CONTROLTEK Moves into New Headquarters,
Opens Customer Experience Center

CONTROLTEK, an emerging leader in loss prevention solutions, has opened new headquarters which include a brand-new customer experience center, showcasing the latest technology in loss prevention and asset tracking.

“The new customer experience center offers a unique space for clients to view and test the latest asset protection solutions,” said Steve Sell, CONTROLTEK’s vice president of global sales and marketing. “It is designed as a collaborative space that enables clients to connect directly with our experts to come up with new solutions to the ever-evolving threats of shrink.”

“Opening our new headquarters increases our capacity to collaborate with both our clients and our partners in the industry,” said Rod Diplock, CONTROLTEK’s chief executive officer. “This new space is an investment into the company’s future but also into expanding our relationships within the loss prevention industry.”

CONTROLTEK’s new headquarters is located a short drive from New York City at 200 Crossing Blvd., Second Floor, Bridgewater, NJ 08807.

Southfield Capital Partners with Protos Security

Southfield Capital, a premier lower middle market private equity firm, announced today its partnership with Protos Security, a leading North American tech-enabled managed security services provider. The Company's co-founders, Chris Copenhaver and Patrick Henderson, will remain in their existing leadership roles post-close.

Protos provides security guard and related solutions through its proprietary technology system and vast security vendor network. The Company enables clients to outsource the administrative burden associated with onboarding, managing and tracking thousands of guards working for dozens of vendors across hundreds of locations. Headquartered in Virginia, Protos manages thousands of sites in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico on behalf of a blue-chip customer base, including many Fortune 500 companies. prnewswire.com

Walmart to Allow 'Customer Hosts' to Process Returns & Refunds at the Door
Walmart Also Improving Self-Checkout Technology to Reduce Shrink
Walmart shoppers will soon be able to return purchases without walking more than a couple of steps inside a store. Employees called "customer hosts" will soon have the power to process returns and issue refunds at store entrances, Walmart US CEO Greg Foran told attendees at the UBS Global Consumer and Retail Conference on Wednesday.

"You're soon going to be able to do a refund right at the front door of a Walmart store," he said, according to an audio recording of his remarks. "We're not going to ask you to go to a service desk."

"The customer host will have the technology to do a refund for you right there, including cash."

The company is also planning on improving the technology at its self-checkout registers, Foran said. Walmart is refining the scanners so they can more easily identify different products and the company is working on ways to help reduce "shrinkage" - theft - associated with the self-checkout registers, he said.

The company has also added curbside grocery pickup and automated pickup towers to hundreds of stores, with more on the way. Walmart also recently rolled out Check Out With Me, a program that allows employees to process shoppers' purchases on mobile devices. businessinsider.com

Marvin Ellison: 'Don't blend in'
The CEO, who has been at Lowe's for seven months now, is driving a cultural change that embraces employees and caters to different types of customers. When Marvin Ellison joined Lowe's about seven months ago, he didn't show up on his first day. Well, not to the corporate office that is. Ellison spent that first week at stores, having lunch with hourly employees and listening to what they had to say, he told attendees of the Shoptalk retail conference Tuesday.

"If I’m coming to a new company to solve problems, I may think I have all the answers, but really I don’t," he said. "You have to listen to the culture and true concerns of employees and [find the] root cause of some things not working." retaildive.com

Total Retail Loss Gets Exposure
C-Store Loss Prevention Basics Still Crucial
C-store loss prevention requires a multifaceted approached, but tried-and-true best practices remain key.

Kum & Go is taking a new approach to c-store loss prevention in 2019, starting on the ‘TRL path.’

The Retail Industry Leaders Association introduced TRL (Total Retail Loss), designed to encourage businesses to consider loss differently, a couple years ago.

“Specifically, it provides a much better way to define and measure loss of all kinds by providing a typology consisting of 33 different categories that cross the entire spectrum of retail theft and fraud,” said Britt Davidson, manager of loss prevention for Kum & Go, which operates more than 400 stores in 11 states.
c-storedecisions.com

NSA Chief: Huawei’s Involvement In 5G Networks ‘Concerns Me a Lot’
The U.S. and its allies should be concerned about letting Huawei Technologies Co. help build 5G networks because of the potential for the company to be used as a tool by the Chinese government, said Gen. Paul Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency, on Wednesday.

“[China] has very strong and deliberate ties to its private sector, and that concerns me a lot,” he said during a keynote at the RSA Conference.

Mr. Nakasone’s comments suggest that the U.S. will continue to seek to block Huawei from 5G rollouts even as the company tries to assuage governments and consumers with ad campaigns and flashy displays of the trustworthiness of its technology. cmail20.com

   Huawei Sues US, Saying It's Targeted By Unconstitutional Law

Aldi names Lidl in lawsuit against two ex-employees
Former Aldi staffers accused of passing trade secrets
In the complaint, filed March 1 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Aldi claims the ex-employees breached non-compete and non-disclosure agreements by accepting jobs at Lidl and then providing the company with proprietary, confidential trade information from Aldi.

Named as defendants in the suit are Bruna Maraccini, who most recently served as director of real estate for North Carolina and Virginia at Aldi; Colleen Savory, a real estate assistant for those regions at Aldi; and Arlington, Va.-based Lidl US.

Aldi said in a statement on the lawsuit. “We welcome fair competition. However, where we believe anyone has taken measures to undercut our ability to compete fairly, we will take any and all necessary actions to stifle such attempts. As with most litigation, we will limit our comments to the judicial proceedings, as we believe that our complaint speaks for itself.”

Aldi alleges in the suit that 11-year employee Maraccini went to work for Lidl in violation of her non-compete agreement; took confidential, proprietary and/or trade secret information from Aldi — including real estate strategy maps and planned store locations — that she had agreed to return upon leaving the company; and enlisted Savory to steal Aldi information for use by Lidl.

Savory, a five-year Aldi employee, is accused of misappropriating Aldi trade information by sending it to Maraccini in her role at Lidl for use in competing with Aldi in North Carolina, and then accepting a job offer from Lidl in which she could put that information to use.  supermarketnews.com

National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO) Responds on FDA E-Cig Action Statement
“The FDA Commissioner’s statement lists 15 retail chains that have accumulated an aggregate of 15% to 44% violation rates by their respective stores at which tobacco products were sold to underage individuals under the FDA retail inspection program since 2010.

“This statement needs to be put into perspective given that the FDA has been conducting retail store compliance checks for nine years now. According to the Commissioner’s statement, 15 store chains had sales to minors violations in 15% or more of ‘their total inspected stores since the inception of the FDA’s retailer compliance check inspection program in 2010.’ This means that a retailer which accumulated an aggregate 44% violation rate over the nine-year period could have, on average, experienced a 95% successful passing rate each year with approximately 5% of its stores inspected incurring a violation on an annual basis.

“According to the FDA’s method of determining aggregate violation rates, this estimated 5% violation rate would be added up for each of the nine consecutive years to obtain an approximate, but cumulative, 45% failure rate.

“Similarly, a retailer that has a 15% cumulative violation rate over that same nine-year period would have, on average, passed FDA compliance checks 98.3% of the time with an estimated yearly 1.67% failure rate. Calculating compliance inspection rates on a cumulative basis can result in an erroneous perception that a retailer sells tobacco products to underage youth numerous times each year. These compliance check percentage results should be analyzed on an annual basis and not added together because doing so results in an inaccurate characterization of the actual rate of violation. cstoredecisions.com

Cisco Former Director of Global Supply Charged in $9.3M Shell Company's Scheme
Prithviraj R. Bhikha, a former employee of Cisco Systems, Inc. (Cisco), was charged in a criminal complaint with wire fraud.

Bhikha, 50, of San Francisco, was employed until mid-2017 by Cisco as a director in its global supply unit in San Jose, Calif.  That unit was in charge of working with suppliers and vendors to obtain parts for Cisco products.  In or about 2013, Bhikha is alleged to have begun advocating within Cisco for the approval of a new project, of which he would be in charge, the goal of which was for Cisco to retain third-party vendors to negotiate savings with manufacturers on small parts used in Cisco products. The complaint affidavit alleges that Bhikha devised, participated in, and executed a scheme to defraud Cisco by establishing overseas business entities, then directing and approving Cisco contracts to these entities pursuant to the aforementioned project, and failing to disclose his ownership interest in the overseas entities. The affidavit alleges that Cisco wired approximately $6.5 million to one of these entities and approximately $2.8 million to another.  The affidavit also alleges more than $8.5 million was wired from bank accounts associated with these two overseas entities to U.S. bank accounts either controlled jointly by Bhikha and his wife or by his wife alone.

If convicted on the charge in the criminal complaint, the defendant would face a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, and a fine of $250,000, plus restitution if appropriate. justice.gov

Update: Florida: Retailers pushback against increase in Felony Threshold
An effort to raise a legal threshold that triggers felony charges passed its first hurdle in the Florida House on Tuesday, with some pushback from representatives of retail stores. As reported in the DAILY yesterday, Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Naples, is proposing legislation (HB 589) that would increase the threshold amount for third-degree felony retail theft from $300 to $1,000 or more. The bill would also change state law to no longer make it a third-degree felony to steal fire extinguishers, stop signs or property from construction sites. The proposal was approved Tuesday by the House Civil Justice Subcommittee, with the support of organizations seeking reforms to the criminal-justice system. But the Florida Retail Federation was against the proposal because it would loosen penalties for retail theft. A similar proposal in the Senate would raise the threshold to $1,500. If the legislation is approved, the state's Criminal Justice Impact Conference has determined that it would have a "significant" impact on reducing the state's prison population. bizjournals.com

Houston, TX: SpotCrime data indicates decline in Robbery and Thefts in Houston
500 Robberies, 4,910 Thefts reported in February
The number of crime incidents in Houston saw an overall decline last month, for the second month in a row, according to data from SpotCrime, which collects data from police agencies and validated sources. Incidents fell by about 11 percent, from 8,463 in January to 7,467 in February. Theft and robbery led the most recent decrease in crime incidents. Theft fell from 5,394 reported incidents in January to 4,910 in February. Robbery incidents went from 720 to 501 for the month, or about a 30 percent decrease. hoodline.com

New York: NYC Consumer Affairs and the NYPD combating Identity Theft with Public Information Campaign
Brochures are available, in English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, French, Korean, and Haitian to spread the word of the risks associated with the many forms of Identity Theft. Topics include: Identity Theft Protection Tips, Internet Scams, Telephone Scams, Tax Scams, Predatory Lending and even Pet Scams just to mention a few. Download brochures here  nyc.gov

Ethics Boards, Codes of Conduct Help Guide AI Use in Hiring
Emerging alongside reports of the many ways artificial intelligence (AI) is benefiting HR is a more troubling narrative that algorithms may perpetuate bias in hiring or other talent decisions.

While well-designed AI can help eliminate unconscious human bias in processes like candidate screening, there also are risks that the technology can cause adverse impact as well. The bombshell revelation last year that Amazon created and later shut down a recruiting algorithm that was biased against women applying for software development jobs continues to reverberate in HR. Although it represented just a single case of an internally developed AI tool, the flawed Amazon algorithm captured the attention of the industry and led to a new wariness and some policy changes.

Some organizations have taken these ethical concerns seriously enough that they've created advisory boards and new codes of conduct to monitor and guide their use of AI. HireVue, a provider of AI-driven video interviewing and assessment tools in Salt Lake City, has created a board to guide the ethical development and use of AI in its products. The board includes experts in industrial and organizational psychology, algorithmic bias, data privacy, and diversity and inclusion. shrm.org

Senior Manager, Asset Protection - Taco Bell Posted in Irvine, CA - Top AP Job
This position reports to the Director and Head of Field HR.  Working closely with the restaurant operations team, the Senior Manager, Asset Protection will be accountable for reducing risk factors within our restaurants to help protect our brand, employees and customers. This includes leading a team of asset protection professionals who are passionate about building the capability of our restaurant leaders while working through internal cash loss issues, reducing the instances of accidents and injuries and driving and executing on industry leading asset protection policies, processes, procedures and technology.

Taco Bell Corp., a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., is the nation's leading Mexican-inspired quick service restaurant (QSR) brandTaco Bell Corp., a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., is the nation's leading Mexican-inspired quick service restaurant (QSR) brand. Taco Bell and its more than 350 franchise organizations proudly serve over 42 million customers each week through nearly 7,000 restaurants across the nation, as well as through its mobile, desktop and delivery ordering services. Overseas, Taco Bell has over 300 restaurants, with plans to add 2,000 more restaurants internationally within the next decade. greenhouse.io

Walmart US CEO says half his store visits make him 'grumpy'
- and he's turning up the heat on managers

Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

Charlotte Russe going out of business - Closing All 500 Stores

Kohl's is shrinking stores and leasing out the extra space to Planet Fitness

Whole Foods cuts workers' hours after Amazon introduces minimum wage


Quarterly Results


American Eagle Q4 comp's up 6%, net sales up 1%, full yr. comp's up 8%, net sales up 6%
Barnes & Noble Q3 comp's up 1.1%, total sales flat
Kroger Q4 comp's without fuel down 1.9%, total sales down 9.5%, full yr comp's up 1.8%, total sales down 1.2%
 

LPRC Board of Advisors Collaborate With Technical & Academic Partners
In Gainesville, FL

The LPRC Board of Advisors recently interfaced with select technical and academic partners at the annual IGNITE meeting to strategize research and launch the LPRC into 2019. This year’s planning meeting featured LPRC Innovate sessions, showcasing the new initiatives the LPRC will implement to support innovation in their research.

The first official tours were also given of the LPRC NextRetail Center (NRC), a space dedicated to R&D, ideation, & realistic-training engagements to support retailers’ profit and growth strategies. The LPRC NextRetail Center will feature elite, independent, problem-solvers and simulation places/spaces that help enable cross-functional retailer teams to grow their business.

Find out more about the Loss Prevention Research Council and their mission here.

   

Continuing Education Credits Now Available through the
2019 LPRC Supply Chain Protection Summit

This year’s theme: Beyond Retail Supply Chain Security

The Supply Chain Protection Summit, taking place next week, March 12 – 13, in Sunny Isles Beach, FL, is a chance for supply chain security professionals to come together and review LPRC research on supply chain protection issues, hear from industry experts on how to improve supply chain protection operations, and to collectively form & discuss the research agenda for the next year. Attendees are now eligible to earn up to 3 credits towards their CFI Certification and 8 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) toward their LPC Re-Certifications.

This year’s focus will be advancing retail supply chain security by adapting insights from other sectors, and fostering closer cooperation with manufacturers, distributors, and law enforcement.

View the agenda and finalize your plans today!