Appriss Acquires Verisk’s Retail Loss Prevention Solutions

Adding product lines and client bases increases Appriss’ retail performance improvement leadership

Appriss, a leading provider of data analytics solutions in safety, health, and retail, today announced the acquisition of the retail loss prevention solutions from Verisk (Nasdaq:VRSK), a leading data analytics company serving the insurance industry, energy and specialized markets, and financial services. Verisk’s retail loss prevention portfolio has a broad and global client base of more than 70 retailers, many new to the Appriss family. This acquisition will be integrated into Appriss’ retail business unit, Appriss Retail. Read more in today's Vendor Spotlight column below

NFMA Takes Credit For Defeating the One Federal ORC Bill in Late '90's
The ORC Fight Drove One Trade Association to Develop Legislative Branch
National Flea Market Association Says - ORC Fight Created Legislative Need
The National Flea Market Association has been representing national flea markets and swap meets in Washington since the late 1990’s. Without their input, flea market and swap meet vendors would be held on a tight leash by members of Congress. Steve Blakewood, a member of the legislative branch of the NFMA, explains just how this national organization fights for flea market rights.

“The need for representation in Washington became apparent to the NFMA’s leadership in the late 1990’s when “big box” retailers and their lobbyists began pushing legislation in Washington under ‘Organized Retail Crime Legislation’ that was designed to restrict flea markets from selling certain items under the guise of protecting the public safety,” Blakewood said in a report.

By going back and forth to Washington and getting the message out to Congress that flea market and swap meet owners only want an even playing field, the NFMA pushed back on the proposed ‘Organized Retail Crime Legislation,’ which ultimately failed to become law. This raised the association’s profile and improved their image, showing just how powerful a group can be. fleamarketzone.com

Editor's Note: This was the one and only time when an ORC Bill actually passed in one House and could have become law. The public reason was no budget dollars for the new office required - costing around $5M. However as is the case, most often the prevailing reasons always come out years later - such as this. But this is the first time we've seen this position.

This was a great effort that Joe LaRocca, the former VP of LP for the NRF at the time, steered and almost won. While the bill didn't make it all the way through, it certainly raised the profile and awareness of the ORC problem. So it's been a long series of battles, and the states have clearly stepped up and filled the gap. Even with today's anti-shoplifting prosecution mentality the nations DAs can not ignore it.

I for one had no idea that it led to an association developing a legislative branch to fight it. In some regards that's almost like paying for a legal protection racket. Hey just my thoughts.

US Senators: "McDonald's Can & Must Do More to Protect Employees"
Democratic senators press McDonald’s on workplace violence
A group of Democratic U.S. senators urged McDonald’s Corp. to take steps to protect employees from workplace violence and asked the U.S. Department of Labor to fully investigate an employee complaint about violent incidents.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration should conduct a full investigation into a complaint filed on May 20 by a group of Chicago-area employees of the company, the senators said in a letter to Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act’s general duty clause requires employers to furnish employees with a workplace free from recognized hazards causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm.

“Clearly, McDonald’s is not meeting this requirement,” the senators said.

OSHA did not treat the submission as a formal complaint and emailed the franchisee rather than conducting a formal investigation, according to the letter.

“McDonalds can and must do more to protect its employees, but employers will not take seriously their obligations to provide a safe workplace if OSHA does not enforce workers rights to a hazard-free workplace,” the letter stated.

McDonald’s employees have experienced 721 incidents of workplace violence in the past three years — 281 of which resulted in at least one physical injury and 288 of which occurred between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., according to a recent report by the National Employment Law Project that examined media coverage of workplace violence incidents against employees of the fast-food giant.

England Seeing Same Robbery & Violence Trends as U.S.
Central England Co-op reduces store crime
Central England Co-op’s crackdown on store crime has seen burglaries drop by 6% and robberies drop by 30% – bucking a national trend that has seen incidents jump by 137% and 508%, respectively.

The new figures have been released one year after the retailer rolled out a string of new measures to try and stop incidents and protect colleagues, members and customers.

These new measures sit alongside a range of others such as product GPS trackers, additional ATM anchors, gas suppression systems and stringent cash controls.

Craig Goldie, loss prevention advisor at Central England Co-op, said: “All of these measures have, as the figures show, already started to deter criminals and, most importantly, ensure our colleagues and customers feel safe.

Goldie added: “Also, in 2019, we will be working closely with other retailers, police forces across the 16 counties in which we trade and the government to tackle issues of violence and aggression towards colleagues.

“We are doing everything we can to prevent incidents like this from happening, but if something does happen we offer them support and counseling both from within our business and specialists.” talkingretail.com

Putting safety first: Retailers wrestle with supply chain safety amid drug import push
One Answer to Drug Prices - Import Cheaper Drugs
Product safety is a multifaceted issue for any retailer dealing with the pharmacy and prescriptions, and the systems that are in place to protect the quality and integrity of the goods offered constantly are evolving to strengthen the industry’s defenses.

One of the key loopholes between consumers and the dangers of unsafe products, however, is the potential for the introduction of items from other countries that fail to meet the rigorous safety standards of the United States.

The Food Safety Modernization Act, which took effect in 2011, sought to close that gap by imposing tighter regulation around the import of foods and ingredients from overseas. The act requires companies that import products to the United States to ensure that their suppliers meet the same standards for product safety that are required of American companies.

Market pressures in the pharmaceutical industry, however, have led officials at both the state and federal levels to explore the possibility of bringing drugs in from other countries at a lower cost, potentially circumventing the Food and Drug Administration’s close oversight of U.S.-made medications, according to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

The U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain is in the midst of complying with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act, a law that requires tracing medicines from their origins in the manufacturing process all the way through to the consumer. Importing drugs from other countries could circumvent that law and potentially open up the supply chain to fraudulent medications. drugstorenews.com

SOX Compliance Doesn’t Get Easier With Time
Despite ongoing expectations to the contrary, complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act remains a moving target for companies.

Seventeen years after passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, those not involved in SOX compliance might assume that by now it would be a rote activity requiring diminishing effort.

They would be wrong. Despite efforts and expectations to the contrary, the time and cost expended on SOX compliance have decreased little over the past decade, according to a new report by Protiviti.

In fact, in the consulting firm’s survey of finance professionals from 693 publicly held companies, half (51%) said SOX compliance hours increased in 2018. And among those, 59% said the increase was more than 10%.

The overall trend “reflects the fact that the cumulative time internal teams and external auditors invest in compliance activities is determined by a range of ‘beyond-SOX’ factors, including … [Public Company Accounting Oversight Board] inspections, the adoption of new accounting standards, internal technology implementations, process changes, and more,” Protiviti said.

As to cost, average internal SOX compliance costs were virtually identical last year as they were in 2017 for both large accelerated filers (companies with a public float of $700 million or more) and accelerated filers (public float between $75 million and $700 million). cfo.com

Giant Eagle & Grabango: First-of-its-Kind Checkout-Free Partnership
A “no-wait” and checkout-free brick-and-mortar payment experience
At the industry level, this announcement is not only an important first but a harbinger of many announcements to come in the retail-tech industry. True, checkout-free technology eliminates lines at checkout, and it also unlocks a variety of customer-oriented, loss prevention, safety, merchandising and operational efficiency applications as well. Grabango collaborates with its clients to thoughtfully apply technology to promote superior shopping experiences and a safer workplace that facilitates more store associate-to-shopper interactions.

Since its incorporation nearly four years ago, Grabango has amassed 17 patents related to checkout-free technologies and signed on clients that it claims serve over 600 million shoppers per year collectively. grabango.com venturebeat.com pymnts.com

BOPIS State of the Industry Report - Part 2
New Report Ranks Top Retailers’ Online Buying Experience in the BOPIS Process
The report takes an in-depth look at the online and notification portion of the BOPIS experience from the consumer’s perspective.

The findings in the report are based on the feedback provided by 300 secret shoppers that explored the BOPIS shopping journey at 10 top retailers across the U.S. “With this research, we solidified our hypothesis that the online purchase and notification segments are the most mature elements of the BOPIS experience. However, there are still significant differences between the top-ranking retailers and bottom ranking retailers, especially in areas that have significant impact on the customer, namely the time to notify the customer, and clear instructions on the in-store pickup process.”

Key findings include:

You can download Part 2 of the BOPIS State of the Industry Report here: globenewswire.com

Instacart Putting Drivers At Risk
Hiding Addresses - High Crime Areas - Until Driver Accepts
“The real reason Instacart doesn’t want us to see the addresses is they know experienced shoppers will refuse batches to customers who live in high-crime areas, have a history of harassment or violence, and who are poor tippers,”

Instacart tells Fast Company that the policy change is to protect customer privacy, since both the address and potentially sensitive items ordered would be broadcast to many drivers. As an example, they cited a customer ordering a pregnancy test.

As for fears about driving into dangerous neighborhoods, Instacart says that assignment offers do provide an approximate location, so shoppers can make a call. “If there is an issue, where you are uncomfortable delivering to an address, please reach out to us,” a support rep wrote to another shopper. “We can compensate you for shopping and remove you from the order.” fastcompany.com

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