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2019 GLPS - Group LP Selfies
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JD Sports Fashion Australia Team at the 2019 Fraud Awards

"Shrink is Everyone's Business"

From left to right: Patrick Muller, Georgia Hall, Talisha Esho, Mark Boyd, Sarah O’Connor, Deborah Myers

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Georgia Retailers Organized Crime Alliance Celebrates Successful Conference

The Georgia Retailers Organized Crime Alliance (GROC) recently hosted their 9th Annual Retail Crime Training Conference. The conference was a resounding success as over 400 loss prevention professionals, law enforcement, and solutions providers gathered for a day of education, training, and networking at Atlanta’s Cobb Galleria on Thursday, August 22.

“Attendance records were broken, we had a sold-out show, and we’ve received overwhelming positive feedback. It was truly a great event and we are excited to build upon this momentum for 2020” said Chad McManus , CFE, CFI, LPC, Field Loss Prevention Manager for T-Mobile, and Chair of the Georgia Retailers Loss Prevention Council.

 

As a result of a successful conference and silent auction, GROC is proud to announce that $5,000 will be donated to the Community Teen Coalition (CTC), CTC targets underserved youth ages 8-18 tackling important issues such as childhood illiteracy, peer pressure, low self-esteem, homelessness, gangs, and drug prevention. The program is designed to generate the skills and motivation necessary for success in post-secondary education. Learn more about CTC at https://ctc-inc.org/.

Planning is already underway for GROC 2020, stay tuned on conference updates, and monthly intel meeting information at www.georgiaroc.org.

Click here to read the full recap with pictures.

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UK: Crime against retailers and wholesalers continues to rise
The crime rate in the retail and wholesale sector has risen every year since 2015, from 12,400 incidents per 1,000 premises to 27,400 incidents in 2018, the latest Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) reveals.

The number of assaults and threats has also continued to rise year on year, up to 1,600 incidents per 1,000 premises in 2018, a marginal increase on 2017 but significantly up from 500 incidents per 1,000 premises in 2016.

Theft accounted for 82% of all incidents reported in 2018 and almost three-quarters (71%) of all incidents of theft was theft by customers, with 19,300 incidents per 1,000 premises in 2018. conveniencestore.co.uk

 

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More Join the Ban Open Carry Trend

Five US retail chains are now banning the open carry of guns in their stores
31 Still Allow Open Carry & Includes Rifles
Walgreens, Wegmans, and CVS said today they will prohibit customers from openly carrying guns in their stores, even in states that are among the 31 that currently allow the open carry of handguns and rifles by civilians. The announcements bring the total number of major US retailers now banning open carry to five, following similar policy shifts by Walmart and Kroger this week.

On average, there has been more than one mass shooting per day this year, with some 53 people shot dead in mass shootings in August alone. More than 10,100 people have been killed by gun violence so far this year, about 2,500 of whom were under the age of 18.

“We support the efforts of individuals and groups working to prevent gun violence, and continually review our policies and procedures to ensure our stores remain a safe environment,” CVS, the nation’s largest pharmacy chain, said in a statement posted to its corporate website. “We join a growing chorus of businesses in requesting that our customers, other than authorized law enforcement personnel, do not bring firearms into our stores.”

Walgreens, the second-largest pharmacy chain in the US, issued a press release that read, “We are joining other retailers in asking our customers to no longer openly carry firearms into our stores other than authorized law enforcement officials.”

Some pushed back on what they saw as less-than-forceful language. And Walmart, for one, will still allow concealed carry. State laws “prohibit us from doing a complete ban,” a company spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch. None of the companies will be strictly enforcing the policy, according to the Associated Press, citing a memo by Walmart CEO Doug McMillon that said the company doesn’t want to expose workers to potentially dangerous confrontations. qz.com


 

Visit Online Updated Interactive map of Gun Violence Locations in 2019

Updated:
10,100 people killed by gun violence so far in 2019

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Pew Research Center
More Than Half of U.S. Adults Trust Law Enforcement
to Use Facial Recognition Responsibly
But the public is less accepting of facial recognition technology when used by advertisers or technology companies

A new Pew Research Center survey finds that a majority of Americans (56%) trust law enforcement agencies to use these technologies responsibly. A similar share of the public (59%) says it is acceptable for law enforcement to use facial recognition tools to assess security threats in public spaces.

At the same time, the survey finds that this relatively broad acceptance of facial recognition use by law enforcement does not necessarily apply to other entities that might use these technologies. Notably smaller shares of the public say they trust technology companies (36%) or advertisers (18%) to use facial recognition responsibly. And minorities of the public would find it acceptable for these tools to be used for purposes such as tracking who is entering or leaving apartment buildings (36%), monitoring the attendance of employees at a place of business (30%) or seeing how people respond to public advertising displays in real time (15%).

Most Americans have heard about facial recognition technology, with one-quarter having heard a lot about it. pewinternet.org

Retailers Extorted
Fall River Mayor Charged with Extorting Marijuana Vendors for Cash
Four others, including former chief of staff, also charged today
BOSTON – Jasiel F. Correia II, the Mayor of Fall River, Massachusetts, has been arrested and charged for allegedly extorting marijuana vendors for hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes; extorting a building owner for cash and a Rolex watch in exchange for activating the water supply to a commercial building; and demanding that his chief of staff give him half of her salary in return for appointing her and allowing her to keep her city job. Correia’s former Chief of Staff was also charged today on extortion, theft and bribery, and false statement charges. Both will appear in federal court today.

According to the superseding indictment, Correia agreed to issue non-opposition letters to marijuana vendors, which are required in order to operate in Massachusetts, in return for cash bribes and other payments. The bribes alleged today ranged from approximately $100,000 to $250,000 in cash, campaign contributions and mortgage discharges - in return for non-opposition letters and host community agreements. Marijuana was also exchanged for resale. It is alleged that Andrade and Correia met with marijuana vendors and discussed signing non-opposition letters in return for cash.

Facing a total of 73 years in prison on all accounts. justice.gov
 

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Today's HOT Topic: Redefining Retail Metrics
Making the News Media Rounds

What the CEO's read: The Robin Report
Retailers Are Relying on the Wrong Numbers to Tell the State of Business
Here’s How to Get Them Right
New report from Deloitte entitled The Future of Retail Metrics: Measuring success in a shifting marketplace. Its conclusion is that companies should make fundamental changes to how they define success and to what they measure.

“Traditional retail metrics do not align with the configuration of the industry today and are not suited for the evolution we can expect in the future. If today’s metrics aren’t painting an accurate picture of the businesses we are trying to measure, then the logical move is to change our perspective.”

Traditional Retail Metrics Are Garbage-In, Garbage-Out
In other words, traditional retail metrics result in “garbage-in, garbage-out,” and no retailer can afford that anymore in an industry where customers have endless retail opportunities due to the proliferation of new retail business models.

For mature-phase retail businesses, some of those metrics are thrown out in favor of comp sales, sales per-square-foot, digital sales growth, margins, earnings-per-share, return-on-invested-capital and free cash flow. therobinreport.com

For the serious retail executive who understands retail's seismic shift and wants to see the new suggested formula for measurement. A topic many have been debating for some time.



The Future of Retail Metrics: Traditional benchmarks no longer give full picture
A growing number of executives agree — in Deloitte’s recent survey of retail CFOs and finance executives, 88% said they are rethinking metrics to better reflect cross-channel operations. This reimagining has emerged in response to widespread dissatisfaction with existing data: Only a third of the executives said their internal metrics “really align” with external reporting, and only 8% believe their metrics are well-positioned to help them succeed amid all the changes in retail. So, what are the metrics financial leaders really want insight on?

Defining value - Defining new metrics

Implementing and upholding a new standard of metrics could lead the entire industry to increased effectiveness and accuracy around value capture and value creation. At the very least, a more comprehensive measurement of performance could boost resilience in the face of the industry’s next (inevitable) disruption.  chainstoreage.com

With Digital Sales Impacting Store Performance Globally
Retails Metrics Need to be Redefined
Going as far as Deloitte did may not be the simple answer and because of that may be difficult to apply. Certainly with reviews and bonuses driven by the old comp store performance the industry needs to define how digital sales, cost of delivery, and direct to consumer from the distribution centers are shared throughout the organization at least from the store teams prospective. Just our thoughts -Gus Downing

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Workplace Safety Can Worsen Under Bullying Bosses
A new Portland State University study suggests that bullying bosses aren't just bad for employee morale and well-being — they can also be bad for workplace safety.

The study was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

Yang said that bosses' behaviors can strengthen or weaken employees' sense of belonging to the work group by supporting or undermining their status within the group. Poor treatment from a boss can make employees feel that they're not valued by a group. As a result, they can become more self-centered, leading them to occasionally forget to comply with safety rules or overlook opportunities to promote a safer work environment.

Yang said this was especially true among employees who were more uncertain about their social standing within the group.

Yang said workplace safety is a critical issue — and more so in an environment where one employee's failure to behave safely can create circumstances where other people are likely to be injured.

"Organizations need to understand how important it is to curb leaders' bad behavior and to create positive team dynamics, so that there will be fewer negative safety consequences for employees or customers," she said. "It's really critical to manage such leader behavior, support victimized employees and prevent such issues."  securitymagazine.com

Will Macy's 'Growth50' Remodels at 100 More Stores Be Enough?
All told, those 150 stores cough up half of the company's brick-and-mortar revenue.

The effort is part of the company's store strategy announced last year, a triad of concepts — flagships including its Herald Square icon, smaller neighborhood stores and the Growth "magnet" stores. The department store is on track to reach $1 billion in capital expenditures this year, she also said. "Beyond our capital investment, the customer will see an increase in colleague support, advancement in omnichannel technology and more curated merchandise, tailored to their store location."

"I would characterize the changes as evolutionary rather than revolutionary. They are really about righting years of underinvestment than creating an innovative new format that is fit for the modern realities of retailing." said Neil Saunders, GlobalData Retail Managing Director.

"There are still too many Macy's stores in good retail locations that are down-at-heel and dingy," he said. "Store investment alone will not cut it, however. There also needs to be a change in how Macy's merchandises ... including the development of more own-brand product in apparel and homewares." retaildive.com

When Pot Went Legal in Canada 1 VC Heard 1,523 Pitches in 365 Days
That's Seven Deals a Day for One Year
End Result 18 Investments & "Canada is Played Out"
Members of the deal team at Canopy Rivers Inc. look at about seven investment opportunities a day, getting to know cannabis entrepreneurs eager for financial backing in a sector where the stigma of illegal drugs lingers.

Canopy Rivers was founded in April 2017 with the goal of investing in companies the Smiths Falls, Ont.-based cannabis giant couldn’t swallow. Today, it’s leveraging those talks with entrepreneurs to suss out global opportunities and think beyond dried flower.

Venture-capital investment in Canada soared to a record high of $2.15 billion in the first half of 2019. We're seeing the maturing of the market taking place right in front of you.”

Big changes are underway in cannabis investing that mirror the technology sector in the early 2000s, he said, including a shift away from vertically integrated companies taking cannabis from seeds to retail. yahoo.com

Hurricane Dorian Clobbers the Carolinas, Virginia; Over 350,000 Loss Power
As Hurricane Dorian made landfall along North Carolina's Outer Banks as a Category 1 storm Friday morning, powerful winds and storm surge had major impacts on the coastline, where serious flooding was reported and residents were believed to be trapped. Severe flooding was reported on Ocracoke Island and in Hatteras, where the storm made landfall.  weather.com

US store closures could reach 12,000 by the end of 2019
So far this year, US retailers have announced 8,201 store closures and 3,446 store openings. This compares to 5,844 closures and 3,258 openings for the full year 2018.

Year to date, UK retailers have announced 431 store closures and 633 store openings. coresight.com

Canada's Lululemon's Q2 sales up 22% shows why Nike is concerned

Party City to hire 25K for Halloween Stores


Quarterly Results
Canada's Lululemon Q2 comp's up 15%, sales up 22%
Genesco Q2 comp's up 3%, sales down 0.08%
American Eagle Q2 comp's up 2%, Aerie's comp's up 16%,
UK's Dixons Carphone Q1 comp's up 2%
UK's Arcadia (TopShop) full year sales down 4.5%

As Artificial Intelligence Use Increases, Ethics Policies Needed
Only 23% Have a Written Policy on Ethical Use of AI & Bots
New research finds that while AI use is expected to skyrocket in the coming years, most employers aren’t concerned about unethical uses of the technology. They also haven’t created ethics policies to address AI use, though they should.

More than 3,500 employers and employees from 6 countries were asked about their attitudes towards a variety of AI topics. With 64 percent of employers surveyed expecting “their companies to be using AI or advanced automation by 2022 to support efficiency in operations, staffing, budgeting or performance.” Only 25 percent are using it for those purposes now.

Even with AI use expected to grow so rapidly, most employers are not troubled that the technology could be used unethically by their companies as a whole (54 percent) or by individual employees (52 percent). Meanwhile, only 17 percent of employees expressed concern over AI potentially being used unethically.

The research found 48 percent of U.S. employers and 62 percent of employees agreed that “unions or other regulators should require companies to maintain a minimum ratio of human employees to robots.”
associationsnow.com

What are the Odds? How Vulnerable are You to the Latest Vulnerabilities?
Cybersecurity vulnerability management is a continuous race against time that is being compounded by the proliferation of new devices and applications within organizations.

The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) v3.0 used by the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) provides an open framework for communicating the potential impacts of IT vulnerabilities. It's a quantitative model that uses several metrics to generate a consistent numerical score that provides industries, organizations, and governments with a common understanding of how serious a vulnerability is. These numerical scores are then lumped into five tiers (none, low, medium, high, critical) which are intended to help organizations properly assess and prioritize their vulnerability management processes. securitymagazine.com

Supply chain security: Five IT strategies for choosing vendors wisely
With the proliferation of SaaS solutions, API integrations and cloud computing, virtually everything in the modern enterprise is connected to untold number of outside entities. In fact, many business processes depend on this connectivity, even when doing so broadens the threat landscape and puts the organization at greater risk.

This interconnectedness means that vendor vulnerabilities become your vulnerabilities. For proof, we need look no further than the massive NotPetya attack that took down hundreds of companies in the summer of 2017. What began as a quasi-cyberwarfare attack on the Ukraine crippled everything from global shipping giant Maersk to a hospital in Pennsylvania, causing $10 billion in losses—all essentially collateral damage. The incident brought the risk of vendor security front and center as the ransomware spread like wildfire, even to organizations that had absolutely no connection to the original targets.

But since then, it seems little has changed when it comes to implementing better supply chain cybersecurity risk management. A recent Gartner study found that 83% of organizations uncover third-party risks after conducting due diligence, and over 70% of business and IT executives admit to having no idea how diligent their third-party partners are when it comes to security. Disturbingly, over half say they rely on trust alone.

With so much at stake, it’s extremely troubling that so many organizations fail to make supply chain security a top priority. Most often, the problem is because IT is brought into the vendor evaluation process after a selection has already been made. helpnetsecurity.com

Changing the Way Security Leaders Approach IT Security
Organizations must change the way they implement security and change the way they look at it, says Dr. David Brumley, former Chief Security Officer and current CEO of ForAllSecure.

“When deciding which new tech to deploy on your IT environment, involve security in that decision. When you’re creating new applications, create an application security team who is integrated with your developers,” he advised.

Organizations should also stop asking themselves whether they are secure (there’s no such thing as absolutely secure) and start asking how quickly they can identify a new problem and react and whether they can move faster than attackers.

“Forty years of research has shown it’s near impossible to solve the ‘make it secure — period’ problem. I think we can solve the ‘how to move faster’ problem,” Dr. Brumley noted.

Thirdly, organizations need to start considering and thinking about all the risks they inherit.

“When you use open source, you’re inheriting a risk. When you use third-party software you’ve not checked yourself, you’re inheriting a risk,” he explained. “I’ve run into many companies who say to me when I point out a huge gaping hole: ‘well, we didn’t develop or create that.’ That doesn’t matter! If you’re running it, you’re responsible for it.”

And, finally, organizations must invest in their people. Yes, it’s hard and yes, it can be expensive, but people are often thrust into a security role with very little formal training or education, he noted, and they simply have to refine their skills. helpnetsecurity.com

Sr. Director Security Compliance Data Privacy Posted for Brooks Brothers in Enfield, CT
The diversity of our operations has recently created an opportunity for a Sr. Director Security Compliance Data Privacy located at our Enfield, CT location. This critical and highly visible role is responsible for information security, compliance, and data privacy governance and strategic direction, and is the most senior level Information Security role, reporting directly to the CIO. This role oversees Information Technology (IT) security policies, standards and environments consistent with IT roadmaps, enterprise architecture, and IT strategy, also leading IT security risk management and data privacy activities. hirebridge.com

CISA Publishes Ransomware Protection Strategies

Watch the Introduction Video for Nedap's RFID LP Academy

For more information regarding the RFID Loss Prevention Academy,
visit: www.nedap-retail.com/academy
 

Returns are rampant in online fashion retail, but counterstrategies exist
According to “Fashion Ecommerce Report: Consumer Trends & Strategies for Brands” from e-commerce marketing platform Yotpo, 88% of surveyed fashion shoppers admit to having returned fashion items purchased online in the past year, with 51% returning between 50 and 500 dollars’ worth of online fashion merchandise. Sixty-six percent of respondents say they order more items than they intend on keeping due to the ease of returns.

Fit and quality (79%) are the top reasons online fashion shoppers return items, with 49% citing items looking different in person than online. However, the survey also reveals steps retailers can take to help reduce the likelihood of returns of online fashion purchases. These include a detailed product description, which almost all respondents (98%) consider “important” or “very important” when purchasing; photos, which 93% of respondents consider “important” or “very important”; customer videos (72%); and sizing and fit information (72%).

In addition to providing all these e-commerce features, Yotpo also recommends that online fashion retailers create a “fit quiz” customers can take to help direct them to the most suitable items, especially in categories such as swimwear and lingerie. chainstoreage.com

Merchants Struggle With The (Un)Certainty Of eCommerce Sales Taxes
The U.S., in particular, has seen a shifting tax landscape in the past several months, in the wake of the June 2018 Supreme Court decision in the case known as South Dakota vs. Wayfair. To summarize that decision, states can tax sales by companies that do not have a physical presence within the state. And yet, tax policy remains a bit of a patch quilt.

In some states, firms are exempt until they generate $50,000 in sales within that state’s borders; in other cases (such as South Dakota), that threshold stands at $100,000. All sorts of other considerations come into play, and may even supersede the “dollar threshold.” For example, a firm may be taxed if it has a single employee working within a particular state.

As far as collection goes, some states require online marketplaces to handle tax collection and remittance for sellers; others mandate that the sellers process the taxes. Against that fragmented backdrop, Avalara President and Chief Operating Officer Amit Mathradas told Karen Webster that eCommerce firms, especially smaller ones, are navigating a tax collection environment that increasingly needs technology and automation to ensure compliance. pymnts.com

The robots are coming—and they’re bringing your online order
While some retailers are testing full-sized, self-driving cars, a fresh breed of vehicles is emerging: the delivery robot. New, purpose-built delivery robots are small, relatively lightweight and made to operate at low speeds. They’re designed to make deliveries without drivers, often in places off-limits to cars, such as sidewalks.

Delivery robots have the potential to boost the speed and efficiency of retail deliveries and significantly reduce costs, says Robert Doyle, vice president for the Robotic Industries Association (RIA), a trade association serving the robotics industry. One estimate, from investment management firm ARK Investment Management LLC, suggests robots could reduce the cost of last-mile delivery to 6 cents per mile compared with about $1.60 per mile for a delivery made by a human. Because they are agile and adaptable, robots could be the best choice for some deliveries, especially in crowded urban areas or on college campuses.

Kroger Co. has been among the pioneers in robotic delivery of online orders. Since December, the grocer has used autonomous vehicles developed by Nuro Inc. to deliver ecommerce grocery orders to customers in Scottsdale, Arizona, and it plans to expand the service to two stores in Houston, Texas, later in the year. Nuro’s robots operate on public roads at speeds of less than 25 miles per hour. digitalcommerce360.com

Alibaba buys Chinese e-commerce business Kaola for $2 billion

Amazon, Walmart Will Dominate E-Grocery Food Sales Through 2024

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"Speed Kills" As we all sprint virtually every day to accomplish our tasks, one must remember that, without stepping back and getting out of your box to see exactly where you're going or where you've been, you won't ever be able to see where you really need to go. And in that case speed really does kill and you may never even see it coming because you're moving too fast. That's why three-day-weekends are so great; they make you stop and listen. You've just got to make sure you hear it.

Just a Thought,
Gus

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