Alarm.com Expands AI Program with Asset Acquisition from Vintra, an AI-based Video Analytics Company

TYSONS, Va.--Alarm.com (Nasdaq: ALRM), the leading platform for the intelligently connected property, today announced the acquisition of substantially all assets of Vintra, a software provider of award-winning AI-powered video analytics for the enterprise commercial market. Integrating Vintra's software capabilities and its experienced science and engineering teams will expand Alarm.com's deep learning program and accelerate deployment of advanced video analytics solutions for the Alarm.com and OpenEye platforms.

Launched in 2016, Vintra's cloud platform transforms data from any video management system into actionable and trusted intelligence that can improve how organizations monitor and search for critical security events. Vintra's AI models can track a range of objects and events, including a specific person, two or four-wheeled vehicles, bags, or a person-down situation. Its re-identification algorithm can track a person of interest across hundreds of cameras in real-time and can search large amounts of video recordings to find video clips of the person of interest within minutes.

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The Science of Stealing: LPRC in the News
Researchers study shoplifting at UF's 'Safer Places Lab'
The need to cut back on retail theft is a worldwide issue. One in four Americans work in retail, and crime aimed at those stores is on the rise. Organized retail crime is up 26%, the latest studies show.

It turns out, retailers across the globe are turning to researchers with the University of Florida to fix the issue. Cory Lowe with UF's Loss Prevention Research Council (or LPRC) walked FOX 35 through what the team calls its Simulation Lab.

That’s a 270-degree screen where researchers show off surveillance video submitted by different retail stores that partner with the LPRC. The researchers bring in self-reported former thieves and walk them through different scenarios in stores, getting their input on what they think would work and what wouldn’t.

"That’s one of the wildest things is like, we have these monitors, and you wouldn’t think they would be effective, but every time I bring a self-reported offender into the lab, it freaks them out, because they see their face on that screen, and they make that connection that they are being recorded," explained Lowe.

But you have to be careful – if you overdo it, you might make regular customers uncomfortable. They may believe a store is particularly prone to crime if they see too many security technologies, which may then make them feel unsafe.

The LPRC doesn’t stop there, though. Inside the Engagement Lab, they have a couple dozen cameras, each with different analytics, and over 200 product protection solutions they’re experimenting with.

That includes new types of tags, new cables, new alarms – anything you can think of, and tons of stuff you haven’t thought of yet.

Dr. Reid Hayes is the Director of the LPRC. "There really is nothing else like this in the world," he told FOX 35. That Council has 76 partners all over the globe using its tech.

"I think right now, the main innovation we’re excited about is the integrated solutions that we’re working on with technology corporations and with multiple law enforcement agencies," said Dr. Hayes.

The LPRC says there are three main ways to reduce retail theft in general: Make it harder for people to steal; make people afraid of the consequences they’ll face if they steal; and lessen the reward for selling stolen goods. fox35orlando.com


Store Shoplifting Policies Leave Employees Uneasy
Researchers ‘Surprised’ by Shoplifting Study Results: ‘Let’s Just Let People Walk Out with the Goods’
The discussion surrounding the surge in retail crime since the pandemic has centered around the steep losses merchants suffer, and debate over techniques to deter and punish offenders. But very little of the conversation has addressed the well-being of store employees having to interact with criminal suspects.

A study released earlier this month from researchers at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Louisiana State University, Ohio University and Salisbury University, found that shoplifting takes a significant toll on front-line store employees. They found that dealing with deviant customers, which most of the time are shoplifters, lays a heavy burden on store workers, a fourth of whom aren’t sure what their company’s policy says to do in those situations.

Melanie Lorenz, associate professor of marketing at FAU, and one of three of the four study authors who did their post-grad work at the University of Alabama, was “surprised” to discover that so many employees were unclear about corporate policies stating what to do if they encounter “an angry customer or shoplifting customer.”

“This led to an increase in anxiety and, really, a sense of unfairness,” she told Sourcing Journal.

The study involved four experiments and one survey among 26 frontline retail employees, who were presented with hypothetical situations and asked about their employer’s “guardianship policies” regarding deviant customers. Choices were confined to required (19 percent), authorized (23 percent) and prohibited (30 percent) and the remaining 27 percent did not know their company’s policy for dealing with deviant customers. Overall, 83 percent expressed negative feelings about dealing with deviant behavior, compared to 8 percent who had positive feelings toward confronting criminal suspects.

After undergoing the four scenarios, the subjects answered a survey that found 55 percent who want to leave their jobs because of deviant customer behavior and related policies, 17 points above a 38 percent turnover rate (TOI) for the industry.

In conclusion, the study’s authors found that management should set expectations for confronting shoplifters and do training early. The study also found that the policy most likely to make employees most proactive about confronting shoplifters is one that authorizes, but does not require, employees to act.

“Empower them. Give them some restrictions and ways so they can serve without actively having to stop [shoplifters],” Lorenz said. “There’s this middle ground of, let people engage but only in a passive way, rather than mandating them.” sourcingjournal.com


Lawmakers Debate Alabama's New ORC Legislation
Retail theft bill clears Senate committee, stalls in House
Legislation that would make it a Class B felony for two or more people to steal from stores, no matter the value of what is stolen, cleared a Senate committee but was delayed by a House panel Wednesday.

House Bill 288 and Senate Bill 206 also create a new crime of organized theft and increase penalties for retail theft committed by individuals. The companion bills are a priority of district attorneys and retail groups.

In the Senate Judiciary Committee, bill sponsor Sen. Clyde Chambliss heard some concerns from fellow lawmakers about potential unintended consequences of the proposal, but ultimately the bill was advanced to the full Senate.

A few hours later, bill sponsor Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, told the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday that stores are shutting down because of theft losses. And others are passing along the costs to consumers. Stronger penalties are needed to deter thieves, he said.

Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, said that before theft is a Class B felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, a value threshold needs to be put into the law.

Ellie Taylor, president of the Alabama Grocers Association, told the committee that infant formula is the No. 1 item stolen from stores. Stolen and then sold formula is a food safety issue, Taylor said. But harsher penalties for stealing food for babies gave some lawmakers pause on Wednesday.

Committee chairman Rep. Jim Hill, R-Moody, agreed and said he’d like the bill brought back to the committee next week. Treadaway said that if a monetary threshold is added before organized theft becomes a felony, thieves will always stay just under it but steal repeatedly.

“This is a major problem in this country and if we can work on it right and target the individuals we’re trying to target — otherwise we’re going to have stores closing down all around us,” Treadaway said. aldailynews.com

   Anti-shoplifting bill passes Alabama Senate committee

   Law enforcement, business owners support Alabama retail theft bill


Retail Workers Need More Training to Deal with Theft: Survey
Front-Line Retail Workers Feel Unprepared to Address In-Store Theft, Violence
A survey of 1,000 retail and grocery associates by front-line enablement solution provider Axonify has found that many front-line workers lack proper training to deal with theft and frustrated shoppers, leaving the employees without preparation or support to deal with these issues.

Additional findings from Waterloo, Ontario-based Axonify are as follows:

• Theft is rising: Amid an uncertain economy, consumers are under pressure to make ends meet, driving many to steal. In fact, half of retail/grocery front-line workers surveyed witnessed a customer stealing or attempting to steal from their store in the last six months. Further, more than a quarter of those workers did nothing in response, because some believed that they lacked the skills to handle the situation (28%).

• Hostile customer situations place new pressure on retail employees: Two in five front-line retail workers feel scared going into work because of an increase in volatile customer situations (40%). These range from everyday customer conflicts all the way up to in-store violence.

• Retail workers need more training to feel prepared and safe: Although theft is common, 20% of retail/grocery front-line workers feel unprepared to deal with it. This may be because another 21% said that their employers haven’t given them the right tools and training to manage and defuse tense customer situations.

“By providing retail and grocery workers with the right training and support to manage these challenging conversations, front-line organizations can help improve worker safety and well-being,” wrote Alex Kinsella in an Axonify blog post. “This level of training and enablement not only impacts how associates show up to work, but it also ripples across productivity, retention and recruitment, all critical factors in today’s labor market.” progressivegrocer.com


ORC: A Top Priority of Nationwide AGs
State AGs, Staff Discuss Algorithms & Organized Retail Crime at Symposium
On April 18, 2023, the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) held its annual Attorney General Symposium in Philadelphia, PA. State AGs, AG office staff, and private sector attendees gathered to hear from panelists and to discuss the most pressing issues of the times, including those most relevant to businesses—algorithms and organized retail crime (ORC).

Organized Retail Crime Joint Session with Attorney General Alliance

Illinois AG Kwame Raoul moderated the session with panelists from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations component, the National Retail Federation (NRF), and the Georgia AG’s office.

The panel began with an explanation of the differences between ORC and shoplifting, and current efforts to combat ORC, with the panelists emphasizing the importance of public-private partnerships. The panel cited the recent NRF report on ORC, which retail businesses are encouraged to read. The panelists also discussed legislative responses to ORC, such as the INFORM Consumers Act, which businesses in the online marketplace space will be required to comply with starting June 27, 2023, as well as the recently-introduced Combatting ORC Act.

A key takeaway from the panel was that businesses and government entities alike can collectively raise the profile of ORC issues by emphasizing the differences between ORC and shoplifting in their messaging. Lastly, the panelists stressed the importance of retail businesses collaborating with loss prevention experts to help strengthen efforts to combat ORC. jdsupra.com


Target employee reveals how much is stolen from beauty section in typical day

Auburn business owner fed up with burglaries, area crimes

$17 Million Apple Employee Fraud Scheme
Ex-Apple employee sentenced to 3 years in prison and fined $30 million in penalties for scheme to defraud the company and IRS

Prasad and two others partook in schemes like double billing Apple for parts, defrauding the company of over $17 million.

A former Apple employee was sentenced to three years in prison and hit with over $30 million in financial penalties for a yearslong scheme that involved himself and two others defrauding the company of over $17 million.

Dhirenda Prasad, 55, was charged with several crimes related to the fraud last March, and pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and defraud the US in November. He was sentenced earlier this week to prison time and ordered to pay Apple and the Internal Revenue Service a combined $19 million in restitution, authorities announced Wednesday.

From 2011 through 2018, Prasad — alongside Robert Hansen and Don Baker, who ran companies that sold products to Apple — "exploited his position" as a buyer in the company's supply chain to defraud the company, authorities said.

Hansen, Baker, and Prasad all admitted to their roles in the schemes, authorities said.

Prasad was part of the supply chain team that purchased parts for Apple to use to perform warranty repairs. According to authorities, he conspired with the business owners to steal parts, alter invoices, double bill Apple for components it already received, and charge the company for parts it never actually bought.

Prasad also admitted he evaded paying taxes on his portion of the $17 million the group made from the fraud schemes. Charges of tax evasion and money laundering were dropped at his sentencing after he pleaded guilty in November. businessinsider.com justice.gov


Amazon May Snatch Up Hundreds of Kroger & Albertsons Stores
Would/Should Kroger and Albertsons Sell Hundreds of Stores to Amazon?
Kroger and Albertsons plan to sell between 250 and 300 stores to get approval from the Federal Trade Commission on the proposed merger between the two supermarket giants. Who will buy them if it goes that far?

Business Insider earlier this week reported on a note published by analysts at Bernstein that envisions a scenario where Amazon.com could purchase many, if not all, of the stores that Kroger and Albertsons are looking to offload. The two companies have stores overlapping in several large markets including Chicago, the Pacific Northwest, Phoenix and Southern California.

The article points to comments made by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy about the vital role that grocery plays in his company’s future growth plans.

Stores, he said in February on the company’s fourth-quarter 2022 earnings call, will be a critical part of the plan because physical locations are required to succeed in perishable categories. Mr. Jassy told analysts that Amazon’s online grocery business is strong.

Mr. Jassy also said that Whole Foods, with nearly 500 stores, has made significant strides in growing its profitability. It’s Amazon Fresh, Amazon’s mass-market grocery concept, where Mr. Jassy sees the greatest upside potential even as his company has temporarily hit pause on opening new locations.

Amazon’s big plans for grocery, matched with Kroger and Albertsons’ desire to sell, have led to “a very rare opportunity in U.S. retail,” according to Bernstein. retailwire.com


Retail's Ongoing Wage War
What Home Depot’s billion-dollar pay raise may help prove about workers

Across retail, pay has been going up, with Walmart and Target boosting minimum wages.

Giving pay raises at the same time sales are slumping seems like an incongruous strategy, but Home Depot executives project that it will actually boost the big-box retailer’s industry-leading position. “We plan to continue to capture market share,” CFO Richard McPhail told analysts during the February earnings call. One reason, he said, is “the unique advantage that our orange-blooded associates give us over our competition,” alluding to Home Depot’s signature color and the term for its frontline employees.

While Home Depot made a splash with the billion-dollar pay hike, it comes on the heels of similar moves by other major retailers that also espoused the benefits of investing in a well-paid workforce.

A year ago February, Target set a new starting wage range from $15 to $24 an hour for its so-called team members and expanded access to health care benefits, at a cost of $300 million in 2022. In January, Walmart announced it was raising the minimum hourly wage for its store employees to $14 from $12 and up to $19 an hour, establishing an average wage of $17.50 an hour. cnbc.com


Retail Foot Traffic Strongest in the Northeast U.S.
Retail visits fell nationwide In March — but one region outperforms the others
Overall retail visits were down in the first three months of the year compared to a January 2022 baseline, according to foot traffic analytics firm Placer.ai’s “Retail Foot Traffic Recap — March 2023” report.

The Northeast seems to be seeing higher overall visit numbers: In March, seven of the 10 best-performing states were in the Northeast, Placer.ai. found. (The seven states were Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, and Vermont.). chainstoreage.com


Bed Bath & Beyond store closures will kick off a land grab for fast-growing retailers
That is likely to result in a land grab by retailers and other companies that are looking to expand.
 
(Update) Gap lays off 1,800 employees amid major restructuring