Sensormatic Solutions Predicts the Top Busiest Holiday Shopping Days
With Its ShopperTrak Traffic Data Analytics
Peak traffic days set to bring in nearly half of this season’s U.S. shoppers

Johnson Controls today announced that Sensormatic Solutions, its leading global retail solutions portfolio, released the annual ShopperTrak list of the top busiest shopper traffic days for the 2019 holiday season.

“The Thanksgiving Day weekend — including Black Friday, and the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 30 — will continue to be crucial span days for all U.S. retailers as they approach the holiday season,” said Bjoern Petersen, president at Sensormatic Solutions. “Our historical analysis also suggests that, because there are only three Saturdays in December leading up to Christmas this year, Boxing Day (December 26) will play a more prominent role in the U.S. It represents another major day consumers are off from work and can shop and/or return items they purchased or received.”

The full list of predicted busiest shopping days in the U.S. is as follows:

1.  11/29/2019 – Black Friday
2.  12/21/2019 – Super Saturday (Saturday before Christmas)
3.  12/26/2019 – Day after Christmas, aka “Boxing Day,” in some global regions
4.  12/14/2019 – Two Saturdays before Christmas
5.  11/30/2019 – Saturday after Black Friday
6.  12/22/2019 – Sunday before Christmas
7.  12/23/2019 – Monday before Christmas
8.  12/28/2019 – Saturday after Christmas
9.  12/27/2019 – Friday after Christmas
10.  12/7/2019 – First Saturday in December

The predicted top busiest shopping days in Canada include:

1.  12/26/2019 – Boxing Day
2.  11/29/2019 – Black Friday
3.  11/30/2019 – Saturday after Black Friday
4.  12/21/2019 – Super Saturday (Saturday before Christmas)
5.  12/14/2019 – Two Saturdays before Christmas

Shopper traffic insights can inform more than foot traffic

Retailers can leverage traffic insights throughout the holiday season. Focusing on the top busiest shopping days can help inform scheduling decisions, merchandise floor sets, inventory fulfillment and even loss presentation awareness.

“The holiday season typically means more action and opportunity for shrink, as a result of high shopping volume,” added Petersen. “Traffic insights can and should be used to help better prepare loss prevention staff to decrease shrink in key categories and high-end items, from shoplifting and organized retail crime (ORC).”  businesswire.com

Holiday spending expected to rise 5%, but don’t expect bigger crowds at the mall
It may only be September, but the December holiday shopping rush is just around the corner. Around 50% of consumers have already started looking for items on their friends’ and family’s wish lists, according to a new online survey from The Harris Poll and OpenX.

The holidays are a critical time for many brands: Sales during this time of year can make up 30% of a retailer’s annual revenue. Heading into the gift-giving season, shoppers are expected to spend 5% more this year than they did last year, according to the survey.

However, while consumers plan to spend more this year, they also plan to spend their money differently than last year. Cadogan’s team expects 53% of all holiday shopping to be done digitally.

In fact, around 20% of purchases are expected to happen on mobile devices, driven predominantly by millennial shoppers. cnbc.com

Majority of consumers plan to return holiday gifts
Seventy-seven percent of consumers expect to return a portion of their gifts this holiday season, according to a survey of more than 15,000 consumers conducted by Oracle Retail. To make their returns, 65% of respondents said they'd go to the store, while 32% said they'd return items by mail. Nearly 20% of respondents said they expect to return more than half of their presents. Gen Z plans to return the most gifts this year. retaildive.com

In the Face of Headwinds, Consumers Splurge
Despite economic uncertainty, households increased spending at a 4.7% annual rate in the second quarter, the strongest pace in four and a half years. WSJ's Gunjan Banerji looks at why the consumer is powering forward, and whether it could be enough to prop up the economy. wsj.com

Wisconsin inmate confesses to 'Making a Murderer' killing: report
Plot thickens in controversial case that's impacted the interrogation community

A Wisconsin inmate reportedly confessed to documentary crews that he killed Teresa Halbach, the murder victim whose mysterious death is at the forefront of the hit Netflix series "Making a Murderer." The inmate is serving time for a different crime.

Shawn Rech, the director of "Convicting A Murderer," an unaffiliated new documentary about Halbach’s murder, told Newsweek Monday that his production company received a confession from one of the “notable convicted murderers from Wisconsin.” He said the confession is on audio. Rech is not releasing the man’s name and has handed over possible evidence to law enforcement as they continue to determine if the confession is legitimate.

Two men -- Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey -- have spent more than a decade behind bars after being convicted for the 2005 murder of photographer Halbach. Rech confirmed that the man who confessed is neither Avery nor Dassey. foxnews.com

Editor's Note: Given the update on this story, we're re-running our Jan. 2019 interview with Dave Thompson of WZ in today's Daily (see LPNN column below), who talks about the high profile "Making a Murderer" case and the impact its had on the interrogation community.


'Ambiguous' Policy Forces Insurer to To Pay For $300K Jewelry Heist
Certain underwriters at Lloyd's of London Inc. can't escape a breach of contract claim brought by a jewelry store whose products were taken during an armed robbery, after an Illinois appellate court ruled the insurance policy was ambiguous.

Thursday's order affirmed a lower court's ruling in favor of Turmusaya Jewelry Inc., which claims it lost nearly $300,000 worth of merchandise in a 2013 armed robbery at its Burbank, Illinois, store. The Cook County Circuit Court previously entered an amended judgment in favor of Turmusaya and against the Lloyd's underwriters for $349,507.

The underwriters claimed they were not responsible for covering the loss because there were not two store employees present during the robbery, which was required under the so-called two-person warranty in the policy.

In its motion for summary judgment, Turmusaya argued the policy was ambiguous because the two-person warranty was an express warranty, but the policy stated there were no express warranties. Lloyd's underwriters argued that the two-person warranty is a condition, not an express warranty. law360.com

Columbus, OH: Shoplifters get second, or third, chance in court diversion program
The Helping Understand Barriers program is limited, for the most part, to crimes against big-box stores and to defendants whose theft records remain in the single digits.

Instead of standing before a judge to enter a plea, the men and women sat outside the busy courtroom, waiting to start the process that would divert them from the usual reckoning. All had faced a theft charge at some point in the past. All were in Franklin County Municipal Court because they are accused of stealing from a store again, for the second or third or maybe even fourth time. Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein is betting that the best way to curb such recidivism — repeat offenders are a huge drain on the legal system, retailers and families — is to ask a simple question and then tackle the complex answer.

As best he knows, the pilot effort underway since May is the first of its kind nationwide. Diversion programs in Ohio and elsewhere commonly focus on first-time offenders, juveniles or people charged with drug crimes. Those who choose to participate in the theft program, called Helping Understand Barriers, complete a screening survey that seeks to get at the underlying reasons for stealing. After the assessment, they are connected to community services and organizations that can address their needs, from food and housing to substance-abuse treatment and mental-health care.

“We provide a plan that is specific and unique to the individual,” Klein said. “The vast majority of folks who come through have economic issues or mental-health issues — they need help.” Defendants who successfully complete the six-month program have their charges dismissed. dispatch.com

U.S. Labor Department extends overtime pay to 1.3 million U.S. workers,
impacting the retail and fast food industries
The U.S. Department of Labor on Tuesday issued a long-awaited rule extending mandatory overtime pay to 1.3 million U.S. workers, far fewer than an Obama administration rule that was struck down by a federal judge. Currently, workers who earn a salary rather than hourly wages are automatically entitled to overtime pay only if they earn less than $23,660 a year, a figure set in 2004. The new rule will raise the threshold to $35,568 when it takes effect on Jan. 1. Workers who earn above the salary threshold may still be eligible for overtime pay if they do not primarily perform management-related duties.

The revised rule affects workers and employers in industries such as retail, fast food, higher education and nonprofits. The rule would boost the salary threshold to $684 per week. Retail-clothing employees made an average $485 per week in July, and restaurant workers earned an average $387 per week in the same month. wsj.com reuters.com

   NRF welcomes ‘Reasonable, Thoughtful Approach’ to overtime pay expansion

Federal Prosecutors Conducting Criminal Probe of Juul
Federal prosecutors in California are conducting a criminal probe into e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, escalating law-enforcement scrutiny of the startup. The investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office of the Northern District of California is in its early stages, the people said. The focus of the probe couldn’t be learned.

Blamed for a rise in vaping among teenagers, the fast-growing company has come under increasing scrutiny by state and federal officials. The Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration and several state attorneys general are investigating its marketing practices. The Trump administration said earlier this month that it planned to ban most flavored e-cigarettes. wsj.com

21 State Attorneys General Urge Congress Protect State
Marijuana Programs From Federal Interference
The attorneys general of 21 states sent a letter to congressional leaders on Monday, voicing support for a bipartisan bill that would shield state-legal marijuana programs from federal interference.

Led by Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, along with the top law enforcement officials in New York and Nevada, the letter emphasizes that the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act would enable cannabis businesses to access financial services, increasing transparency and mitigating risks associated with operating on a largely cash-only basis.

“Forcing legal cannabis businesses to operate only in cash leaves communities vulnerable to violence and crime,” Racine said in a press release. “Our bipartisan coalition is urging Congress to pass the STATES Act because it would allow those in the legal cannabis industry to access the U.S. banking system, provide long-overdue transparency and accountability, and deter criminal activity like robbery and money laundering.” marijuanamoment.com

Cannabis Abyss: Keeping up with Workplace Drug Testing
As more states have legalized marijuana for medicinal or recreational use, the number of companies utilizing drug tests, particularly for marijuana, has begun to decline.

With new state and local laws regulating the use of formerly banned drugs, employers must pay careful attention to their drug testing policies or risk costly fines and penalties.

Testing regulations vary state by state, city by city

Drug testing of job applicants and current employees are governed by state and local laws, with the exception of a handful of federally regulated fields, such as the transportation and nuclear industries.

Across the nation, the law regarding employer-mandated drug testing varies widely from one state to another and sometimes even within the boundaries of a state itself. For instance, the cities of Boulder, Colorado and San Francisco have more restrictive drug testing policies than those required by their state’s laws. While other states do not have laws that expressly address drug testing, their courts have interpreted the state constitution or state anti-discrimination laws to prohibit or restrict drug tests in various situations.

To further complicate matters, not all drugs are treated the same, especially as an increasing number of state and local governments are legalizing marijuana for medicinal or recreational use. ehstoday.com

Bloomberg: Ascena considers selling Lane Bryant, Catherines

Oregon & SW Washington: Union calls for boycott of Fred Meyer stores over wage negotiations

NJ’s mammoth American Dream mall to open next month, different than expected
 

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