Zebra Workcloud Actionable Intelligence

Make it Obvious. Make it Automatic. Make it Scalable.

Strengthen loss prevention and improve sales by instantly communicating corrective actions to your frontline with Zebra Workcloud Actionable Intelligence. Utilize AI-generated insights to improve on-shelf availability and inventory accuracy and close the loop on more investigations with less effort and automatically assign and track tasks.

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Read how Walgreens is utilizing this solution in the news article further below
 

DA Blasts Dems for Trying to "Sabotage" Prop. 47 Amendment
California Democrats’ Latest – Sabotage the Initiative to Amend Prop. 47

Yolo County DA’s public safety update says URGENT ACTION REQUESTED

Rampant retail theft throughout California cities has caused thousands of small business and store closures. Escalating fentanyl overdoses are killing young Californians at a stunning rate. In reaction to the destruction of California, 900,000 Californians signed the petition to qualify the Reform Prop. 47 initiative, the “Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act,” for the November 2024 ballot.

Yolo Couty District Attorney warns that California Democrats’ Latest act is to Sabotage the Initiative to Amend Prop. 47.

“We’re hearing the poison pill amendments have been put in all of the retail theft bills and will begin coming up on the assembly floor on Monday and perhaps the senate on Wednesday. I think one interesting angle is about all the progressive Democrats who abstained or voted no who will now flip because of the poison pill,” DA Reisig said on X.

According to the “poison pill” amendment, the legislative bills would be repealed if the ballot initiative to restore safety to cities and communities is approved by voters in November, rather than complimenting the ballot initiative.

“The poison pill proves they are not serious about the retail theft and Fentanyl crisis,” Greg Totten, Co-chair of Californians for Safer Communities added.

Reisig said:

“URGENT PUBLIC SAFETY UPDATE To All CA Sheriffs, Police Chiefs, DAs & LEOs – In the latest act of cynical political gamesmanship designed to sabotage the initiative to amend Prop 47, the Gov & Leg leadership have revealed they are preparing their own competing crime (Prop 47) initiative for the Nov 2024 ballot.

This shady 11th hour tactic, which conflicts with all their previous public statements that legislation alone should address CA’s crime crisis, is designed to confuse voters by presenting a seriously weaker crime initiative on the Nov 24 ballot, thereby creating murky choice overload to voters. californiaglobe.com

   RELATED: Playing Politics With Crime in California


PD Says Surge in Crime Tied Directly to Walmart Self-Checkout
Shrewsbury, MO: Walmart Does Away With Self-Checkout Lanes

Move comes after spike in store retail thefts

Shrewsbury Police Chief Lisa Vargas recently told city leaders that 2024 has seen a surge in arrests and prosecutions tied mostly to one source — the self-checkout lanes at the Walmart located at 7437 Watson Road.

In her monthly report to the Shrewsbury Board of Alderman on June 11, Vargas said in past years the municipal court might see 45 to 50 retail theft prosecutions between January and May. During the same period this year, some 309 individuals were charged with shoplifting.

“The majority of these people are taking their things to the self-checkout, bagging them and not paying,” Vargas said.

According to a report submitted at the board meeting earlier this month, 16 citations for shoplifting at Walmart were issued in May alone, and Vargas said the store removed its self-checkout area last month as a direct result of the rampant theft.

During a recent visit to the location, the Times observed that shoppers now can only check out themselves by using the Walmart app on their smartphones. The former self-checkout area has been converted to traditional, staffed checkout lanes.

According to industry reports, nationally, the retailer and peers including Target and Dollar General have struggled with preventing theft at self-checkouts, with Walmart experimenting with several theft-deterring technologies.

Ultimately, these experiments have proven to be ineffective, but Chief Vargas said she believes the removal of the self-checkouts will see incidents of local shoplifting subside through the remainder of this year. timesnewspapers.com


States Continue to Crack Down on Organized Theft

North Carolina Passes Bill to 'Clarify & Modernize' ORC Laws
Retail crime, money laundering bill awaits Cooper’s signature
Abill making money laundering a felony and adding clarification to larceny crimes recently passed both chambers of the General Assembly and now awaits a signature on the desk of Gov. Roy Cooper.

The bill would add a felony law to the North Carolina criminal code for money laundering, which involves individuals or organizations knowingly conducting criminal activity with funds over $10,000.

In addition, the bill makes minor changes to the laws surrounding retail crime and expands the definitions to cover novel approaches to defrauding retailers. For example, one advanced retail theft approach involves using fake price codes to obtain an item at less than its actual sale price.

Under current state law, a person is guilty of a felony if they remove or deactivate an anti-shoplifting control device. However, the updated language includes not just the removal of security tags but also shelving, security cameras, and security systems a merchant utilizes to prevent larceny.

According to the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association, the bill was developed in coordination with legal experts, including lawyers and law enforcement. The NCRMA notes that theft impacts not just businesses, but also consumers, who bear the financial burden.

“The North Carolina Retail Merchants Association commended the North Carolina General Assembly for unanimously passing House Bill 495 to clarify and modernize North Carolina’s criminal laws addressing organized retail crime, which increases costs for consumers,” said Andy Ellen, NCRMA president and general counsel. carolinajournal.com


New ORC Law in Alabama Gives Stiffer Punishments for Shoplifters
Alabama Law Enforcement cracking down on shoplifting; ORC charges are putting shoplifters behind bars
A bill signed in September is cracking down on organized retail theft. Shoplifters that now steal in groups of two or more can face harsher penalties. Shoplifters previously avoided facing charges by stealing goods from stores that did not go over the felony dollar amount.

They would then do the same at other stores, racking up the stolen goods. Now, under the new law, prosecutors can group these thefts together into one large charge. You can be charged for things like: using someone else as a distraction, taking security tags off merchandise or even using your cellphone to assist in theft. Also be weary of buying stolen goods; charges may be brought up on people that buy re-sold goods that could be believed to be stolen.

The thresholds for being charged based on dollar amount are: Over $500 in 30 days, over $1,000 in 180 days, and over $2,500 in a year or more. Local small business owners are relieved that police can now crack down on these shoplifters. One small business in Athens was targeted in organized retail theft in the past.  kobi5.com


Gun Violence Declared 'Public Health Emergency'
US surgeon general declares gun violence a public health emergency

The U.S. surgeon general is declaring gun violence a public health crisis, driven by a growing number of injuries and deaths involving firearms in the country

The U.S. surgeon general on Tuesday declared gun violence a public health crisis, driven by the fast-growing number of injuries and deaths involving firearms in the country.

The advisory issued by Dr. Vivek Murthy, the nation's top doctor, came as the U.S. grappled with another summer weekend marked by mass shootings that left dozens of people dead or wounded.

“People want to be able to walk through their neighborhoods and be safe," Murthy told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “America should be a place where all of us can go to school, go to work, go to the supermarket, go to our house of worship, without having to worry that that's going to put our life at risk.”

To drive down gun deaths, Murthy calls on the U.S. to ban automatic rifles, introduce universal background checks for purchasing guns, regulate the industry, pass laws that would restrict their use in public spaces and penalize people who fail to safely store their weapons.

None of those suggestions can be implemented nationwide without legislation passed by Congress, which typically recoils at gun control measures. Some state legislatures, however, have enacted or may consider some of the surgeon general's proposals.  abcnews.go.com


A Sign of a Violent Summer Ahead?
Mass shootings across the US mark the first weekend of summer
The first weekend of summer brought a tragic yet familiar pattern for American cities wracked by gun violence as mass shootings left dozens dead or wounded at a party in Alabama, an entertainment district in Ohio and a grocery store in Arkansas.

It was the second straight weekend that saw an outbreak of mass shootings across the U.S., prompting mayors in places marred by the violence to plead for help.

In Michigan, a deputy was fatally shot while pursuing a suspected stolen vehicle in what the county sheriff described as an ambush. A Philadelphia police officer was critically wounded Saturday after pulling over a car with four people.

Police in Montgomery, Alabama, said hundreds of rounds were fired at a crowded party early Sunday, leaving nine people wounded. Interim Police Chief John Hall said investigators recovered more than 350 different spent shell casings.

One reason for so many shootings with multiple victims is the increased use of modified guns that can spray hundreds of shots, said Jillian Snider, a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. apnews.com


DC police unveil new 'Falcon 1' helicopter, drones, increasing tools for crime fighting

Albany, NY PD partners with ATF/FBI to stop crime
 

Walgreens Deploys Zebra AP Solution Across 8,000 Stores
Walgreens optimizes store operations and security
Walgreens Boots Alliance is leveraging an analytics solution to uncover store issues and resolve areas of loss in real time.

The pharmacy and health care services retailer is utilizing the Zebra Modern Store framework and Zebra Workcloud Actionable Intelligence software to improve asset protection, equip associates with technology and optimize operational visibility across its network of 8,000 stores across 50 states.

Walgreens is also deploying Zebra Workcloud Task Management and Workcloud Demand Intelligence software as part of its effort to reduce total loss enhance task management and optimize inventory in its stores.

"Recognizing the advantages of today's digital technologies, we implemented Zebra’s leading-edge software and hardware solutions to streamline our operations and better support our employees and customers," said Tim Bailey, senior manager, asset protection solutions, Walgreens Boots Alliance. "The integration of Zebra's solutions has yielded positive outcomes, empowering our business with tools to enhance associate engagement, improve inventory accuracy, and elevate the customer experience."

According to Walgreens, deploying the Zebra Workcloud Actionable Intelligence solution resulted in a net gain of millions of dollars over five years and has benefited 20,000 associates companywide, including asset protection, store operations, pharmacy managers and inventory specialists.

Utilizing Workcloud Actionable Intelligence, Walgreens has also been able to reduce phantom inventory, shelf gaps, and high shrink rates from markdown non-compliance while increasing fraud detection, reducing waste by 27%.  chainstoreage.com


Consumers Embrace Facial Recognition for Security Purposes
JPMorgan Chase Is Right To Be Bullish On Retail Biometrics

JPMorgan Chase is planning a broad rollout of biometric payments with U.S. retailers by early next year, enabling shoppers to make purchases by scanning their palms or faces.

Convenience In Stores

When it comes to retail payments, the fact is that convenience always comes first. So while merchants and financial institutions have to have security as table stakes, consumers have to have convenience. Biometrics, when implemented correctly of course, can deliver both. At retail point-of-sale, such systems are a win-win.

This is why I share that bullish take on the technology even in the U.S., which has in some cases been slow to adopt new payments technology. …[In] the U.S.,...consumer confidence in facial recognition biometrics for security purposes remains high. ...The more exposed consumers are to biometrics at POS, the more comfortable they will be with this technology.

Americans are already beginning to experience a variety of new biometric payment options, and I am sure that much wider adoption will accelerate. One place that Americans will become more familiar with the technology is sports and events where the technology is already being used to great effect. Amazon, for example, launched the Just Walk Out store in the Seahawks’ Lumen Field NFL stadium some time ago.

...Fans of the Colorado Rockies, the Boston Red Sox, the Kansas City Royals, the Houston Astros and many others are moving to similar palm, face and other solutions. Such cashierless biometric checkouts process transactions faster than traditional checkouts, which is particularly important in sports and event settings where there are big peaks in customer demand.

I think many merchants will indeed choose to go this way because there is a particularly appealing aspect to this type of fast and convenient authentication at the check out, in that it enables a retailer to combine both an authenticated payment transaction and an authenticated loyalty transaction in one “identity ceremony” so that the customer can complete both transactions without needing to present cards, a phone or anything else. Now, the idea of linking a biometric identifier to a payment mechanism to speed up checkout in the grocery store is hardly new or revolutionary (after all, Piggly Wiggly did this 20 years ago) but as the technology becomes more accurate and therefore more convenient, it will inevitably scale to meet both consumer and merchant demands.

Worth The Risk:  forbes.com


$434M Retail Settlement
Under Armour to pay $434M to settle lawsuit that claimed CEO misled investors

If approved, the agreement requires the retailer to keep its CEO and chair roles separate for three years and instill a performance-based condition for some executive stock benefits.

Under Armour is moving to settle a class action lawsuit from 2017 that accused CEO Kevin Plank and former Chief Financial Officer Chip Molloy of misleading investors, according to a company press release. If approved, Under Armour would pay $434 million to buyers of its stock between Sept. 16, 2015, and Nov. 1, 2019, to resolve the claims.

As part of the deal, which admits no wrongdoing, Under Armour agrees to keep separate the roles of CEO and chair of the board for “at least” three years, per an SEC filing. All stock benefits granted to its CEO, CFO and chief legal officer during that time will also include a performance-based vesting condition set by the board of directors.  retaildive.com


New Balance launches trade-in program in nearly 100 stores

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Monos opens second retail store as it plots US expansion