Retail loss prevention

Retail loss prevention is a set of practices employed by retail companies to reduce and deter losses from theft and fraud, colloquially known as "shrink reduction"). Loss prevention is mainly found within the retail sector but also within other security environments and is reinforced traditionally through a visible security force matched with technology such as CCTV and EAS security barriers to minimise the loss to a business. Some companies have their own in house loss prevention team whereas other companies use external security agencies to supplement their loss prevention strategy. Charles A. Sennewald and John H. Christman state "Four elements are necessary for a successful loss prevention plan: 1) Total support from top management, 2) A positive employee attitude, 3) Maximum use of all available resources 4) A system which establishes both responsibility and accountability for loss prevention through evaluations that are consistent and progressive.".

Retail loss prevention has expanded to include "civil loss recovery", the controversial practice of demanding substantial and often unjustifiable sums for the administrative processing of alleged theft claims, generally without any criminal charges having been brought, let alone convictions secured.

History

In the United States, laws were enacted in the 1970s allowing merchants to recover penalties from those who removed merchandise without paying which allowed the development of departments that focused on retail loss prevention.

The development of electronic article surveillance (a magnetic device attached to the merchandise that would trigger an alarm if removed removed from the store, also called EAS) led to an increase in arrests; however, many cases have been dismissed due to lack of observation of the crime. A later effort, called "benefit denial" by Read Hayes, was intended to reduce the incentives for people to take the items by destroying the usefulness of items that were improperly removed from stores through the use of measures such as exploding dye packs.

Internal loss

Internal is shrinkage caused by individuals from within the business such as staff members and cleaning staff and anyone else involved internally in the company. Internal shrink accounted for 35% of shrink to businesses in 2011. Internal shrink is caused by methods such as staff members stealing product, cashiers not ringing sales through the tills and keeping the payment for themselves, staff selling product to friends and family at discounted prices, sweet hearting where product is given for free to friends and family by staff, colluding with maintenance staff or external contractors to steal product and under ringing merchandise on the tills for friends or family so they end up paying less for the items. Internal theft traditionally causes more loss to a business then external theft due to the increased opportunity available to internal staff members and is summed up in the following quote “A well informed security superintendent of a nationwide chain of retail stores has estimated that between forty and fifty shoplifting incidents to equal the annual loss caused by one dishonest individual inside an organisation”.

See also

• Retail
• Shoplifting
• Store detective
• Tamper resistance

Further reading

• Rudolph C. Kimiecik; Chris Thomas (2005). Loss Prevention in the Retail Business. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-72321-9. 
• Read Hayes (2007). Retail Security and Loss Prevention (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-00681-2. 
• Philip Purpura (2007). Security and Loss Prevention: An Introduction (5th ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-12-372525-7. 
• Alan Greggo; Millie Kresevich (2009). Retail Loss Prevention: Problems and Solutions. CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-4200-9006-2. 

External links

• HowStuffWorks: How anti-shoplifting devices work