespread financial fraud and a tarnished reputation.

4. Think Like an Attacker and Continuously Test: By regularly performing threat hunting, penetration testing, and red teaming, retailers can identify weaknesses and improve their security posture, protecting their customers' sensitive information and financial data.

5. Fortify Data with Artificial Intelligence: By leveraging the power of data and artificial intelligence, retailers can proactively enhance their cybersecurity posture. AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data to identify patterns and anomalies that could signal a potential threat, allowing retailers to detect and respond to cyber-attacks faster, more accurately and efficiently. chainstoreage.com


Biden to Congress: Renew Surveillance Tool That Helps Battle Cyberthreats 
White House faces deeply skeptical Congress as it advocates for controversial surveillance tool

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which expires in December, is in perhaps its most precarious position yet.

As the Biden administration begins its campaign to urge Congress to renew a controversial surveillance provision that authorizes intelligence agencies to carry out warrantless data collection, it will face a skeptical Congress where distrust of government spying runs deep.

Those signs of early opposition to the law, which is set to expire at the end of this year, may be the reason the White House has started to publicly push for its renewal 10 months before 702 expires. In statements released Tuesday and during an event at the Brookings Institution the same day, top law enforcement and national security officials made their case that 702 has become an essential tool for protecting Americans against a growing number of threats.

"The Biden-Harris Administration strongly supports the reauthorization by Congress of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a vital intelligence collection authority," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement released Tuesday. "This authority is an invaluable tool that continues to protect Americans every day and is crucial to ensuring that U.S. defense, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies can respond to threats from the People's Republic of China, Russia, nefarious cyber actors, terrorists, and those who seek to harm our critical infrastructure."

The intelligence community has posed losing the tool as disastrous for U.S. national security, including against growing cybersecurity threats. "Section 702 is critical to our ability to understand the nature of the cyber attacks that we face on a consistent basis from nation states - China, Russia, Iran," U.S. Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said at the Brookings event.

Examples of threats to U.S. national security foiled by Section 702 intelligence include identifying foreign ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure, according to the Justice Department. Officials say getting information to stop such attacks fast enough without Section 702 would be impossible. cyberscoop.com


The Cybersecurity Benefits of Making Developers Key Team Players
Developers can make a great extension of your security team
Developers care about the quality and security of their code, and when empowered to help, developers make great security advocates who can help harden your supply chain security while reducing the burden on DevOps and security teams. Introducing security tools that allow developers to own code security within their existing development process can increase early risk identification and simplify the process of mitigating risks, slowing the growth of (or even reducing) vulnerability backlogs.

Organizations are growing wise to the benefits of decentralizing security efforts and incorporating developers in their hardening processes. Some studies have even found evidence that developer-integrated security practices are a sign of maturity seen in successful security organizations. In an annual study, the Building Security in Maturity Model (BSIMM) team found that all 10 of the firms with highest BSIMM scores had implemented satellite teams that augment security efforts, and that these same satellite teams were missing from all 10 of the lowest scoring firms.

A complete approach to supply chain security must include developer security champions. Developers should not only be included in the security process, but they should also be empowered to act on known risks with developer-oriented security tools that work within their existing development process. helpnetsecurity.com


'Catastrophic' Breach of Password Management Service
LastPass breach: Hacker accessed corporate vault by compromising senior developer's home PC
LastPass is, once again, telling customers about a security incident related to the August 2022 breach of its development environment and subsequent unauthorized access to the company's third-party cloud storage service that hosted backups:

"The threat actor leveraged information stolen during the first incident, information available from a third-party data breach, and a vulnerability in a third-party media software package to launch a coordinated second attack."

The results of both breaches are catastrophic and the list of data and secrets stolen/compromise as a result is extensive. helpnetsecurity.com


CISOs Share Their 3 Top Challenges for Cybersecurity Management

Microsoft Exchange admins advised to expand antivirus scanning

Orange County, CA: 2 arrested for over $460,000 in stolen merchandise
Two suspects were arrested in Orange County for obtaining nearly half a million dollars worth of stolen goods on Feb. 24. The suspects were identified as Jesus Ortiz, 48 from Lynwood, and Yolanda De La Rosa, 49 from Anaheim, by the California Highway Patrol. An investigation into an organized group of retail thieves began in January, led by agents with the CHP Border Division's Organized Retail Crime Task Force (ORCTF). Authorities witnessed "multiple suspects arriving and delivering suspected stolen property to an apartment in Anaheim," while investigating. Two other locations in Bellflower and Lynwood were also found to be associated with the organized theft crew, said CHP. On Feb. 24, authorities served a search warrant and discovered 14,018 stolen items worth over $463,746.27 among the three locations.  ktla.com


South Hill, WA: Theft suspect caught after GPS tracker hidden in stolen items
Pierce County deputies caught a shoplifting suspect Monday after following a GPS tracker built into the stolen merchandise. Deputies were called to a beauty store near Meridian Ave E and 168th St E in South Hill. Employees reported a man walked in and stole $2,862 worth of fragrances, then left. Employees also said one of those bottles had a GPS tracker on it. Law enforcement tracked the GPS, which showed the suspect was in the parking lot of a nearby department store. Deputies went there and found the man's car, then went into the store, where they found and arrested him. Authorities say the man was carrying the stolen merchandise in his backpack. The suspect reportedly told deputies he planned to sell the stolen items for "blues"-meaning fentanyl pills. Deputies searched the suspect's car, where they found more items stolen from a nearby store.  q13fox.com


Fort Lauderdale, FL: Moment alleged thieves steal $30K worth of jewelry as accomplices distract staff
The moment a group of alleged thieves stole $30,000 worth of jewelry at a Florida department store while their accomplices distracted a staff member has been caught on surveillance footage. Fort Lauderdale Police have released this clip of a group of four people they are looking to identify in connection with the theft at a Macy's store on 18 February. Two suspects distracted an employee while the other two stole the goods. independent.co.uk


Baton Rouge, LA: Officers arrest woman tied to 'dozens' of theft cases; accused of hitting same store 3 times in 5 days
A woman accused of being tied to dozens of thefts totaling thousands of dollars was arrested Wednesday, officers say. Arrest documents from the Baton Rouge Police Department say that Morgan Derozan, 20, is tied to multiple thefts from in and around Baton Rouge. The first theft the documents report is from Nordstrom in the Mall of Louisiana in early December 2022. Officers say Derozan, along with four others, two identified as Twanne and Joshua Derozan, stole approximately $1,100 worth of merchandise. Police also say that between Dec. 26 and Dec. 30, the five entered the DSW shoe store outside of the mall and stole $1,000 worth of brand-name shoes on three separate occasions. Each time, when employees attempted to stop them, Derozan threatened them with violence. During BRPD's investigation, officers found the group was allegedly tied to a different theft at Walmart on Old Hammond Highway from Dec. 31. The group was also arrested in Gonzales on Jan. 4 for felony theft charges. Police said the group has been allegedly tied to dozens of felony thefts. Derozan was arrested through BRPD for four counts of organized retail theft between $5,000 and $25,000 as well as two counts of simple robbery.  wbrz.com


Lehigh Valley, PA: $3K worth of over-the-counter meds stolen in pair of thefts from CVS

Springfield Township, PA: Macy's Assat Protection nab Polo thieve with $1000 of merchandise

Springfield Township, PA: Police arrest suspect in Best Buy theft; electronics recovered in nearby motel