Front Lines
news/analysis
‘EBENEZER’ SQUEEZE ON
PROFITS THIS CHRISTMAS
ECONOMIC DOWNTURN DRIVES RETAILERS INTO COSTLY
‘SCROOGE-LIKE TACTICS’, ARGUES ORIS Laurence King
THE economic downturn is thieves as retailers may take “For some, the credit crunch through the roof what are we
forcing retailers into adopting their eye off the ball to focus will give even more people an going to do about it.”
‘Scrooge-like’ practices that upon getting through excuse to be dishonest. It’s King argues that the
could cost them millions of Christmas. almost: ‘it’s not our fault we recession is the best time to
pounds in shrinkage this “My concern is that most have to steal’. boost margin through
Christmas, according to ORIS, retailers stop counting their Coupled with the fact that monitoring, measuring and
one of the UK’s leading loss stock in November so do not retailers will be employing less managing shrink.
prevention specialists. have a track on shrinkage staff over Christmas because “Of course sales are
The Global Theft Barometer between now and mid January they cannot afford them, it important for the retailer’s
puts loss for 2007/8 at a when they start again. This could be a bumper Christmas profits, but discounting to sell
staggering £4 billion in the UK also means they forget, or for thieves because we know and taking your eye off your
but the threatened recession don’t worry about it because staff provide the best losses is a double whammy of
could make this festive season no news is good news and deterrents of external theft.” loss. Instead, identify the
even worse, argues ORIS they have the Christmas period “Indeed, it could be a shrink issues, even if that
chairman, Laurence King, who to get through.” ‘perfect storm’ for shrink means a root and branch
worked for more than 30 years “But the next few weeks are because there is also far more systemic review of the business
in retail loss prevention. higher risk than ever for them discounting and marking down and a fundamental change in
King, who has worked for because sales are already pre Christmas than ever before, culture. It will protect profits
the likes of Arcadia and B&Q down and the threat of theft a recipe for more loss or more even if the High Street is
before becoming managing and fraud is even higher abuse/fraud at the Point of performing badly and will help
director and latterly chairman because more people have less Sale. Counting will begin again retail businesses ride out this
of The ORIS Group, says the money and will be prepared to in the New Year and it’s “oh perfect Christmas storm of
recession will only benefit take risks and steal.” dear, our shrinkage has gone loss.” RF
WHEN LESS IS MORE – COST OF OWNERSHIP IS THE
NEW BUZZWORD ARGUES CHRIS WILLIAMS AT WAVELET TECHNOLOGY
AT these cost conscious times, with before writing any large monitoring solutions able to P&G and Wells Fargo and its
retailers looking to cheques. identify elements in three functions include identifying
technology to solve their Security and surveillance dimensions, so is able to individuals who have failed to
woes want to ‘sweat the solutions are a case in point as differentiate between adults pay for the goods, or identify
assets’ to ensure a quick they are installed to prevent and children, shopping wrong way traffic.
return on investment (ROI) and deter theft, but can and trolleys and pushchairs. It is important to stress that
and low cost of ownership should they do more? They can be deployed to this is not a camera system
(COI). CCTV and video analytics accurately count multiple and does not require video
Retailers allocate significant are a good case in point. Is individuals simultaneously, feeds to analyse data. It
amounts of their budgets the person lingering in the continuously track them in requires only a single Ethernet
measuring and improving perfume aisle sniffing out a the store and monitor and connection to continuously
their store performance, using bargain or checking out the report on the number of deliver small packets of
information systems to enable security in order to make a individuals in multiple queues valuable operational and
them to make important quick escape? simultaneously and provide security data.
decision. Unfortunately some An intelligent or intuitive comprehensive reports on a It can be integrated with
of the solutions provide system that can multi-task and range of store performances digital video recording
plenty of data but offer few provide valuable store data – and once set up, do not systems to record the video
insights into critical functions. check security while require any user intervention. associated with an alarm
Does the technology ‘do monitoring the flow of These are currently being event or provide video
what it says on the tin’, can it customers in each queue in used by leading retailers information to enable store
be easily used by store staff order to optimise footfall will including Barclays’ Bank, layouts to be changed to
and is it more than a ‘one attract attention from HBOS, Nationwide Building resolve crowding, peak time
trick pony’ are just some of retailers. Society, Rogers Stores, management or health &
the questions retailers wrestle Three analytics are Universal Orlando, Toys R Us, safety issues. RF
ISSUE 3 DECEMBER 2008 • 07
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