Make shoplifting prevention a year-round effort - column

Discount Store News, April 24, 1989 by Jack Hayes

Make Shoplifting Prevention a Year-Round Effort

Each year the Christmas season shoplifting receives reams of publicity, and, as a result, that period is always associated with being the busiest stealing time. Now that the hustle and bustle of customer activity is long gone, we find cut-backs in sales floor coverage and reductions in the security staffs. In a sense, February and March are best described as the calm after the storm, and certainly a time that many retailers let their guard down.

For the "seasoned" shoplifter, this post-Christmas period has become the easiest time to operate. In fact, interviews with several organized crime shoplifting professionals revealed that they actually take time off during the busy holiday season because they believe chances of being detected are greatly increased as large numbers of customers, employees and security personnel are in the stores.

However, these thieves operate at full force once the crowds are gone making this time of year prime time for these and other shoplifters, as fewer customers and employees are in the stores.

Over the years, I've learned that firms cannot afford to underestimate shoplifters. Many of these thieves work very hard at their profession and as such, successful shoplifting prevention requires year-round and not just seasonal actions.

One of the strongest anti-shoplifting commitments we've seen in a number of years actually got underway about two years ago, when one of our mass merchandising clients identified that they were having a serious problem with shoplifters.

As a result, this company's corporate shrinkage committee implemented an all-out battle to combat shoplifting year-round. They did increase loss prevention coverage in their problem stores, but more importantly, they strongly addressed all of their stores' physical aspects and human element issues.

The greater majority of their store's physical vulnerabilities were dramatically reduced as a result of loss prevention improvements in merchandise displays, fixture placement, fitting room design, front-end design and safeguards for high value/highly pilferable merchandise. Even the customer entrances/exits were redesigned to reduce chances for shoplifters to simply "cart" or "walk" quantities of merchandise out of the stores undetected.

This new design required that all customers exiting a store would pass directly in front of a manned cashier station or service desk. Once the shrinkage committee was satisfied with improvements in their physical aspects, they moved onto the human element issues.

Good and friendly customer service was recognized not only as a necessary sales strategy, but also as an excellent method for preventing shoplifting. As such, number one priority was given to creating a customer greeting and service program. Employees are taught to greet customers, smile, and make direct eye contact. This program was implemented chainwide.

Furthermore, teams of shoppers "shop" each store weekly and "rate" the quality of cashier and floor personnel's customer service. The shopper's findings are reported to the company's president, who actively monitors progress and follow-up actions. Employees receiving good shopper ratings are rewarded for their efforts, while those whose reports aren't so positive are made aware of the shopper's findings and corrective actions were taken, which may include retraining.

The company president's active involvement is perhaps best stated by the "personal notes" he frequently takes time to send to employees, loss prevention personnel, and management thanking them for their positive efforts.

Two years ago, our firm conducted an overview of this company's loss prevention program and at that time we reported serious concern with their lack of anti-shoplifting strategies. Management reacted! Almost six months ago, we conducted another review of this company's strategies and found their shoplifting vulnerabilities had been dramatically reduced as a result of senior management's extensive involvement and effort. They did make some necessary increases in the loss prevention/security staff in high-risk shoplifter stores.

However, the greater majority of their anti-shoplifting efforts were directed toward improving the stores physical security aspects and addressing critical human element issues such as customer service and loss prevention training. Security personnel reported a decline in "visits" and theft-related activities from known shoplifters and they contribute this progress to the priority emphasis that continues to be given the company's anti-shoplifting effort. Best of all, this program is not seasonal. It's a year-round effort. And it works!