Appriss Retail Fueling & Harnessing AI Solutions

As the Company's Growth Accelerates Appriss Completes 2023's Executive Team Upgrade

Appriss Retail Promotes Two Senior Executives to Its C-Suite and Brings On New VP of Marketing

Emily Rhodes joins the Appriss Retail team, while Heather Magaro and Melissa Trelfa earn new positions within the company

IRVINE, Calif. — Nov. 30, 2023 — Appriss Retail, a leading provider of data and analytics solutions designed to reduce retail losses, decrease returns, and provide a more seamless consumer experience, today announced two internal promotions to the c-suite and a new vice president hire. Emily Rhodes has joined as Appriss Retail’s VP of marketing, while Heather Magaro and Melissa Trelfa have been promoted to chief financial officer and chief people officer, respectively.

The retail industry has reached a tipping point and retailers are more aware than ever of the value of advanced AI technology in the fight against theft, fraud, and abuse. To address the growing demand for these solutions, Appriss Retail continues to build an experienced team that will drive the company forward.

Read more in today's Vendor Spotlight column below
 

RILA Busts ORC Myths Flooding the Media
Myth vs. Fact: The Truth About Organized Retail Crime

It’s time to set the record straight, end the debate over whether or not this is a problem, and continue work on solving it.

MYTH: Organized retail crime is only a problem in some big cities.

FACT: RILA has partnered with the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) to connect retailers with prosecutors nationwide to support ongoing efforts to combat retail crime at the local level. Participants in this initiative represent big cities like San Francisco, New York City, Dallas, and Atlanta, but also suburban communities like Akron, Ohio; Salem, Massachusetts; and Platte City, Missouri. Retail crime is a nationwide challenge that should not be dismissed based on politics or geography.

MYTH: The problem is not that bad, and police data suggests shoplifting has gone down

FACT: Bottom line, there is a wide gulf between the retail crime incidents that are “publicly reported” in any given jurisdiction and the actual number of incidents experienced by local retailers. Furthermore, research and data can only carry so much weight. Retailers are listening to their associates who express concern with workplace safety; they’re listening to customers frustrated with bare shelves and store closures. Nuance or context is often missing from statistics. And the impact on real people can never be fully articulated by a number.

MYTH: Retailers only care about their bottom line. Retail theft is just a scapegoat for failing to address larger issues

FACT: Retailers recognize that theft and associated violence are often symptoms of larger societal issues like addiction, homelessness, and mental health. In addition to taking steps to make the shopping experience safer in stores, retailers are partnering in their communities with law enforcement, social service organizations, and more to address these issues. Retailers are committed to reducing unlawful activity in and around retail environments, reducing recidivism, and restoring vibrancy to communities.

MYTH: Retailers are exaggerating the theft problem and using it as an excuse for poor financial performance.

FACT: Retailers would not be locking up product, spending billions on theft deterrent technology, deploying more security guards, closing stores in high crime areas and partnering with state attorneys general, Homeland Security and local prosecutors to address theft if it wasn’t a significant, industry-wide problem. rila.org


NY Times Questions Theft Surge
'Is Shoplifting Really Surging?'

Claims that the U.S. is in the middle of a retail theft wave are exaggerated.

The most up-to-date source is the shoplifting report published this month by the Council on Criminal Justice, which uses police data through the first half of 2023. The other sources go through only 2022.

The council tracks 24 major U.S. cities. Overall, shoplifting incidents were 16 percent higher in the first half of 2023 than the first half of 2019. When New York City is excluded, however, reported shoplifting incidents fell over the same time period. Out of the 24 cities, 17 reported decreases in shoplifting.

Other data also indicates that shoplifting is not up in most cities since 2019. Average annual shrink made up 1.57 percent of retail sales in 2022, up slightly from 2021 (1.44 percent) but down compared with 2019 (1.62 percent). The F.B.I. and the Bureau of Justice Statistics also found that theft and property crime ticked up in 2022 but remained below pre-Covid levels.

Many major downtown areas have also become emptier and more chaotic since the pandemic, which may explain why drugstores and other retailers are more often locking up items even if shoplifting isn’t much more common than in the past.

The noise

Events in New York tend to receive outsize scrutiny. It is the country’s biggest city, a big retail market and the headquarters for much of the national media. Another city where property crime has risen is Washington, D.C., where many journalists, as well as politicians, also live.

Retailers have an interest in spreading the shoplifting narrative because it can suggest that disappointing profits are beyond their control.

Whatever the full explanation, the current focus on shoplifting is part of a broader trend: The public often overestimates crime. Over the past two decades, most Americans have said that crime is rising, according to Gallup’s surveys. In reality, crime rates have generally plummeted since the 1990s. nytimes.com


The Great Debate Over Retail Crime Data
Retailers have a crime problem. It’s in the numbers.

The issue is complex and clouded by imprecise data - sometimes from the industry itself.

Any in-depth research into retail theft reveals a definite problem. Namely, that it’s unclear how much of a problem it is or how much it’s rising, if it’s worsening at all.

That hasn’t stopped the industry, along with a few retail chains, from emphasizing it in research reports, earnings calls and other forums. On Oct. 26, representatives from the National Retail Federation descended on Capitol Hill for what the group dubbed “Fight Retail Crime Day,” to “advocate for legislative solutions to address organized retail crime.”

Many point to high-profile reports of smash-and-grab store robberies or arrests of organized thieves as evidence of a problem. For statistics, reporters, lawmakers and other business groups rely on the NRF and the Retail Industry Leaders Association. Meanwhile, some analysts believe the retail industry could be overplaying the problem, at least to some extent.

“While theft is likely elevated, companies are also likely using the opportunity to draw attention away from margin headwinds in the form of higher promotions and weaker inventory management in recent quarters,” William Blair analysts led by Dylan Carden said in an Oct. 25 client note.

This issue is clouded by uncertainties, not least because most discussion of it – in the media, in analysis and even in the industry itself – mixes up terminology and numbers.

This shows how, along with the jumble of terms and dearth of specifics, the numbers on shrink and theft are often outdated, inadequate, misinterpreted or some combination. In turn, murky or inaccurate stats are widely picked up in press coverage and elsewhere.

To begin with, for its reports on theft, the industry has relied on surveys of a relatively small number of very large retail chains. The NRF’s Retail Security Survey and RILA’s 2021 statistics on stolen goods rely on non-representative samples that call their conclusions into question, experts say. retaildive.com


Turning The Tide Against Theft?
It's peak shopping & shoplifting season. Cops are stepping up antitheft tactics

Lately, when you talk to people who work in the retail "loss prevention" world, they're surprisingly ubpeat.

"There's definitely been some progress made," says Tony Sheppard, vice president of retail risk solutions for ThinkLP. He's worked in the industry for decades, starting out as a store detective at Montgomery Ward. He sees new energy in law enforcement efforts to combat this type of theft.

Sheppard is also cheered by states that have started interagency task forces to track organized retail crime rings. California, especially, has ramped up its spending on such investigations, supported by the California Highway Patrol.

Many in law enforcement believe retail theft has been driven partly by a sense of impunity, fed by videos of people walking out of stores with piles of merchandise while staff look on. They also blame the pandemic, when many jurisdictions were less likely to jail suspects for property crimes.

"What they're trying to do now is, they're putting the word out," says Sgt. Casey Hiam of the police department in Bellevue, Wash. It's a shopping-rich suburb near Seattle, where officers do stakeouts near stores with chronic shoplifting problems.

Despite the andecdotal sense that retail theft has grown worse in recent years, hard numbers are elusive. One reason for this is that stores vary widely in how they respond to theft — and whether they report it at all.  npr.org


Across the Pond it's the Same Story in Stores - 'Shoplifting Epidemic'
UK: Surge in demand for Mitie security after £1bn shoplifting spree

Demand for security guards has soared among high street retailers to combat a £1 billion shoplifting epidemic.

The boss of Mitie, which provides security to leading shopping chains, said that the rise was piling “unprecedented pressures” on businesses.

Mitie, a company that also cleans parliament and BBC offices, said that it was seeing growing demand for resources to crack down on thefts in stores and new technology that can track criminals on repeat visits to compile enough evidence to press charges.

Phil Bentley, the chief executive, said: “Our retail customers are facing unprecedented pressures, driven by changing buying behaviours, rising costs and intense competition whilst at the same time being impacted by well-publicised increases in crime — with an estimated £1 billion annual loss due to in-store customer theft.”

Last week the Co-op called for urgent action after reporting 300,000 incidents of shoplifting, abuse, violence and antisocial behaviour this year. thetimes.co.uk


SF moves closer to installing 400 new license plate readers as it looks to combat property crime
While existing law allows for the San Francisco Police Department to use the devices, a litany of restrictions have made it functionally difficult to broadly deploy them, according to the department.

A new policy backed by Mayor London Breed would effectively allow for a blanketing of 100 intersections with the devices, which the department hopes would deter the types of property crime that have earned the ire of so many San Franciscans and visitors.

Scott said the technology’s use has expanded in other Bay Area cities. He noted that the Oakland City Council voted to install 300 automated license-plate readers in October. He said the cameras would be a “force multiplier” that could help the department solve crime, mostly involving perpetrators using vehicles.

“Many of these property crimes have much lower clearance rates because these suspects move quickly,” Scott said.

The City received a $17 million state grant this year to install more of the devices — but without changes to policy, The City can’t actually spend that money. sfexaminer.com


San Francisco to let citizens vote on fund for police department staffing
A tax would be added to create a fund that would allow for minimum staffing limits to be set and increased until the department reaches 2,074 officers

If voters approve the amendment, a tax will be added to create a police staffing fund. The fund would reach $16.8 million within the first year, according to the report. The fund would allow the city to set a minimum staffing number of 1,700 officers in the first year and increase every year until the city reaches a maximum of 2,074 officers, according to the report.

The department has about 300 fully funded positions currently vacant in its budget, raising concerns that the staffing shortage has more to do with a lack of applicants than a lack of funding, according to the report. police1.com


Reality or Just Perception?
Viral retail theft videos add to perception crime is up, but statistics show a different picture
Certainly, viral videos of thieves grabbing things off shelves with impunity added to the perception that retail theft was on the rise, but according to the San Diego Police Department (SDPD), theft in the city was down 14.9% last year.

Despite this decline, SDPD announced it would increase patrol at shopping centers. University of San Diego economics professor Alan Gin said that’s a bit of a security theater.

"So I think what the numbers show is that possibly inventory loss is up compared to 2021," he said. "But those are the pandemic years, so they were down considerably.”

He said what the retail industry is seeing could be attributed to a lack of security staffing at stores and the use of self-checkout counters rather than a rise in shoplifting. kpbs.org


Stores Worldwide Put Big Money Into Fighting Theft
Why Michael Hill spent $5 million on in-store security in NZ
Over 90% of retailers in New Zealand have experienced some form of retail crime in 2023 - from general shoplifting to storefront ram raids. Michael Hill has spent an incremental $5 million to protect its customers and team members from retail crime in New Zealand.

Company chair Rob Fyfe confirmed the spending lift, saying record level of retail crime has necessitated a significant increase in security counter-measures and increased stock losses.

This includes ongoing upgrades of CCTV and intrusion alarm systems across its stores.

Michael Hill has also installed fog cannons, dual pendant alarms, guarding and improved store fortification requirements across a number of its stores in New Zealand, and rolled out Mental Health First Aid Training to 32 of its retail leaders. ragtrader.com.au


Cup Foods owners sue Minneapolis over lost business at George Floyd Square
Concrete barriers & lawlessness cut their income & crushed their property values, lawsuit alleges.

In Case You Missed It: NY ORC Costs Businesses Billions as NYPD Exodus Continues

NPR: There's been a noticeable pushback against shoplifting this year