Interface "Ask Our Expert" video series

How retailers can improve their checkout experience

Bud Homeyer, EVP Enterprise Solutions, Interface Systems, explains why retail chains should focus on improving the checkout experience. He outlines various solutions they should consider to improve the customer experience at checkout.

Learn more about what Interface can do for retail chains here
 

State & Local Efforts to Fight ORC Surge

'Undo the Damage Done by Prop 47'
Californians Against Retail And Residential Theft Launch Effort To Educate Lawmakers And The Public About Growing Wave of Theft

“It's time to put an end to retail and residential theft on Main Street and in our neighborhoods”

Californians Against Retail and Residential Theft (CARRT) launched its campaign to raise lawmakers' and the public's knowledge of the growing theft problem in the state.

"Many of our small businesses serve as the backbone for the local communities," said Pat Fong Kushida, President and CEO of the California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce. "We firmly believe that California needs safe stores and neighborhoods for the state to thrive."

CARRT is a new broad-based coalition of business associations, local groups, and victim organizations advocating for California officials to act now to undo the damage done by Proposition 47.

"A National Retailers Association survey of businesses found a nearly 60% increase in losses over the past five years," said Julian Canete, President and CEO of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce. "Retail theft losses may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Something needs to be done before mom and pop stores are stolen from our communities."

CARRT focuses on property crimes that often get overlooked, including porch pirates, petty theft, burglary, smash and grabs, catalytic converter thefts, purse snatchers, pickpockets, etc.

The nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California released a report that found a direct correlation between Proposition 47 and a marked increase in larceny thefts across California.

In the first four months of 2022, several law enforcement agencies noticed a marked increase in property crimes. The Los Angeles Police Department reported property crimes were up more than 11% compared to the same time period from the year before, with burglaries up 8%. San Francisco Police Department reported larceny-theft is up more than 25% as compared to the same time period last year.

"It's time to put an end to retail and residential theft on Main Street and in our neighborhoods," said Matt Ross, spokesperson for CARRT. "That starts with a series of discussions in the Capitol and our neighborhoods to identify realistic solutions to the growing theft problem." businesswire.com

Michigan's New ORC Legislation to Fight 'Retail Crime Bosses'
Senate approves Runestad bill to prosecute organized retail crime bosses under the state’s racketeering laws
The Michigan Senate on Tuesday approved Sen. Jim Runestad’s legislation to penalize organized retail crime under the state’s racketeering statute.

“Organized retail crime is a growing menace that is creating havoc across the country,” said Runestad, R-White Lake. “We see this terrible trend more and more in the news — freight train tracks littered with ransacked packages and brazen mobs bursting into stores on grab-and-go raids. Sadly, retail theft has grown into a $30 billion industry in America.

“But even more unfortunate is how the bad people who benefit from this industry prey on vulnerable youth and other susceptible members of our communities — coercing at-risk kids and people with drug addictions and forcing them to commit these crimes as shields to protect themselves. We need stronger penalties in place to go after the real bad guys — these depraved retail crime bosses.”

Michigan’s Organized Retail Crime Act, which was passed in 2012, prescribed felony sentencing for organizing, supervising, financing or assisting another person in committing organized retail crime. Senate Bill 691 would add similar language to the state’s racketeering penal code in order to provide more legal leverage against criminals at the top of these efforts.

“While these crimes are a violation of the Organized Retail Crime Act, these criminals still cannot be charged under Michigan’s racketeering statute. My bill simply seeks to fix that oversight from 2012 and give the state more power to prosecute those who are behind these crime rings to the fullest extent of the law,” Runestad said. “It is also my hope that this bill will make a difference by helping save youth and other vulnerable individuals from falling victim to the career criminals who seek to exploit them and benefit from these crimes.”  misenategop.com

New Mexico's ORC Task Force Expands
Carlsbad Police Department joins NM AG's Office to fight retail crimes
Carlsbad's Police Department joined a statewide retail crime task force organized by the New Mexico Attorney General's Office designed to combat a crime which cost New Mexico businesses around $1 billion in 2021.

The Organized Retail Crime (ORCTF) Task Force is a statewide initiative dedicated to the identification, investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of individuals and enterprises engaged in organized retail crime, read a press release from New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas.

City of Carlsbad Police Chief Shane Skinner said the Attorney General’s office requested his department be part of ORCTF as an affiliate member.

"AG Balderas has taken aggressive action against organized retail crime, vowing to hold violent repeat offenders responsible, and it’s the Attorney General’s dedication to our state’s public safety and economic security that are the driving force behind the Task Force," she said. currentargus.com

(Update) New Illinois law goes after people involved in ORC
 

Buffalo Attack Aftermath & America's Mass Shooting Epidemic

How the FBI is Responding to the Buffalo Mass Shooting
Statement on the FBI Response to the Shooting in Buffalo, New York
Director Christopher Wray, Deputy Director Paul Abbate, and other FBI officials led a National Partners Conference Call with faith leaders, civil rights leaders, and private sector partners to discuss the tragic shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, over the weekend. Director Wray offered his deepest condolences to the victims and their families and to the entire community of Buffalo for what he called a “despicable attack.”

“I want to be clear, for my part, from everything we know, this was a targeted attack, a hate crime, and an act of racially motivated violent extremism,” said Director Wray. “While there remain a lot of unknowns, as there always do in an investigation at this stage, what is absolutely certain is that we at the FBI are committed to comprehensively and aggressively investigating Saturday’s attack.”

The FBI’s Buffalo Field Office immediately responded to the shooting and additional resources have been provided by FBI Headquarters, the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, and other FBI field offices. The FBI’s Counterterrorism and Criminal Investigative Divisions are also providing their expertise to the investigation.

FBI evidence response teams and victim specialists have responded and are assisting in Buffalo. In addition, technical experts are examining digital devices and social media accounts associated with the suspect charged in the attack. The FBI also set up a webpage to enable members of the public to send in any video that might help the investigation. fbi.gov

NY Gov's Response: Tougher Red Flag Laws - Social Media Investigation
After Buffalo Shooting, NY Governor Looks to Strengthen ‘Red Flag’ Measures

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s multifaceted response includes move that would let law enforcement take firearms from individuals they believe are a threat to themselves or others

New York officials said they would strengthen the state’s “red flag” law and launch an investigation into the role of social-media platforms in promoting and streaming the recent mass shooting in Buffalo.

The multifaceted response was announced by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul four days after a gunman killed 10 people in what police said was a racially motivated attack on a supermarket in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo. Payton Gendron, 18 years old, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the mass shooting. He has pleaded not guilty.

The Democratic governor called for federal legislation requiring universal background checks for the purchase of firearms and said she would work with state lawmakers to tighten New York’s already strict gun laws.

Ms. Hochul said the state will also open a new office dedicated to tracking domestic terrorism and that Attorney General Letitia James, acting on a referral from Ms. Hochul, would investigate companies where Mr. Gendron wrote about his plans for the shooting.

“The most serious threat we face as a nation is from within,” Ms. Hochul said. “It’s white supremacism, it’s white nationalism, and it’s time we confronted it head on.” wsj.com

RELATED: Hochul Vows to Crack Down on Extremist Acts of Violence in New York

RELATED: New York AG to probe social media companies’ role in Buffalo shooting

Tops Shooting Turns Buffalo Neighborhood into Food Desert
Buffalo shooting leaves neighborhood without a grocery store
Tops Friendly Market was more than a place to buy groceries. As the only supermarket for miles, it became a sort of community hub on Buffalo’s East Side — where you chatted with neighbors and caught up on people’s lives.

Now residents are grappling with being targeted in a place that has been so vital to the community. Before Tops opened on the East Side in 2003, residents had to travel to other communities to buy nutritious food or settle for snacks and higher-priced staples like milk and eggs from corner stores and gas stations.

While Tops is temporarily closed during the investigation, the community is working to make sure residents don’t go without. A makeshift food bank was set up not far from the supermarket. The Buffalo Community Fridge received enough monetary donations that it will distribute some funds to other local organizations. Tops also arranged for a bus to shuttle East Side residents to and from another of its Buffalo locations.

Like many residents, she pauses to think when asked where the next-closest major grocery is located: None is within walking distance, and it takes three different buses to get to the Price Rite. apnews.com

'A Nation Arming Itself to the Teeth' with 400M Guns in Circulation
U.S. Gun Production Triples Since 2000, Fueled by Handgun Purchases
The United States is in the middle of a great gun-buying boom that shows no sign of letting up as the annual number of firearms manufactured has nearly tripled since 2000 and spiked sharply in the past three years, according to the first comprehensive federal tally of gun commerce in two decades.

The report, released by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Tuesday — three days after a mass shooting in Buffalo left 10 dead — painted a vivid statistical portrait of a nation arming itself to the teeth. Buyers capitalized on the loosening of gun restrictions by the Supreme Court, Congress and Republican-controlled state legislatures.

The data documented a drastic shift in consumer demand among gun owners that has had profound commercial, cultural and political implications: Starting in 2009, Glock-type semiautomatic handguns, purchased for personal protection, began to outsell rifles, which have been typically used in hunting.

The police recovered 19,344 privately manufactured firearms, untraceable homemade weapons known as “ghost guns,” in 2021, a tenfold increase since 2016. Law enforcement officials say that has contributed to the surge in gun-related killings, especially in California, where ghost guns make up as many as half of weapons recovered at crime scenes.

Currently, there are around 400 million guns in the United States, according to a 2018 survey conducted by the nonpartisan Small Arms Survey, which monitors gun ownership.

This month, the gun control group Brady released an examination of Pennsylvania firearms tracing data revealing that six small retailers in south and northeast Philadelphia sold more than 11,000 weapons that were later recovered in criminal investigations or confiscated from owners who had obtained them illegally from 2014 to 2020.

Over the past two years, gun thefts from cars and homes have surged in many major cities, fueling violent crime, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal. nytimes.com

Coast-to-Coast Mass Shootings Prompt More Calls to Action
After mass shootings in Buffalo and California, Connecticut senators continue fight for federal protections against gun violence
In the wake of a violent weekend of coast-to-coast mass shootings, Connecticut legislators said they are grappling with a phenomenon that has become all too familiar: the normalization of gun violence.

Lawmakers say they are left calling, desperately, for the same common-sense gun laws they’ve been championing for years as fatalities increase across the United States, hitting home in Hartford, where the number of deadly shootings has spiked already this year.

“It’s a moral indictment of our nation that we have failed to act with federal protections against gun violence,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Monday, two days after a gunman shot 13 people in a supermarket in Buffalo, killing 10, and one day after one person died and five were wounded in a shooting in a church in Laguna Woods, California.

With the 10-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre fast approaching, legislatures say they are still fighting for some of the same things they began advocating for years ago, like universal background checks and stricter laws surrounding the types of weapons people are allowed to buy.

Blumenthal said the upward trend in gun violence is a scary one that can’t be plotted or predicted. According to the Gun Violence Archive, which independently collects nationwide shooting data, there have been nearly 200 mass shootings in 2022, only 4½ months into the year. courant.com

Mass Shooting Survivors Fund
Tops Creates Survivors Fund in Wake of Deadly Shooting
Following a racially motivated mass shooting at the Tops Markets store on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo, N.Y., that left 10 people dead and three wounded, Tops has teamed with the nonprofit National Compassion Fund (NCF) to establish the Buffalo 5/14 Survivors Fund, which will provide direct financial assistance to the survivors of those killed and people directly affected by the tragedy. Tops has contributed $500,000 to get the fund started. progressivegrocer.com

Tops worker says 911 dispatcher hung up on her during shooting

A Partial List of Mass Shootings in the United States in 2022

See the D&D Daily's initial Buffalo shooting coverage here

US: 84.6M Cases - 1M Dead - 81.4M Recovered
Worldwide: 525.2M Cases - 6.2M Dead - 495M Recovered

Former Senior Loss Prevention Executive
Know of any fallen LP exec? Let's remember & recognize.

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 358  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 768
*Red indicates change in total deaths

Vaccine-preventable COVID-19 deaths per 1 million adults

319K Preventable COVID Deaths
COVID vaccines could have prevented 319K deaths
Vaccines could have prevented roughly 319,000 COVID-19 deaths between January 2021 and last month, according to a new analysis from researchers at Brown School of Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Microsoft AI for Health.

In other words: At least every second person who died from COVID-19 since vaccines became available might have been saved by getting the vaccines, they said. States where the most lives could've been saved by vaccines include West Virginia, Wyoming, Tennessee, Kentucky and Oklahoma, according to a dashboard released by the health organizations.

"The vaccine rollout has been both a remarkable success and a remarkable failure," Brown's Stefanie Friedhoff, one of the analysis' authors, told NPR. axios.com

Brick-and-Mortar's Post-COVID Future
A Post-COVID Business Guide to Brick-and-Mortar Stores
Brick-and-mortar sales have fallen by 14% so far this year. This is obviously a huge worry for retail store owners who wonder how their businesses will fare over the coming months and years -- especially as customers have flocked to online stores during lockdown, quarantine, and self-isolation.

Does this signal the beginning of the end of brick-and-mortar stores in favor of online shopping? We don’t think so. If the pandemic has taught us one thing about businesses, it's that they’re committed to getting creative and staying resilient in the face of adversity.

While restaurants offered online ordering, home delivery, and curbside pickup, personal trainers used Zoom to continue training clients at home in lieu of open gyms. A raft of stories out there shows that businesses can pivot to deal with the unexpected.

While it’s too early to judge what a “post-pandemic” world will look like for the retail industry, one thing’s for sure: Retailers can’t afford to rest on business-as-usual laurels. The pandemic has rapidly changed consumers’ shopping habits, and both online and offline retail strategies will need to follow suit.

Despite uncertainties, there’s still a future for brick-and-mortar

This is a stressful time for all businesses. There are no guarantees as to what the future holds, but there are opportunities for brick-and-mortar stores to adapt and evolve around the pandemic. Their biggest opportunity is to adapt to providing omnichannel experiences to customers and embrace the click-and-mortar business model where it makes sense.

As always, with opportunities come risks. Brick-and-mortar stores will need to be flexible and adaptable to accelerated changing conditions if they’re to successfully weather the COVID-19 storm. fool.com

One of the Most COVID Cautious Cities Becomes Hotspot
Why COVID case rate in San Francisco is much higher than the U.S. right now
Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, said that San Francisco’s current high case rates are likely due to the city being relatively protected from the disease for the last two years, combined with city residents taking more risks as local pandemic-era restrictions and messaging wane.

Because San Francisco did such a good job preventing its residents from infection for most of the pandemic, he explained, fewer San Franciscans have acquired immunity from prior disease, so they are overall more likely to catch COVID-19 right now than other residents of other cities.

And while a greater share of San Franciscans are vaccinated than the U.S. as a whole, the COVID-19 vaccines have become less effective at preventing infections as coronavirus strains have mutated, he added. sfchronicle.com

After COVID demand surge, growth at Home Depot & Lowe’s begins to normalize

U.S. health officials say a third of people live in areas with so much virus they should consider masks indoors

Axios-Ipsos poll: 1 in 3 say the pandemic's over

Survey: On average, remote workers are about 20% happier

Fallout Continues Over Family Dollar Rat Infestation
Family Dollar warehouse linked to rodent infestation to close

Warehouse linked to rat infestation that led to recalls & 400+ store closures

Family Dollar announced to employees Wednesday that it will close its West Memphis, Arkansas distribution center, which was linked to a rodent infestation that led to recalls and store closures earlier this year.

The West Memphis facility will close on or about July 17, at which time 230 employees will be separated from the company, according to a letter sent from Family Dollar to West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon. Another 90 employees will be separated on Oct. 15.

McClendon said the city asked if anything could convince the company to stay, but was told the decision was final. The company attributed the decision to the age of its building, he said. Family Dollar says eligible employees will receive a severance package. McClendon calls the separation from one of the city’s largest employers shocking and frustrating.

In February, 404 stores temporarily closed after an inspector with the Food and Drug Administration found more than 1,000 dead rodents at the West Memphis facility over a five-day span in January.

A report from the FDA states more than 2,300 live rodents were captured in the facility from March to September 2021.

In April, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming Family Dollar made significant profits while “knowingly exposing Arkansas consumers to potentially hazardous or contaminated products by allowing and failing to prevent long-lasting and massive rodent infestations and other unsanitary conditions at its West Memphis Distribution center.”

The 850,000 square foot warehouse opened in West Memphis in 1994. It serves stores in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. thehill.com

17 Retailers Commit to Cut Down on In-Store Racial Bias
Retailers pledge to address racial profiling, unfair treatment of store customers
In an effort to reduce unfair treatment of customers based on their race, 17 major companies have signed on to “the Mitigate Racial Bias in Retail Charter,” devised this year by the organization Open to All and beauty retailer Sephora.

The 17 companies, with a total of 28 individual brands collectively, includes American Eagle Outfitters, Ascena Retail Group (Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant, Loft, Lou & Grey), Capri Holdings (Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo, Versace), Crocs, Dick’s, Gap Inc., H&M, J. Crew, Levi Strauss & Co., Michaels, Movado Group, Tapestry (Coach, Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman), rue 21, Sephora and Zara, among others.

The charter is a commitment to take “concrete steps to ensure a more welcoming environment for all by reducing racially biased experiences and unfair treatment for shoppers,” and follows Sephora’s Racial Bias in Retail Study conducted last year.

The pervasiveness of racism in wider society means that leeway often translates to unfair treatment of shoppers who are Black, Indigenous and people of color, as discussed in Sephora’s study. The researchers found that 40% of store customers in the U.S. have experienced unfair treatment on the basis of their race or skin tone, and that BIPOC shoppers are three times more likely than white ones to feel judged by their appearance.

That report was conducted following reports of such issues at Sephora itself, including a tweet from R&B singer SZA, who said in 2019 that a Sephora employee racially profiled her and called security while she was shopping.

To change that, retailers that sign the charter “acknowledge that racially biased and unfair treatment exists broadly in our society and as such, can impact the retail experience,” according to the press release. All have pledged to devise actions to “mitigate racial bias from the shopper experience, help foster inclusive shopping experiences for all, and work together to share best practices across the retail industry to drive change.” retaildive.com

Gig Job Market Explosion Driving Fraud Nationwide?
DOJ: Brazilian National Pleads Guilty in Nationwide Fraud that Exploited App-Based Food Delivery Customers During Pandemic
Gustavo De Avila Moreira Farinha today became the last of five Brazilian nationals to plead guilty in a nationwide fraud and identity theft scheme. De Avila pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jill Burkhardt to wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering and multiple aggravated identity theft charges.

In May 2021, five Brazilian nationals, including De Avila, were charged with engaging in a nationwide conspiracy to establish fraudulent driver accounts with multiple internet and app-based rideshare and food delivery companies, including by using identities stolen from the customers of those companies.

According to his plea agreement, De Avila admitted that between 2018 and May 2021, he and his co-conspirators, all of whom were Brazilian nationals living in the United States illegally, operated a scheme to defraud major app-based rideshare and food delivery companies. In Spring 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing, the conspirators shifted away from the rideshare companies, which saw a dramatic decrease in traffic, to food, grocery and other delivery companies, which saw a corresponding and significant increase in demand. De Avila and his co-conspirators exploited the surge in demand by creating new driver accounts with stolen identities, collecting referral bonuses from the fraudulent accounts, and by using, renting, and selling the accounts to others on these platforms.

De Avila and his co-conspirators also admitted that once they received payment from the rideshare and delivery companies, they laundered the money both to promote the conspiracy and to conceal the fact that the source of the funds were an elaborate fraudulent scheme. While the fraudulent scheme targeted popular app-based rideshare and food delivery services, De Avila and his co-conspirators also stole and used the identities of close to 100 victims to create fraudulent driver accounts on the various platforms over the three-year conspiracy. justice.gov

Customers Embracing 'Unattended Retail'
Why unattended retail is exploding in response to consumer acceptance

A host of technologies and service concepts have come on the scene as of late. What entities will service the rising number of unattended retail sites?

Self service technology continues to expand at a fast pace, with more locations offering it than ever. A host of technologies and service concepts have come on the scene as of late: "smart" coolers, third party delivery, artificial intelligence, computer vision and biometric identity verification.

Unattended retail set to expand

These questions took center stage during a session at the National Automatic Merchandising Association show at Chicago's McCormick Place in April, titled, "Unattended Retail in Foodservice."

Moderator Bill Moxey, director of strategy and planning at PepsiCo Inc., made one thing clear at the outset: Thousands of locations will be adding unattended retail concepts and technologies in the near future as the consumer's preference for self service is stronger than ever.

What McDonald's found

"When consumers feel less pressure, they feel more comfortable…and we buy more," he said. They will spend 20% to 40% more per transaction in an unattended setting. According to the research, half of consumers think unattended is faster and more than a third of consumers think unattended is more efficient, Moxey said. Two thirds say it is more comfortable, and one third like the ability to browse and purchase without interacting with employees.

Consumers anxious to use unattended retail

These consumers, a third of the U.S. population, will use unattended venues more if there were loyalty programs, if the "right" products were offered and if unattended was offered in more channels. If they use it at work, they will use it in the amusement park or the hotel. retailcustomerexperience.com

Addressing Retail's Latest Crisis: Baby Formula Shortages
Biden invokes Defense Production Act to address infant formula shortage
President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that his administration would be taking new actions to attempt to alleviate ongoing infant formula shortages in the United States, including invoking the Defense Production Act.

The President is invoking the act -- which allows the government more control over industrial production during emergencies -- to direct suppliers of formula ingredients to prioritize delivery to the manufacturers of formula.

Biden also announced the creation of Operation Fly Formula, which directs the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture to utilize the Defense Department's commercial planes to import formula from abroad.

In a White House video announcing the actions, Biden said he has directed his team "to do everything possible to ensure there's enough safe baby formula and that it's quickly reaching families that need it the most. This is one of my top priorities." cnn.com

Selling 850 Russian McDonald's Restaurants
McDonald's era in Russia coming to a close, restaurants sold

McDonald’s has begun the process of selling its restaurants in Russia after more than 30 years in the country.

The Chicago burger giant said its existing licensee Alexander Govor, who operates 25 restaurants in Siberia, has agreed to buy McDonald’s 850 Russian restaurants and operate them under a new name. McDonald’s didn’t disclose the sale price.

McDonald's temporarily shuttered its Russian locations in March because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a decision the company said cost it $55 million per month. On Monday, McDonald's announced it would sell those stores and leave Russia.

The sale agreement is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close within a few weeks, McDonald’s said. ksat.com

Stocks resume their rout as falling profits reignite fears of inflation
Target reported that inflation was taking a toll, a day after Walmart reported the same.

Amazon Fresh reveals first locations in New Jersey and New York

Amazon Fresh Readies East Coast Stores With Hiring Events

America's CEOs are bracing for a recession amid inflation fight

Gas prices pass $4 per gallon in every U.S. state for the first time


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