Sensormatic Solutions by Johnson Controls shares annual North American holiday traffic analysis

• Sensormatic Solutions accurately predicted ten out of ten busiest days in the U.S. and four out of five in Canada

• In-store visits during the 10 busiest days in the U.S. accounted for 36.9% of the season’s total brick-and-mortar traffic, up from 35.8% in 2021

NEUHAUSEN, Switzerland—January 4, 2023—Sensormatic Solutions, the leading global retail solutions portfolio of Johnson Controls, today released its annual in-store traffic recap for the U.S. and Canada’s 2022 holiday season. The organization’s analysis examined traffic during the six-week period from the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 20, 2022, through Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022. The annual recap is informed by retail traffic data analytics within the Sensormatic Solutions intelligent operating platform, Sensormatic IQ.

Sensormatic Solutions shopper traffic data showed that the predictions for the busiest days of the holiday shopping season aligned with stores’ actual peak traffic days. Based on historical data, Sensormatic predicted that the season’s 10 busiest shopping days in the U.S. would account for approximately 40% of all holiday traffic in the region. This was in line with actual performance, as in-person visits during the 10 busiest days accounted for 36.9% of all brick-and-mortar traffic.

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4,000 NYC Stores Demand Shoplifting Crackdown
NYC grocers demand clampdown on shoplifters as violent heists escalate
Thousands of independent grocers across New York City are forming a fast-growing political coalition to demand that elected officials and law enforcement clamp down on shoplifters, claiming that increasingly brazen and violent heists have created a crisis, The Post has learned.

The group — which already represents nearly 4,000 stores, including corner bodegas and supermarkets like KeyFood and C-Town in the New York metro area — is calling for prosecutors and judges to set bail for “repeat theft offenders,” reversing key provisions of New York’s sweeping and controversial bail reform law in 2019.

Collective Action to Protect our Stores, or CAPS, is also asking lawmakers to make assaults on retail workers a Class D felony — a protection given to MTA and NYPD officers and livery drivers in New York that grocers argue they should receive as essential workers, too.

“We have been assaulted, terrorized, and our physical and mental health jeopardized,” the group said in a letter being sent to Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams on Monday in addition to other city and state officials. “A rise in larceny cases has hit independent supermarkets hard.”

The group also wants legislators to tackle a problem that many believe is at the heart of the spike in burglaries: the fact that thieves are not typically prosecuted or arrested for stealing less than $1,000 worth of goods. CAPS is asking for a change in the law so that serial shoplifters who cumulatively steal more than $1,000 worth of goods over time will be charged with grand larceny instead of petit larceny.

“Repeat offenders are the key words,” Carlos Collado, who owns two Fine Fare grocery stores in the Bronx and Harlem, told The Post. “We are not asking for elevated charges for first-time offenders, but to send a message to those who make it a career.”

Businesses that resell stolen goods should likewise be put on notice, CAPS says in the letter, which asks Albany legislators to reclassify such transactions as Class A misdemeanors that could result in fines and even short jail time for operators.

“Ninety-seven percent of the shoplifters do it to sell the stuff,” said Francisco Marte, who owns two bodegas in the Bronx and heads up the Bodega group. Very few are “doing it because they are hungry,” Marte added. nypost.com


NYC Mayor Says Retail Theft is Among His Top 2 Concerns
With Robberies & Burglaries Driving the 22% Overall Increase

Major Crimes Rose 22 Percent in New York City, Even as Shootings Fell
Homicides fell last year to their lowest level since 2019, before the pandemic, but other categories of crime, including robbery and burglary, drove the overall increase compared with 2021.

Surges in robbery, burglary and other crimes drove a 22% increase in overall major crime, despite a significant drop in shootings and murders.

Still, the Mayor said the city must drive down robberies, burglaries and grand larcenies — categories that contributed to the increase in major crimes last year, to 126,537 from 103,388 in 2021.

The mayor said retail theft and subway safety are among his top concerns.

There were 189,777 arrests citywide with the NYPD making the most gun arrests in 27 years, 4,627.

Robberies and burglaries greatly contributed to the 22% overall increase in the most serious crimes.

There were about 10,000 robbery arrests and a 37% increase in robberies in the first three quarters of the year, with some improvement in Q4. 17% of those arrested in robberies were under 18.

John Jay Professor says, "Crime is up in New York City, and it’s up quite a bit.”  nytimes.com


Regardless - Larceny is Still Growing - No Decline There
Violent crime declined in Minneapolis last year, but rates still well above norm
Analysts say it's too early to say why it fell, though some credit a return to normalcy in the Twin Cities and around the nation.

For the first time in three years, Minneapolis saw a drop in homicides, shootings and carjackings in 2022, a sign that the deadliest wave of violence to hit the city in a generation may be cresting.

The number of shots recorded in the city fell 20%, resulting in 100 fewer victims compared to 2022. Carjackings, which peaked in 2021, also dipped about 20%.

These declines, which occurred as staffing for the Police Department remained hundreds of officers below the city's mandatory threshold, still don't put Minneapolis anywhere close to its public safety baseline in the decade prior to 2020. Before these past three years, the city. Before these past three years, the city averaged about 40 murders per year and half as many gunshot victims. Killings hadn't surpassed 80 since 1996.

Some Minneapolis crime declined in 2022, but remained above average

One piece of national trend

Minneapolis is not alone in seeing violent crime decline in 2022.

The Star Tribune found 50 major cities in the United States that saw homicide rates drop last year, evidence that Minneapolis is part of a greater trend.

"If you think that 2020 was a perfect storm of many factors that contributed to rising violence, if those have started to recede, then you'd expect the same thing to happen to crime trends, too," said Ames Grawert, who analyzes crime patterns in America as senior counsel for the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice.

Minneapolis homicide rates still at generational highs

The 2023 MPD budget earmarks $500,000 for community safety pilot projects, including the hiring of violence interrupters that police can dispatch to help diffuse tensions. startribune.com


Duluth crime is down, overdoses are up — and the Police Department is short-staffed
The Police Department reported an increase of 1,500 total calls for service in 2022, but Ceynowa said this marks an uptick in proactive policing. Officers are using data and connections within the community to monitor specific areas which Ceynowa said is directly related to a sharp decline in crime.

Violent crime incidents — murder, rape and assault, which are labeled Part A crimes — were down 1,629 from 2021. Lesser crimes — frequently property crimes and labeled Part B crimes — decreased by 338.

Duluth Police Crime Data 2010-2020 Yearly Crime Stats startribune.com


Stores Creating 'Secure Areas' To Fight Theft Epidemic
Safeway combats theft with separate shopping section for high-theft items at certain locations

Blatant unchecked shoplifting is a big problem in Portland. Now some stores are changing the way they operate to curb it.

The shoplifting epidemic in Portland is happening in plain sight. KGW has documented people stealing armloads of products that security experts like Scott Castleman say are resold on the black market.

“In my career in loss prevention, I’ve never seen anything to the degree that we have today. The brazenness of the shoplifters. Going in, knowing that they won't get caught, they don't even try and conceal anything anymore,” said Castleman.

If you walk into the Safeway store on Southwest 10th and Jefferson, you can see their new efforts to try and stop it: adding a dedicated, secured area within the store for what appears to be the most "lifted" items. You have to pay there before you can ever get close to the exit doors.

Maybe that gives security officers a better chance to stop the theft. Safeway is not talking about their strategy here, or at the Safeway store in the Pearl district, the two stores KGW found with the new more secure areas.

Safeway sent KGW a one-line explanation, reading, "Like other local businesses, we are working on ways to curtail escalating theft to ensure the safety of our employees and foster a welcoming environment for our loyal customers."

Near the Jefferson Street Safeway is a Plaid Pantry. This convenience store is one of a half dozen with security concerns that could end up closing them. The local convenience store chain is trying to avoid that, so in the past year management has installed walk-up windows similar to what is found at banks. Customers are not allowed in the stores at night. kgw.com


Here's What's Driving the 'Booster Plenty' Market for ORC
Expert on U.S. drug abuse says conditions in S.F.’s Tenderloin are tragically familiar
As a journalist and author covering America’s drug and homelessness epidemics for years, Quinones said what he witnessed has become alarmingly familiar across the country — and the crisis in the Tenderloin is not the uniquely San Francisco horror that locals and outside observers think it is.

“This story is the same all over the nation, because the drugs have covered the nation. It’s everywhere, and the massive supply that’s available now is the reason.”

That explosion, he said, is also helping drive a spike in homelessness around the country — because not only is fentanyl many times more powerful than heroin, but the newly more potent meth also causes extreme psychosis and instability. Both trap people in a cycle of addiction and hopelessness that makes it difficult to get off the street.

What he saw this week in the Tenderloin and other areas of San Francisco mirrored what he’s seen in Kentucky, Los Angeles, Reno, Portland, Ore., and Denver.

“This has gone beyond what any city or county can deal with,” said the 64-year-old writer, who lives in Nashville. “It’s a national poisoning. We need to understand that this is supply-driven. It’s just way too available in massive quantities. And just like with homelessness, there is no one fix.”

In 2008, meth cost about $20,000 a pound in Fresno, but today it costs between $500 and $800. Mix that with fentanyl and it’s a lot cheaper and easier to get high — most hits of meth and fentanyl cost between $1 and $5, cheaper drug highs than available 10 or 20 years ago.  sfchronicle.com


Bay Area homicides 2022: Map and details

D.C. residents frustrated with rise in crime

'Swatting' now a felony under Ohio governor's new law

US: 103M Cases - 1.1M Dead - 99.9M Recovered
Worldwide: 668.6M Cases - 6.7M Dead - 639.9M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 362  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 829

What to know as new COVID virus variants like XBB.1.5 spread fast across the U.S.
XBB.1.5, BQ.1, BQ.1.1 variants gaining rapidly across U.S.
Sure enough, just as the holiday COVID case surge seemed to be fading, new variants are spreading quickly across the U.S. and are expected to gain ground here too.

One omicron variant in particular — XBB.1.5 — has caught the attention of infectious disease experts, as it is new and seems to be spreading quickly, even after most of us already have had some combination of COVID infections, vaccines and boosters. So what does that tell us?

“We know it’s very immune-evasive, much more than all of its cousins, and that’s cause for concern,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, professor emeritus of the University of California-Berkeley’s school of public health division of infectious diseases and vaccinology.

The good news: The new variant doesn’t seem to be causing more serious illness or deaths, he said. “There’s nothing we’ve seen thus far that it’s more virulent than the other variants.”

Here’s what else we know about XBB.1.5:

Swartzberg said. XBB.1.5’s origins are unknown, but Swartzberg said it may well have started in the U.S. It is dominant in the Northeast, but only 8% of cases in California and other Southwest states.

So what’s there to worry about?

A COVID is still claiming 350 to 400 lives a day in the U.S. and a daily average of more than 30 Californians. That’s higher than the 240 deaths a day seen across the U.S. at the pandemic’s low point in the early summer of 2021. At the current rate, the U.S. would lose 128,000-146,000 people a year to COVID.

By comparison, influenza killed an estimated 12,000-52,000 people a year over nine seasons from 2010 to 2019. The rate of annual U.S. automobile fatalities is around 39,000-43,000, in line with average annual flu deaths. mercurynews.com


COVID Deaths Surging in New York
NY sees a 30% spike in COVID deaths in December, most since early 2022
COVID deaths in New York state spiked 30% last month — to the highest tally since early 2022 — nearly three years after the virus first ravaged the state, a Post analysis shows.

There were 915 deaths linked to coronavirus and its variants in the Empire State in December — about 30 a day — compared with 664 deaths in November.

The monthly death toll hit levels unseen since since February 2022, The Post review of state Health Department data found — and comes despite widely available vaccines and antiviral drugs to treat COVID-19.

Public health experts said the rising rate is proof COVID can still be considered a pandemic rather than a rear-view-mirror nuisance. nypost.com


The XBB.1.5 variant is taking over on the East Coast. Will it happen in California too?

China’s Covid wave threatens another snarl of U.S. medical supply chain

Support & Approval of Unions Up 71% - Highest Level Since 1965
Unionizing Petitions Up 23% in 2022 - Largest increase since 1976

Experts expect unionization efforts to gain steam in 2023

Here's what employers need to know.

The National Labor Relations Board, the government agency that oversees union activity and collective bargaining, saw 2,510 petitions for new unions in fiscal year 2022 — up 53% from the year before and the highest number since 2016. Charges for unfair labor practices also grew 19% from 15,082 in fiscal 2021 to 17,988 in fiscal 2022.

Taken together, the total number of cases at the NLRB in fiscal 2022 reached 20,498 — an increase of 23% — which was the largest increase in cases since 1976 and the largest percentage increase since 1959.

“After years of declining membership, unions are gaining representation rights for workers at unprecedented rates,” said Jerry Cutler, an attorney, author and lecturer at Columbia University and an expert on labor relations. “My perspective is that it's not temporary. It's hard to get the cat back in the bag.”

Experts say business owners should expect labor organizing to stay high for years as a once-in-a-lifetime confluence of factors, including the use of social media, a younger workforce, a labor-friendly Biden administration and a global pandemic and labor shortage have created a perfect storm for union activity.

A Gallup poll in August that found U.S. approval of labor unions climbed to 71%, the highest level since 1965.

Support for unions is high among Gen Z, and the use of social media, including TikTok, to spread information about worker rights and organizing rules has helped galvanize younger workers and increase coordination among workers cross the country, Cutler said.

The Biden administration also rolled out online resources dedicated to unions and workplace organizing in September.  bizjournals.com


#MeToo's Source of Anger & Concern
NDA's Covering Up Major Cases & Hiding Culpability'

Regulatory Update: New Law Ends Sexual Harassment NDAs

Employers with these contract terms should take steps to end them.

December 7th, President Biden signed into law the Speak Out Act (SOA), which prohibits employers from using nondisclosure agreements (NDA) and those addressing nondisparagement to block the victims of sexual harassment and assault from making their stories public—and all employers need to pay attention to its impact..

“I just signed the Speak Out Act, a bill that’ll enable survivors to speak out about workplace sexual assault and harassment and increase access to justice,” Biden declared on Twitter.

“Nondisparagement clauses” in sexual assault or harassment disputes consist of any contractual provision that requires any party not to make a negative statement about another party that relates to the contract, agreement, claim, or case. It is not unusual for employers to regularly include both of these clauses in employment agreements. Employers should remain aware that some state or local laws may restrict such provisions, such as those that have been enacted in California, New Jersey and Washington.

It applies only to pre-dispute NDAs, such as those included in employment contracts. Employers are still allowed to use these provisions as part of settlement agreements regarding disputes involving sexual harassment.

'In regard to sexual harassment in the workplace, it is bound to have an immediate effect on all employer organizations.'

What Is Excluded: ehstoday.com


2023 Trends: Legalization of Recreational Marijuana and Therapeutic Psychedelics
Three more states legalized adult recreational marijuana use in 2022, and it may only be a matter of time before such use is legal across the country.

Also growing in acceptance is the use of therapeutic psychedelics, such as psilocybin. Two states have legalized their use, some cities have decriminalized their use and more states may adopt laws legalizing them in the future.

But while use of these drugs may be legal, employers still do not have to permit employees under their influence to work.

Recreational marijuana is now legal in 21 states plus the District of Columbia.

The employment law implications are twofold—legal and practical, said August Heckman III, an attorney with Morgan Lewis in Princeton, N.J.

Employers with prehire or random drug-testing programs that test for THC may be at risk because they are not testing for impairment but for whether the employee has THC in their system, Heckman explained. "As a result, basing a no-hire or termination decision on the results of a prehire or random test can give rise to an employment claim," he said.

For this reason, employers should update and implement impairment assessment forms that document why an employee was suspected to be impaired, such as through behavior, appearance and performance, Heckman said.

State laws don't impact or alter the fact that cannabis remains illegal at the federal level as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substance Act, Duke noted. "This is critically important for employers that contract with the federal government or receive federal grants, as the federal government continues to prohibit cannabis use among its contractors," he said. shrm.org


$1.4B+ in Holiday Returns
Holiday returns rise 57% from 2021: report
Following an increase in returns last year, a Salesforce report predicts that consumers will return more than $1.4 billion holiday orders this season, an 57% jump year-over-year.

Consumers spent $97 billion online in the three weeks after Cyber Week, an 8% bump year-over-year. So far, U.S. online sales have risen 5% from 2021 to $245 billion, according to the report.

Nearly a quarter (23%) of online orders were buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) purchases during the last full holiday shopping weekend.

Salesforce noted the uptick in returns could be from consumers who bought gifts earlier this year and returned them to repurchase at a deeper discount. The report said that returns nearly doubled during the week after Cyber Week year-over-year and have been higher since then. retaildive.com


California Braces for More Widespread Flooding, Damaging Winds
California is bracing for another week of destructive storms that will probably bring flooding and hazardous winds Monday to an already battered state.

McDonald’s plans to ‘evaluate’ corporate positions alluding to staff cuts; lean into marketing and digital

Party City Preps for Bankruptcy

Macy's closing more stores in 2023. See the list.

Consumer returns flatten as online ordering becomes more accurate
 

Senior LP & AP Jobs Market

Manager II Shrink Strategy job posted for Stop & Shop in Quincy, MA
In this role, you will provide Subject Matter Leadership to Leadership and Market DCT teams related to shrink performance across all channels and departments. Support and assist in defining Shrink Strategy and supporting Analytics; development of statistical strategy and oversight of analytics and reporting. Develop strategic responses to shrink trends and drivers using regression, correlation and other statistical analysis. krb-sjobs.brassring.com