John Butrim, Director of National Accounts, ADT Security
Named to Security Systems News "20 Under 40" Class of 2018 Winners

Security Systems News is proud to recognize another class of promising young professionals with its "20 under 40" awards. The Class of 2018 is the first time that Security Systems News has chosen to bring its formerly separate classes of "20 under 40" Integrators and End Users into one unified group, further emphasizing the value of this year's winners.

As Director of national accounts for ADT Security, John Butrim, 37, focuses on the multi-family and homeowners' association (HOA) divisions, including sales, installation and customer service.

Butrim originally started in security in 2007 at Brinks, work he found very rewarding. "It has been an industry that I like because we are helping to protect homeowners, their families and their pets-it has been a fun journey in the alarm industry." More recently, in the Multifamily vertical, John and his team have shown owners how to increase revenue through monitored security and smart technology.

In the area of self-betterment, Butrim is enrolled at Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, where he is earning his executive MBA in his spare time while he continues in his current role at ADT. "I want to partner with people and executives from different industries and understand what they have done in their industries when they were in a similar situation instead of just looking at what the security industry has done," he said. securitysystemsnews.com

   See the full list of this year's "20 Under 40" winners here.
 

City Furniture Prevents Identity Theft with Intellicheck's Retail ID Mobile
City Furniture is protecting customers and non-customers alike from the damaging impact of identity theft with a cutting-edge technology solution now in place at their twenty-nine locations across Florida including their newly unveiled showroom and warehouse at Ocoee. Anyone attempting to use a fraudulent ID to make a purchase or open an account will be unsuccessful because of the deployment of Intellicheck's (NYSE AMERICAN: IDN) fraud fighting app, Retail ID Mobile. This state-of-the-art technology solution provides real-time customer identification authentication that prevents fraud, while providing a seamless customer experience. apnews.com

CONTROLTEK Ranks Among the Top 10 Retail Security Solution Providers by Retail CIO Outlook
CONTROLTEK, an emerging leader in retail product protection, has made Retail CIO Outlook's 2018 list of the "Top 10 Retail Security Solution Providers" for its comprehensive line of secure packaging products that help the nation's leading banks, armored couriers and retailers transport cash safely and securely, and boost loss prevention efforts. controltekusa.com

'CONTROLTEK FlatGuard Offender Report' Released by the LPRC
Leading retail researcher and industry organization, the Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC), has conducted new study on the first EAS tag made specifically for small leather goods, the FlatGuard, made by emerging retail product protection leader, CONTROLTEK.

The study consisted of exposing ten known offenders to the FlatGuard technology and taking them through LPRC's "See-Get-Fear" interview protocol. "Offender reactions to the FlatGuard seemed to support a story of overall deterrence," the report states. "They rated the tag highly as a deterrent, and indicated by and large that the tag would result in them abandoning their plan to steal the protected product."

   For more information and to download a copy of the report, click this link.

LPRC: The Most Commonly Stolen Items During The Holiday Season
While some items, such as electronics, may seem like obvious targets of theft, others may surprise you. Here is a list of the most commonly targeted items by retail thieves based on research by the Loss Prevention Research Council.

● High-end Smart Phones and Other Electronics
● Designer Clothing and Accessories
● Athletic and Casual Footwear
● High-end Cosmetics
● Alcohol and Tobacco
● Common Household Goods  lpresearch.org
 

Luxury goods giant Richemont UK found guilty of racism
The Times reported on Wednesday that Richemont UK‚ the umbrella group for brands including Alfred Dunhill‚ Chloè and Purdey‚ the gunmaker to the royal family‚ had instructed private detectives to spy on one of its London employees after she complained about race discrimination.

Judges at the central London employment tribunal found that 56-year-old Cheryl Spragg‚ who was employed in the accountants' department at Richemont's offices in London‚ was the victim of racial discrimination.

One of the most extreme examples of discrimination against Spragg was when she was "snubbed" by a group of colleagues who refused to travel with her in an office lift‚ reported The Times. The tribunal found that Richemont's human resources team at first attempted to discourage and then tried to suppress Spragg's discrimination complaint.

The ruling cited evidence from another employee at the company's London office‚ who was Malaysian Chinese‚ that the working environment was rife with "casual racism" that staff were expected "just to put up with". timeslive.co

   Richemont Responds to Racial Discrimination Allegations in the U.K.

Under Armour: New report on the company's culture was 'tough to read'
Under Armour is telling employees that it will fix the company's culture after a report in The Wall Street Journal revealed a practice that had allowed employees to charge strip club visits to their corporate cards.

In a letter obtained by CNN Business, CEO Kevin Plank and President Patrik Frisk told employees late Monday that the Journal story was "tough to read."

"This is not the culture we envision for Under Armour," they wrote. Plank and Frisk said the company will hasten a "meaningful cultural transformation" that they say is already happening at Under Armour. "We can and will do better," they added.

The letter was sent after the Journal reported earlier Monday that Under Armour (UA) told employees in an email in February that it would no longer reimburse certain expenses, including adult entertainment and gambling. Read the full letter to UA employees here: cnn.com

Read Google CEO's response to employee sexual harassment protests
Google CEO Sundar Pichai just sent a memo to employees detailing changes to its sexual harassment and misconduct policies in the wake of massive protests last week.

More than 20,000 Google employees walked out of their offices Thursday following a bombshell New York Times report that detailed how the company has shielded executives accused of sexual misconduct, with organizers demanding concrete changes like a new system for reporting abuse and an employee representative on the company's board. Read the full memo to employees here: cnbc.com

Majority of Travel Buyers Believe Female Business Travelers
Face Greater Risk on the Road
Nearly 7 in 10 (69 percent) U.S. travel buyers believe that female travelers generally face greater risk when traveling for business, according to new research released today by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), in partnership with WWStay. Additionally, 61 percent feel it is very important to consider female safety when implementing risk management programs.

Travel to certain countries/cities, sexual harassment and assault or kidnapping were reported as the top safety concerns for women travelers. gbta.org
 

What the CEOs Are Reading
Walmart' Town Centers: One More WOW!!!
Rocket Ship Walmart Commander CEO Doug McMillon
Put Your Jet Packs On & Hope You Can Follow Him - Or Find Another Job
Disruption ain't for the faint of heart. And McMillon is turning out to be the disruptor in chief, turning the lumbering behemoth into an agile, innovative startup.

They are reimagining their enormous supercenters along with the land and parking lots surrounding them. Walmart describes its vision as a Town Center concept. They are planning to lease the underutilized space to gyms, farmers markets, food halls, in-house and free-standing restaurants like Shake Shack, Caribou Coffee, Orangetheory Fitness, skateboard parks, ice rinks, dog parks, movie theatres, bowling alleys and a myriad of other entertainment and recreational facilities.

Walmart is building local lifestyle Town Centers as compelling go-to places where consumers, particularly the emerging Gen Z cohort, will want to spend some time hanging out.

Currently they are planning for more than a dozen Town Center concepts across the U.S. in Washington, Missouri, California, Texas and Arkansas, among other states. They intend to develop their first supercenter Town Center next spring in Longmont, Colorado, which includes 12 acres of adjacent vacant land around the supercenter as well as six to eight acres of underutilized parking space.

Beginning of the End of the Word, "Store"
This may very well spur an acceleration among the other major players who are defining their own strategies for building experiential communities: Macy's, Kohl's, Target and Nordstrom, among others. And old -world mall and shopping center developers/owners should take note. therobinreport.com

Sears Vendors Being Offered 55 Cents on the Dollar
Sears suppliers are getting lowball cash offers for receivables
The Sears bankruptcy has made suppliers to the retailer skittish - and some investors are looking to make a buck off the situation.

A group of distressed-debt purchasers has been floating lowball offers for the receivables of vendors who sold clothing, jewelry and home goods to Sears ahead of its Chapter 11 filing, sources told The Post.

Most offers this week range from 55 cents to 70 cents - sharply below rates that would more typically fall in "the high 80s," admits Adam Stein-Sapir of Pioneer Funding Group, a claims-trading firm.

The bids are for merchandise that was shipped to Sears within 20 days of its Oct. 15 bankruptcy filing - goods that typically would be paid in full under a Chapter 11 reorganization.

Last year, Toys 'R' Us vendors had expected to get paid in full after the toy giant filed for Chapter 11. Instead, they got 22 cents on the dollar after the toy retailer staged a surprise liquidation a few months later.

"These currently low offers are attempting to exploit the fear of administrative insolvency." nypost.com

How phone shop staff are making life easier for criminals to steal your money
Some of the nation's biggest mobile operators are making life easier for scammers by failing to carry out basic identity checks. An undercover investigation from the BBC's Watchdog Live found that as a result, staff in mobile phone shops are handing over replacement SIM cards to fraudsters, which can be used in the SIM swap scam to potentially empty victims' bank accounts. mirror.co.uk

The Birth of a Multibillion Industry - Security's New Frontier
ATKearney White Paper: The Next Gold Rush: Cannabis and Consumer Products
We are at ground zero for the birth of a multibillion-dollar industry, one CPGs and retailers will have a significant role in developing. atkearney.com

Holiday sales poised to be best since Great Recession
Holiday sales this year will be the best since the Great Recession, according to a new report by B. Riley FBR. Analysts led by Susan Anderson with the investment bank predict same-store sales at retailers they cover will rise 2.2% this holiday season, versus 1.6% in 2017 and 0.2% in 2016. They also anticipate an increase in gross margin of 45 basis points on average. In their analysis, the best-positioned retailers include Carter's, The Children's Place, American Eagle Outfitters, Guess, Urban Outfitters, Chico's, PVH Corp., G-III Apparel Group, L Brands, Hanesbrands and Hasbro. retaildive.com

Domino's Director, Safety Supply Chain Services job removed from website

N.J.-based Destination Maternity to close 280 stores over next 4 years

Amazon's new NYC jobs can't replace all the ones lost to the online-retail revolution

Facebook catches pop-up fever, opening first retail shop in 9 Macy's stores


Quarterly Results
Sally Beauty Holdings Q4 comp's down 0.2%, net sales down 0.8%
SpartanNash Q3 comp's down 1.9%, net sales down 3.7%

 

Florida Law Enforcement Property Recovery Unit 2018 Conference

Highlights First Retail Fusion Center and Recognizes
Law Enforcement and Retail Award Winners

The Florida Law Enforcement Property Recovery Unit annual conference proved once again why we are the premier law enforcement and private partnership conference within the State of Florida. This year's conference again surpassed the previous year's attendance with attendees representing 26 Sherriff's Offices, 29 Police Departments, and 15 retailers.

FLEPRU recognized Detectives Michael Wilds and Detective Eric Fernandez from the Sunrise Police Department as Investigators of the Year for a case involving a distraction theft group that were using fireworks to cause chaos and panic within malls throughout the Southeast United States to steal Rolex watches. We also recognized Lindsey Campbell from the Volusia County Sheriff's Office for her exceptional analytical support in several high profile violent crimes. The Business Partner of the Year recipient, Rick Gonzalez from Walgreens, was also recognized. Lt. Nancy Alvarez of the Monroe Sheriff's Office nominated Mr. Gonzales for his assistance during the Hurricane Irma relief response that devastated the Florida Keys in September of 2017.

This year's outstanding training curriculum started off with keynote speaker Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey. His inspirational speech, "Leadership From The Ledge", set the positive and motivational tone for the conference which was followed up by two and half days of exceptional training. The training concluded with interview & interrogation class presented by Dave Thompson from Wicklander-Zulawski (W-Z). I heard from a Detective with over ten years of experience that he learned more in the three hour presentation by Dave Thompson than he has learned in years of advanced law enforcement training he has attended.

Read the full recap here