More Retailers Lean on Body Cams to Fight Crime & Boost Safety
Stores Roll Out Employee Body Cameras as Retail Crime Precaution
Retail crime is on the rise—and flash mobs, smash-and-grabs and even everyday instances of shoplifting are becoming more violent.

With the trend accelerating, retail workers are more concerned with the safety of their workplaces than they have been in years past. In fact, according to a recent survey from Lotis Blue Consulting, strong health and safety measures make employees 68 percent more likely to stay with their employer—a 10-percent jump from 2022.

According to recent research from Axonify, a retail technology solutions provider for frontline employees, 40 percent of retail workers are afraid to go to work due to hostile or threatening situations. Half of the 1,000 employees polled said they had witnessed a theft in person during their tenure.

With these concerns as a backdrop, retailers are looking at new ways not only to deter theft, but protect their workforces.

Locking up merchandise and employing private security have failed to address the issue, and that’s where body cameras come into play. Often used by police officers in the field of duty, the technology is increasingly gaining traction as a means of monitoring retail employees’ safety.

Former Chief of the Dallas Police Department Renee Hall said a body-worn camera “is not only useful for promoting frontline workers’ safety, but also aids law enforcement agencies responding to the recent rise in violence in healthcare, retail and other commercial settings by providing easily accessible digital evidence.”

One of the U.K.’s biggest store chains, Co-op said its employees saw 1,350 attacks during the first six months of 2020, prompting the adoption of cameras as a safety measure in 250 stores. Last fall, the U.K.’s largest retailer, Tesco, rolled out body cameras during a spike in physical assaults of retail workers. 

Meanwhile, last week, Woolworths stores in New Zealand implemented body cameras across all doors after locations in the country saw a 75-percent increase in physical assaults—and a 148-percent rise in serious reportable incidents—over the course of the past three years.  sourcingjournal.com


Rampant Shoplifting Turns NYC District Into 'Wasteland of Empty Storefronts'
Retail Thefts Up 76% in NYC's Flatiron District

NYC’s once-bustling Flatiron District now a wasteland of empty storefronts as rampant shoplifting wreaks havoc
Flatiron is in shambles. The once-thriving Manhattan business district is now a virtual wasteland littered with empty storefronts — with locals blaming spiking crime and the Big Apple’s disastrous post-pandemic retail real estate market.

“Big Box” retailers — including Lowes, Bed Bath & Beyond and Staples — have fled in the last few years, leaving one of the city’s shopping meccas peppered with vacant retail space. Businesses who are trying to hang on have been plagued by rampant shoplifting and thefts, according to workers and city crime statistics.

Merchants blamed the rise in online shopping — which boomed during the COVID-19 shutdown — and the spiraling effect of pandemic-fueled business failures that made the neighborhood less appealing.

Crime has also been a constant headache, with recent spikes in retail theft and petty larceny, according to data from the NYPD 13th Precinct, which covers the Flatiron District.

Over the past two years, retail thefts have gone up by 55.7% and petty larcenies have jumped by over 34% within the precinct boundaries, according to the data.

The stats also showed that it’s only gotten worse so far this year. Through Sunday, police reported 853 retail thefts in the neighborhood, up from 484 over the same period last year — for a massive 76% jump, according to the data.

Over the same period, petty larceny reports leapt up to 1,013 compared to 645 in 2023, for an increase of more than 57%, according to the NYPD numbers. nypost.com

Theft Pushing More Retailers to Back Away from Self-Checkout
More stores are ditching self-checkout amid theft and customer complaints

Giant Tiger store in Ontario among latest to remove machines

In 2020, Walmart started testing cashierless, all-self-checkout big box stores, first in the United States and then in Canada.

But the pilot project didn't quite catch on. Walmart tells CBC News that, currently, just one big box location across Canada and the U.S. has an all-self-checkout, cashier-free format — in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, a small town in Quebec.

Meanwhile, over the past eight months, the retail giant has removed all its self-checkout machines at six U.S. locations, joining several other big box chains that have ditched the machines in certain stores, including, recently, a Giant Tiger in Stratford, Ont.

Two weeks ago, franchise owner Scott Savage removed the four self-checkout machines at his Giant Tiger discount store in Stratford, some 90 kilometres west of Hamilton. He says, rather than theft, he made the change because many of his customers are seniors who dislike using the machines.

It's a surprising shift in the predicted trajectory — instead of the all-self-checkout store becoming the norm, some retail outlets are returning to the traditional, all-cashier format.

But instead of cutting costs, some stores discovered that self-checkout actually hurt their bottom line, largely due to theft, says Andrews.  cbc.ca


Organized Retail Theft Task Forces Continue to Make Major Busts
(Update) Task force credited with nearly 90 retail theft arrests in San Mateo
Authorities in San Mateo County gave an update Monday on a task force aimed at stopping organized retail theft on the Peninsula, saying the effort has led to nearly 90 arrests in six months.

Police in Daly City, San Bruno and San Mateo, along with the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office, touted "significant progress" since the task force was enacted in October 2023. The task force was funded by a grant from the Board of State Community Corrections.

"This coordinated investment into combating organized retail theft has resulted in an immediate and impactful return. The collaboration between the three police agencies and our partners in the private sector has proven to be extremely effective," said San Mateo Police Chief Ed Barberini.

Last summer, Supervisor David Canepa called for the task force to stop a wave of retail theft in the county. "Enough is enough! All this retail theft. All this sort of crime," Canepa told CBS News Bay Area in August 2023.

In a statement Monday, Canepa praised the results of the task force, but called for a ballot measure amending Proposition 47, which reclassified certain thefts as misdemeanors.

"The police crackdown on these organized crime groups has been outstanding but my fear is that the perpetrators may walk free the next day without doing any jail time," the supervisor said. "That's why we need The Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act which will allow district attorney's offices across the state to charge repeat offenders with felonies."  cbsnews.com
 

Are Lawmakers & Businesses 'Overreacting' to Retail Crime Surge?
Are lawmakers responding to public fears instead of crime data?

Commentary: Overreacting to Retail Theft, Other Crime Increases
“Lawmakers are overreacting to crime,” that was the basic headline in a column by Abdallah Fayyad, formerly a member of the Boston Globe editorial board, now a correspondent at Vox. He noted, “Crime rates are falling. Why are lawmakers passing tough-on-crime bills?”

Just before the pandemic, crime rates hit a 50-year low. But the chaos and disruption of the pandemic caused a sharp but what seems to be a temporary surge in crime. Even at the end of that surge, however, the crime rates were still near their all-time low, but you would never know it from talking to the public or watching the news.

According to the FBI, after an uptick in crime in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, crime rates have actually been falling across the country, with murders declining by 13 percent between 2022 and 2023

Nevertheless, lawmakers are responding to the public. A recent article in the Los Angeles Daily News bears this out. Reports the Daily News, “California politicians are facing new and mounting pressures to deliver solutions on rising rates of retail crime.” They cite data that shows shoplifting jumped by 81 percent in Los Angeles from 2022 to 2023.

The narrative, even among Democrats, has been that “shoplifting is out-of-control.” But is that actually true? While crime certainly went up in California during the pandemic, it appears driven by the disruption of the pandemic. davisvanguard.org


Walmart Wins Lawsuit Against Man Who Sued Over 'False Pretense of Shoplifting'
Texas man sued Walmart for $100M or free shopping for life. Why a judge tossed the lawsuits
A judge has thrown out two lawsuits filed by a Texas man who sued Walmart in federal court for $100 million — or “unlimited free lifetime shopping at any Walmart,” according to court documents. Roderick Jackson, of Waskom, Texas, filed two handwritten complaints in January claiming he was suing Walmart for an incident that took place at a store in Omaha, Nebraska, in March 2021.

One complaint was over a “false pretense of shoplifting” and the other claims he “suffered civil rights violations based on race/color.” In addition to compensation, Jackson asked Walmart to pay all court fees associated with the lawsuit.

The court determined shortly after both complaints were filed that Jackson’s complaints were not properly completed and he needed to file new ones for the cases to continue.

Jackson filed amended complaints in February, citing slander or libel, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment or detainment, defamation and false allegations of a crime as the reasons for the lawsuits. In each amended lawsuit, Jackson asked for $100 million in damages but not the “free unlimited lifetime shopping.”

Walmart later requested that the cases be dismissed, and on April 16, Judge Timothy Brooks did just that, citing failure to state a proper claim and lack of jurisdiction. 8newsnow.com


Developing a Retail Risk Model As In-Store Crime & Violence Surge
ECR meeting for retailers, brand owners and academics only.

Retail Risk Model Research: Exploring Current Practices

Virtual Meeting - Date and Time: May 2nd - 1pm UK

We know that retail crime and risk is not evenly distributed across locations. So how can we determine where to invest finite resources to have the biggest impact?

This new research project offers multiple benefits to the industry by shining a light on how the retail sector is using data to inform decision-making and security strategies. The project will seek to understand how risk models are constructed (identifying areas of commonality and difference between businesses), how they are used and by whom, who has operational responsibility for managing the model, and how it is reviewed and validated.

At a time that crime and in-store violence appear to be increasing across many countries, the project will provide a better understanding of how risk models can contribute to data-informed security strategies and solutions.

The meeting will start with an overview of the research proposal, this will be followed by a discussion with the retailers on the research itself and how they might each like to contribute to this important research. ecrloss.com


Criminal Lived in Closed Store for 6 Months, Stole from Toys R Us to Survive
An escaped convict hid out in a shuttered Circuit City for six months
Having escaped from jail, "the most courteous thief in the nation" lived in a shuttered Circuit City and survived on supplies stolen from a neighboring Toys R Us.

It sounds like Jeffrey Manchester's religion eventually led to his capture, and had the escape artist stayed more low-key, he might have stayed on the run for years. His little nest inside Circuit City sounds like he was having a good time, and clearly, Toys R Us inventory controls were unlikely to expose him. Joining a church, where he met someone nice, seems to have created the situation that got him caught: needing money for dates.

After a few months in his hideaway, Manchester must have been feeling invincible. In October, he started attending the nearby Presbyterian church, where he met Wainscott. He told her that he worked for the government, but he couldn't tell her exactly what he did. When she asked to see his place, he said it was "a government building, a sterile environment."  boingboing.net  sfgate.com


Reno, NV store owner says retail theft is hurting her business

Columbus, OH: Anti-violence groups want to be part of police training
 

AI Receipt Verification Makes Sam's Club Store Exits '23% Faster'
Sam’s Club uses AI to verify store receipts

Sam’s Club is streamlining the process of exiting its stores with the help of artificial intelligence and computer vision.

The warehouse club retailer, a division of Walmart Inc., is extending the "Scan and Go" mobile payment solution that it debuted in its stores in 2016, which allows shoppers to use their mobile Sam’s Club app to capture purchases as they shop and bypass the traditional checkout line when they leave with their selected items.

Now after a customer completes payment at a register or via Scan & Go, a combination of in-house-developed computer vision and digital technology deployed in the exit area of the store captures images of carts and verifies payment for all items within a member’s basket.

With the AI technology constantly learning and improving across thousands of exit transactions at multiple locations, Sam’s Club said it will continue iterating and enhancing the technology as rollout continues. The retailer has deployed the solution at more than 120 stores, or over 20% of its total store fleet, since first announcing it in January 2024.

In stores where the technology has been deployed, Sam’s Club says more than half of shoppers are experiencing friction-free exit, leaving the store 23% faster that customers using traditional receipt verification. Sam’s Club plans to deploy the exit technology to all of its stores by the end of 2024.

On the employee side, the retailer said it has developed suite of unique apps that put access to millions of pieces of data into the hands of store associates.    chainstoreage.com


Fighting Store Waste With AI
Walmart reportedly reducing in-store waste with AI
According to CNBC, Walmart is testing an in-house-developed, AI-based solution that provides employees in stores with insight on items that will soon wind up in a landfill and advice on how to keep them out of the waste stream. Associates can use a mobile app to scan produce items.

A generative AI engine then identifies produce that is nearing expiation, which would require disposal, and creates recommendations for actions such as price markdown or return to vendor. The solution can also reportedly be used to identify apparel items that are nearing end of season and recommend actions to help avoid their being thrown away, if they are not recyclable.

Walmart will reportedly expand this pilot to stores in Canada and also wants to test the solution in other countries where it operates.

Walmart fights waste, develops AI

This pilot combines two major Walmart efforts: reducing its environmental foortprint and creating its own AI technology solutions. In 2017, Walmart introduced Project Gigaton, an initiative to avoid one gigaton (one billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide from its global value chain by 2030. Since that time, the discount giant has launched numerous efforts to promote sustainability across its enterprise and among its partners and customers.

On the AI development front, Walmart offers employees the Walmart GenAI Playground, an early-stage internal tool where they can explore and learn about the technology. The discounter also includes a generative AI assistant in its employee app, and is developing generative AI tools to assist customers with search and complex purchases, researching how the technology can aid consumer decision-making.  chainstoreage.com


Walmart to close health centers due to ‘lack of profitability’

One in 8 Starbucks mobile customers are abandoning orders
 

Senior LP & AP Jobs Market

Executive Director, Asset Protection - OH, MI, WV, KY, and PA job posted for CVS Health in Columbus, OH
As the Executive Director, Asset Protection Field Operations, you are an experienced proven leader with a deep operational knowledge of all retail store functions that could adversely impact profitability in our most complex and challenging markets. Through extensive field experience, you have an acute awareness of the drivers of shrink, how those change based on different store types, and most importantly how to most effectively mitigate them. jobs.cvshealth.com

Executive Director, Asset Protection – NY and NJ job posted for CVS Health in Albany, NY
As the Executive Director, Asset Protection Field Operations, you are an experienced proven leader with a deep operational knowledge of all retail store functions that could adversely impact profitability in our most complex and challenging markets. Through extensive field experience, you have an acute awareness of the drivers of shrink, how those change based on different store types, and most importantly how to most effectively mitigate them. jobs.cvshealth.com