Industry News [ Retailer News ] /

Retail Theft Continues Climb

ALTHOUGH THE DOLLAR

amount in retail losses from retail theft reached a whopping $41.6 billion in 2006, theft as a percentage of sales remained flat due to higher retail sales for the year. The National Retail Security Survey released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) in conjunction with the University of Florida also stated employee theft ($19.5 billion) was responsible for nearly half the losses, shoplifting for 32% ($13.3 billion, and vendor fraud for 4% ($1.7 billion). About 14% ($5.8 billion) of shrinkage was attributed to administrative error.

While employee theft and typical shoplifting have always been a problem, retailers are becoming more aware of the increasing threat of organized retail crime (ORC). Nearly 80% of retailers polled in a separate survey said their companies had been targeted by ORC, while 71% said they’d noticed an increase in organized crime in the past 12 months.

Organized theft rings typically consist of a team that includes one or more people assigned to distract retailers, while another one or more steal from the store. They may hit 10-15 stores a day, moving from city to city and disposing of products quickly through online auctions and at pawn shops and flea markets. Some crime groups are so sophisticated they place orders for goods before the thefts, and then steal the products once they’re stocked. Often,

the thefts are committed to fund larger, more serious criminal activities and organizations.

Track and Deter

According to the NRF, more retailers are tracking ORC and investing in loss-prevention systems to deter it. Systems include burglar alarms (95.7%), visible closed-circuit televisions ( 87.1%), and digital video ( 84.9%). The newly created, subscription-based Law Enforcement Retail Partnership Network, www.le-rpnet.com, is a national database and partnership with the FBI through which retailers can report crimes, including burglary, counterfeiting, and online auction fraud, and share information with other retailers. It’s logged more than 16,000 organized-re-tail crimes since its inception in April.

Loss-prevention experts say it’s also as or more important for retailers to lobby their legislators to change state laws. Because prosecutors typically don’t act on shoplifting cases with minimal financial losses, it’s been difficult to stop these crime rings. But some states, such as Alabama, Colorado, New Jersey (one of the top states to incur losses), and Washington, have enacted laws to identify and deal with ORC as a felony.

What You Can Do

Loss-prevention experts encourage retailers to make

it harder for both casual shoplifters and organized crime rings to steal from their stores.

• Mount cameras in stores, use anti-theft tags when possible, and post signs indicating your resolve to prosecute shoplifters.

• Arrange your store products and fixtures so it’s harder for criminals to hide their activities.

• Place expensive items near the cash register where sales staff can keep an eye on them.

• If you sell apparel and have a dressing room, make sure an employee escorts shoppers into it and checks items carefully to ensure no product has been concealed.

• Stagger apparel with every other hanger placed backward to make it difficult to snatch armloads of clothing.

• Be aware that crooks often plan distractions, so plan with your employees how you’ll handle them when they occur.

• Label high-ticket or easy-to-snatch items with your store name so you can more readily recognize them if they’re fenced and resold.

• Network with other retailers and alert them to criminal activity in your area.

• If your state doesn’t have tough retail-theft laws, lobby legislators to enact them.

For more information on loss prevention, visit www.lpinformation.com.

Store Happenings

Openings

Eighteen-year-old Andrea Colton opened Pathways Christian Bookstore (Lockport, NY) in August. Colton told the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal that she’d wanted to run a Christian store since middle school. Colton received financial help from family and friends and is relying on the same to help run the store. She took business courses in high school to prepare for owning a business.

Bread of Life Christian Bookstore (Piggott, AR) opened July 9, with a grand opening August 10. Owner Dena Johnson, a former school teacher, said the store carries typical Christian-store supplies plus organic coffee and snacks, including wheat-

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and gluten-free bread and cereal.

Insight Retail Group (formerly Lemstone) is opening two affiliate stores and signing two existing stores as Insight affiliates. Stores in Jacksonville, FL, and Scottsdale, AZ, will open by mid-November. Wayside Christian Stores has bought the Rocklin, CA, Lemstone location, and it and the Wayside Christian Stores in Grass Valley, CA, and Auburn, CA, are joining Insight as affiliates to be known as Wayside Christian Stores.

Closing

Loaves & Fishes (Vista, CA) closed in August, after 26 years in business. Owners Dannie and Steve Haemig attributed the closure to competi-

tion from corporate chains, higher overhead, and a half-cent sales tax increase. The shop began as a 384- square-foot entity and expanded to more than 4,600 square feet.

Innovations

Gospeland Christian Stores ( Carbondale and Marion, IL, and Cape Girardeau, MO) owners David and Kathy Brunaugh have created Gospeland Rentals and are branching out into home rentals. The couple bought and renovated 20 properties to supplement their income. Although Gospeland Rentals is separate from the bookstore chain, the Brunaughs consider the new business an extension of their ministry.

Anniversary

Christian Book & Gift Shop ( Rochester, MN) celebrates its 50^th anniversary this year—one of a handful of Christian bookstores in the country that has remained open so long under the same ownership. The store’s owner, 84-year- old Dennis Mulholland, initially got into Christian retail as a ministry, but now sees it as a business. “We have to operate it on the same principles as a hardware store or anybody else in town,” Mulholland said in a Rochester Post-Bulletin interview. “We used to say in the industry,” he mused, “that the people who looked at their stores as a ministry were successful and those who looked at it as a business or a money-making operation didn’t last too long.”

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