Keeping Retail Employees Safe During Peak Season
Customer Aggression: How to protect your employees during the peak-season rush
Nearly 60% of frontline workers experienced customer abuse or know a colleague who had during a typical four-week period in 2026, according to research from Halos earlier this year that polled 2,500 frontline workers across the U.S. and U.K.

That's especially concerning for retailers as we get further into peak season, bringing with it heavier foot traffic, demanding customer expectations, longer operating hours and increased pressure on frontline employees.

This time of year can also bring a spike in security challenges, from a higher frequency of shoplifting and confrontations over merchandise to disputes at checkout. These issues tend to peak in November and December, coinciding with increased in-store shopping. Protecting employees must be a priority.

The Halos research also underscores another issue: Two-thirds of respondents had considered quitting their jobs as a result of customer aggression, and 86% reported increased stress or anxiety due to customer abuse. Rising customer aggression — if unchecked — goes beyond security and becomes a workforce issue that can undermine employee morale, contribute to turnover and make it harder to retain talent.

Here are five things retailers can do to reduce risk and ensure workers know they are supported.

1. Make employee safety an operational priority
2. Have de-escalation protocols in place
3. Use technology to your advantage.
4. Encourage incident reporting
5. Close the feedback loop.

Employee safety is no longer just a security concern. It's a workforce stability issue. Retailers invest heavily in recruiting and training seasonal employees this time of year. Protecting those employees needs to be just as much a priority. chainstoreage.com


Human-Centered Safety Framework
A New Model for Safety Technology Implementation

The new framework aims to help companies overcome the inconsistent use or outright rejection of safety tech by their employees.

Sometimes the acronym just fits. In the National Safety Council’s Zero to Injury research, it offers a new framework to help companies successfully integrate safety technology.

The model is called T.R.U.S.T. and it’s a human-centered framework, according to a white paper from the NSC.

The need for the framework arose as companies find that while they invest money and time into acquiring safety technologies, they are often encounter “delayed or inconsistent use, workarounds or outright rejection by those they were intended to support,” the paper noted.

To address these challenges, NSC came up with T.R.U.S.T. which means:

• Transparency: Do workers know what the technology is, how it works, why it’s being implemented and how it will be used?

• Relevance: Can workers clearly connect the technology back to their work, safety or experience?

• Usability: Can workers use the technology easily and effectively under actual working conditions?

• Support: Do workers know what to do when they need help, encounter a problem or the technology fails?

• Transformation: Has the technology become part of how work is done? Is it creating meaningful value for workers? ehstoday.com

Strengthening the Supply Chain
Walmart commits $6 billion to supply chain automation
Walmart Inc. is undertaking a multi-billion-dollar expansion of its effort to improve supply chain performance with a longstanding partner.

Walmart is making an initial commitment of about $6 billion to team with AI-enabled robotics technology provider Symbotic Inc. in bringing further automation capabilities to 25 U.S. regional distribution centers while supporting additional automation opportunities across its global supply chain network.

Building on a long-standing partnership between the two companies, this new agreement will see Symbotic provide automation capabilities across multiple Walmart supply chain locations over several years. chainstoreage.com


Kirkland’s Home closes more stores as shutdowns mount

Starbucks reveals an optimistic plot twist after recent mass shutterings

Last week's #1 article --

CORCA: The Sprint Toward Passage
NRF brings asset protection leaders to Capitol Hill to push CORCA past the finish line

By David Johnston, National Retail Federation Vice President of Asset Protection & Retail Operations

As the federal legislative session approaches year-end, asset protection leaders will come together on Capitol Hill on Nov. 17 to meet with key congressional offices to advocate for the final passage of the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act (CORCA).

Led by NRF and supported by its Loss Prevention Council, more than 20 invited retail leaders plan to meet with key House and Senate offices to share their stories and perspectives on the importance of CORCA and the realities of retail theft, violence and organized retail crime.

CORCA is currently included in the Senate managers’ package for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). As Congress returns from recess following the mid-term elections, it is expected that House and Senate leadership will meet soon and include CORCA in their final negotiations around measures in the package. The timing of these meetings and of this advocacy is both timely and critical.

NRF appreciates the asset protection professionals, law enforcement agencies and prosecutors who continue to press forward in supporting the final passage of CORCA to protect the retail industry employees, supply chain stakeholders and consumers. We cannot allow critics to shift attention away from the true victims of organized retail crime and must remain focused and committed during these final weeks of legislation to getting the bill passed.

NRF and a broad array of industry stakeholders, law enforcement and bipartisan members of Congress who support CORCA remain committed to this effort. Let’s keep up the fight and continue working together to keep retail safe and secure.