Meredith Plaxco named Director of Loss Prevention and Safety - Strategy, Operations and Field for PetSmart
Meredith has been with PetSmart since 1997 when she started as a Store Manager. She quickly worked her way up the ladder to hold such positions as Project Manager, Store Operations, Manager of Store Communications, and Manager of LP & Safety Operations. Congratulations Meredith!

Memphis, TN: JCPenney CEO started from humble beginnings
right here in the Mid-South
Marvin Ellison may now be among the movers and shakers of the business world, but the CEO of JCPenney started life from extremely humble beginnings right here in the Mid-South.

How he ended up in retail as chairman and chief executive officer of a Fortune 500 company started with a simple trip to the employment office in college. He needed a part-time job to buy books.

"I walk in and I said to the clerk, 'What's the highest paying, hourly position you have posted on the board?' And it was a part-time security officer job at Target. And that was how I ended up in retail."

Ellison kept that $4.35 an hour Target job for two years and graduated with his marketing degree around the same time Target blossomed from a regional retailer into a mega company. They hired him on a store management team and he worked his way up. He was senior vice president of the company's Loss Prevention Department when he left 15 years later.

"I've been very disciplined around setting goals, career goals. I've been very disciplined around making sure that the quality of my work is exceptional because, irrespective of what your educational background is, companies tend to recognize sustainable success. If you can generate sustainable success, if your results can exceed the people around you on a consistent basis then you're going to move forward in an organization."

Home Depot lured him away as a top executive and eventually promoted him to vice president over all U.S. Home Depot stores. Two years ago, he stepped into the role as chief executive officer when JCPenney tapped him to turn around their stores. He's one of only four African American CEO's to lead a Fortune 500 company. wreg.com

Mississippi, New Mexico advance bills to set stiff punishment for cargo theft
Efforts in Mississippi and New Mexico, which are intended to deter the theft of truck, rail or container cargo through stiff punishment, have cleared hurdles. According to FreightWatch International, Mississippi and New Mexico rank in the top half of states in the number of cargo thefts. Florida, California, Texas, New Jersey and Georgia are in the top five.

The Mississippi House voted 109-9 to advance a bill to establish cargo theft as a specific offense and impose felony charges with escalating fines and punishment based on the value of goods. In an effort to discourage thefts in Mississippi, HB722 calls for offenders to face prison in addition to monetary penalties. Specifically, thieves who steal cargo from trucks loaded with controlled substances, or pharmaceuticals, valued at less than $10,000 would face fines up to $100,000 and/or up to 10 years in prison. The bill awaits assignment to committee in the Senate.

In New Mexico, the Senate Public Affairs Committee has forwarded a bill to establish the theft of trailer or container cargo as a specific offense and impose significant punishment. The bill, SB74, would authorize second-degree felony charges. Offenders would face up to nine years in prison and fines up to the fair market value of the property stolen and the cost of recovering the property. landlinemag.com

Food Defense: Cross Your T's and Dot Your I's
By: Doug Baker, Vice President Industry Relations-Private Brands, Technology, Food Marketing Institute
If ever there was a time to turn up the dial on asset protection, it is now. While there are any number of issues that keep those charged with asset protection up at night, perhaps no topic is more vital to your company's customers and investors than that of food defense.

As part of the Audit/Safety/Asset Protection (ASAP) Conference, Rod Wheeler, founder and CEO of the Global Food Defense Institute, will lead a session titled "Risk, Readiness & Reliability: Conducting Your Supply Chain Vulnerability and Risk Assessments."

"Food retailers, like other industries, need to remain vigilant," said Wheeler. "Companies have to arm themselves to protect their people, their products, their customers and the national economy."

In his fast-paced session at the ASAP Conference, scheduled March 20-22 at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Wheeler will take attendees through everything we now know about how to protect the supply chain that eventually delivers products to your customers.

"Specifically, the food that will end up on your customers' dinner table," he said.

Wheeler will clearly point out the three most important steps you company must take to assure the supply chain that delivers products to your customers is safe.

● First, he will explain what a site vulnerability assessment is and how you can conduct your own.

● Next, Wheeler will help you understand how to write a facility food defense plan.

● Finally, he will explain what you must do to assure that your managers and supervisors are fully trained in food defense.

Certainly, there are great risks in assuring the security of your supply chain, but there are also great opportunities as consumers increasingly look with a discriminating eye toward those retailers whose products they can trust.

"The goal here is to enlighten attendees on what's out there and what means we have to protect the supply chain," Wheeler said. Attend this ASAP Conference session and guarantee your T's are crossed and your I's are dotted when it comes to food defense. Learn more at www.FMIASAP.com.

The above article originally appeared on FMI's blog, the Voice of Food Retail.

Analyst: Border-adjustment tax could wipe out retail earnings by 50% or more
The border-adjustment tax issue could affect retail companies' earnings per share by 50 percent or more, retail expert Oliver Chen told CNBC on Friday. "You also have to consider how these [retail] companies acquire goods," said Chen. "I don't think the U.S. consumer is willing to take on these price increases."

The Trump administration's so-called border-adjustment tax would tax all imports coming into the U.S., but it would exclude exports. The hope is this plan would allow Washington to make corporate tax cuts across the board, while still generating enough tax revenue to reduce the new budget deficits that would be created.

But retail companies could take a hit, in turn. Opponents of the tax proposal say it isn't clear if it would result in a sharp jump in the dollar, which would be crucial to offset the inflationary impact of taxes on foreign goods. For retailers, price sensitivity does matter, and any small raise in prices could immediately impact volumes, or sales, Chen and Gildenberg discussed during the segment. cnbc.com

MC Sports to close all 68 stores after liquidation sales
MC Sports announced that they plan to close all 68 of their stores across the Midwest after liquidation sales. In a press release, the sporting goods chain said that they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Tuesday after an agreement could not be reached on an out of court proposal to restructure the company's finances and performance. Founded in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1946, MC Sports operates in seven states as of 2017 including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. Indiana has seven MC Sports locations, including two in Fort Wayne. wane.com

Nordstrom's big, beautiful stores are losing ground
The glistening full-line stores that made Nordstrom's name and reputation have logged five straight quarters of year-over-year sales declines. The company's early success in navigating e-commerce now looks less certain. What's the outlook for turning things around? seattletimes.com

U.K. Convenience Stores Experience Threefold Jump in Shoplifting Losses
In 2016, U.K. convenience stores saw their losses from shoplifting triple to reach a record high of $163 million (£131 million), according to the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), BBC News reports. The association based its numbers on reports from 7,123 stores in the British Isles, which translates to an average loss per location of $3,255 (£2,605). nacsonline.com

Brexit Impact?
UK Retail Sales Take Another Dip In January
A report from The Wall Street Journal noted that data released on Friday pointed to a drop in retail sales in January, which was the third consecutive month of falling figures. The noted slowdown in consumer spending comes at a time when there are already warnings about weakening growth of the U.K.'s economy due to Brexit. Initially, it looked as though last year's Brexit decision didn't have much of an impact on how much consumers were spending, with strong sales reported last summer and eventually reaching a 14-year annual high in October. However, since then, retail sales have continued to shrink, falling by 0.3 percent in January compared to the previous month. According to the Office for National Statistics, the annual rate of growth has also dropped down to 1.5 percent, the smallest expansion in more than three years. pymnts.com

'Day Without Immigrants': Business owners stand by decision to fire protesting workers

Taco Bell Adds Weddings to the Menu at Cantina Flagship in Las Vegas

Home-delivery booze service set to tap Tucson market

Last week's #1 article --

Gander Mountain responds to bankruptcy rumors

Security leaders need to stop limiting themselves
LinkedIn CISO shares his experience in building relationships necessary to get engaged at all levels of the business in a way that improves security

How much of your success in security depends on other people? The reality is most security success depends on other people. Budgeting and buy-in is essential. Projects often include or impact other teams. And real success means integrating security into the core functions of the business - which hinges on knowing what they are.

Security continues to gain attention in the executive suite. How do you earn the trust you need to get invited to the important conversations and decisions?

I recently explored this with Ed Snodgrass (LinkedIn), Chief Information Security Officer and Principal of Secure Digital Solutions. Ed has extensive security experience with two of the world's largest retailers. He has led teams in security, compliance, risk, M&A and supply chain security.

We talked about the need to challenge traditional thinking and approaches in security to make the leap from "security resource with a team" to trusted leader. Ed shares ideas on how to remove the limits we've placed on ourselves to improve our programs and earn the respect we need to keep making advancements. csoonline.com

Retailers gradually moving to chip readers
About 86 percent of large and mid-sized retailers surveyed by the National Retail Federation in 2016 planned to implement Europay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV), the technology that uses the chips, by the end of 2016, according to Craig Shearman, vice president for government affairs public relations at NRF. Shearman said about 99 percent of those surveyed expect to implement the technology by the end of 2017. newspressnow.com

SoftBank's Pepper Robots To Help Bust Shoplifters
Pepper, a model of companionship robot developed by Aldebaran Robotics and SoftBank, will soon be updating its programming with a brand new suite of features that include such functions as providing multi-lingual tour advice, administering health checks...and ratting out potential shoplifters to the store management.

The anti-shoplifting feature will make use of Pepper's built-in cameras and facial recognition software, which will compare customers' faces against a database of known criminal offenders. If a match is made, Pepper is programmed to contact the store administrator. crunchyroll.com

"Siri, I'll have a cheeseburger and fries"
The impact of voice-activated virtual assistants on retail
2016 saw an incredible rise in connected home devices, specifically Amazon Echo (8 million devices sold) and Google Home devices. Prior to that, Siri made adding an event to your calendar or quickly looking up the weather as easy as a simple push of a button on your smart phone. At what point does "Siri, tell me the weather" or "Alexa, play music" become "I'll have a cheeseburger and fries" or "What aisle can I find the peanut butter on?" or "Does this shirt come in small"?

As we move away from assistants who perform simple automated tasks, 2017 has the potential to turn voice assistant technology into a virtual customer service functionality. The convergence of chatbots and virtual voice assistants has the potential to completely change the retail experience.

For years, we have heard rumors about quick service retail (or QSR) replacing humans with touch screen tablets. Instead, Alexa may be the one to finally deliver the fatal blow. I have little doubt that an Alexa-enabled skill could be developed in a matter of weeks that replicated most of what a QSR counter person is able to do. This is not a knock against those employees but rather praise for the advancements that have been made over the past year. venturebeat.com

Hitachi releases new video analytics software for better facial and object recognition while protecting privacy

Mark Cuban: Robots will 'cause unemployment and we need to prepare for it'

USS' Annual KickOff & Sales Training Serves as Running Start for 2017

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. (February 15, 2017) - Each year, USS, a global leader in product protection and security systems, holds its annual KickOff event which combines a company-wide meeting with specialized sales training and planning sessions over the course of a week.

This year, the entire sales team traveled from across the globe for two and half days of in-depth product training and sales coordination, hosted by CEO and founder Adel Sayegh, and COO, Claude Verville. These regular and cohesive meetings provide an opportunity for the Sales team to not only interact with their support system at USS headquarters, but to also get a sneak peek at things like upcoming innovation from the R&D team and sales support efforts being implemented by the Marketing department.

With more than 235 years of combined loss prevention (LP) experience, these all-hands training sessions equip the Sales team the opportunity to educate each other on new and recurring LP and organized retail crime (ORC) trends, as well as tips and tricks for successful implementation of USS' innovative products and services.

Vice President of Sales, East, Brent Onan offered his insights regarding the value of the training sessions and how they directly support USS' mission within the industry.

"Our commitment is to our people and our customers!", he said. "We're excited to train and develop our teams to better support our customers!"

Western division Sales VP, Pete Bacol, echoed similar sentiments.

"The better we know our product the better we can serve our clients. In a company that thrives on innovation and is constantly releasing and improving its products, the value of product training equates directly to a better customer experience."

In addition to serving as the commencement of the organization's new fiscal year, the annual Kickoff event presents the opportunity to recognize individuals who excelled during the year prior; with this year's event seeing eight recipients awarded for their efforts and contributions.

About USS
USS is a U.S.-based, privately-held global leader in product protection and security solutions. USS is a leading integrator of video surveillance systems, access control, EAS tags and RFID and EAS systems. USS is dedicated to innovation and has more than 100 patents issued and pending. For more information, visit www.ussinnovate.com.

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'Twas The Season To Attack
Large Online Retailers Pummeled Over Holidays
NuData Security, an award-winning behavioural biometrics company, announced today that they had observed a 400 percent surge in automated online attacks over the 2016 holiday period.

NuData data scientists discovered an increase in maliciously scripted botnet activity of over 400 percent against many large online retail client sites during the last quarter of 2016 compared to the previous year.

• Of the 5.6 million anomalous behaviours detected, over 1 million events were directly attributed to malicious automated activity from scripts and bots.

• Malicious scripted, bot and botnet activity accounted for 31% of all login activity for the month of December.

• Had they been successful, these automated attacks would have been used to power identity-based account takeover (ATO) and a wide array of cybercrime over the holiday period, including account information scraping, transaction fraud, coupon and reward abuse.

NuData found high levels of new account fraud in September and October of 2016, with some online merchants experiencing a record-breaking 60 percent of new accounts opened with fraudulent intent in the lead up to the holiday season.

• Much of the increase in new account fraud was spoofing human input characters such as keystrokes and mouse movements and putting these in through scripts to look more legitimate. For a good example of how this type of attack can occur, see this rewards fraud case.

• The fraudulent creation of new accounts waned during the last few weeks of the fourth quarter, falling to 22 percent in late December, indicating that cybercriminals switched their focus from fraudulent new account openings to scripted account-based fraud attempts over the holidays. informationsecuritybuzz.com

Alibaba Makes Another Big Push Into Brick-and-Mortar Retail
China's Alibaba Group Holding said it formed a strategic partnership with Bailian Group, the largest retailer by store numbers to join the e-commerce giant's drive to use big data to improve and profit from brick-and-mortar sales. It has also spent $4.6 billion on a minority stake in appliances retailer Suning Commerce Group, is leading a $2.6 billion bid to take department store and shopping mall operator Intime Retail Group private and has bought a stake in grocery chain Sanjiang Shopping Club.

Bailian operates 4,700 outlets in 200 cities including supermarkets, convenience stores and pharmacies - more than double the stores owned by Suning, Intime and Sanjiang combined. fortune.com

US e-commerce sales grow 15.6% in 2016

Walmart, Kroger, H-E-B, ShopRite Poised for Future Ecommerce Excellence

Vancouver, BC, CN: Criminals using Drug Addicts to steal goods for Black Market
No matter if it's night or day, there is almost always someone selling something on the streets of Vancouver's troubled Downtown Eastside. From shoes to batteries to razors, nearly everything is up for grabs. "If it is too good to be true... and it is brand new, it's going to be boosted," Det. Const. Doug Fell of the Vancouver Police Department told CTV News. Police say thousands of dollars in stolen goods are exchanged daily in the area, which is infamous for its prolonged drug-use epidemic. Most of those goods are shoplifted from local businesses. The problem is growing, police say, and is worth millions of dollars a year. "It could be upwards of $50,000 in stolen product going through that block in a day," Fell said of the area. The practice, called predatory fencing, is so prevalent that the Vancouver Police Department has a special unit dedicated to the problem. Just last fall, the Anti-Fencing Unit busted a crime ring accused of paying dozens of drug addicts to steal expensive baby formula. London Drugs was one of the stores hit by the formula thefts. Staff say shoplifting is still rampant, with thieves striking up to 20 times a day. Theirs is not an isolated case. "The problem is enormous," Tony Hunt, London Drugs' general manager of loss prevention, told CTV Vancouver. "It costs about four billion dollars a year in Canada." ctvnews.ca

UPDATE: Indianapolis, IN: Man to spend 7 years in jail after stealing hundreds of panties, $20K worth of merchandise
A man who was caught on camera stealing about 200 pairs of panties in August 2016 was sentenced to seven years in jail. Last week, Terry Benyon was found guilty on seven counts of theft, one count of corrupt business influence and one count of being a habitual offender. He was found not guilty on two counts of theft. On Friday, a judge sentenced him to seven years behind bars.

Police arrested Benyon after a loss prevention manager spotted him at a Stein Mart store. Following his arrest, police said Benyon admitted to stealing women's underwear and other clothing from multiple stores at multiple shopping malls in the Indianapolis area. Stores included Victoria's Secret, The Gap, Dick's Sporting Goods, Stein Mart and Urban Outfitters. cbs4indy.com

Antioch, CA: Police arrest Macy's Grab & Run suspect with $3,800 of fragrances
On Tuesday, February 7, 2017, Antioch Police observed several subjects run out of Macy's with what appeared to be fragrances and get into a car and flee the scene. Chief Cantando followed the suspects away and made an enforcement stop. Officers located approximately $3,800 in stolen fragrances within the vehicle. antiochherald.com

Williamsville, NY: Sears employee charged in $2,500 theft of lawn mowers, snow blowers
New York State troopers arrested a Sears employee Friday and charged him with stealing $2,500 of store merchandise over a period of time. Joshua Kendrick, 21, of Williamsville worked at the Eastern Hills Mall in Clarence, where troopers were called Friday to investigate a report of employee theft. buffalonews.com



Gretna, LA: 9 arrested in 'Felony Lane Gang' vehicle burglaries, check-cashing scheme
Nine people associated with the "Felony Lane Gang" were arrested earlier this week in Gretna in connection with property crimes committed in several parishes, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office announced Saturday (Feb. 18). Investigators tracked the nine alleged Felony Lane Gang members on Feb. 15 to the La Quinta Motel at 50 Terry Parkway in Gretna, where they were arrested and found with ID cards, checkbooks and credit cards. They were booked on a variety of charges, including conspiracy to commit vehicle burglary, bank fraud and theft, authorities said. nola.com



Hyderabad India: Amazon staff loot 30 laptops from Fulfillment Center; valued at over $32,000

Northampton, County, PA: Wegmans worker foils $648 steak & lobster tail theft

Shootings & Death

Orlando, FL: Man injured in drive-by shooting near Mall at Millenia
A man was injured after a drive-by shooting early Sunday near The Mall at Millenia, Orlando Police said. The man, who wasn't identified, was driving with a friend on Millenia Boulevard about 12:30 a.m. , when a white car pulled up next to them and someone inside started shooting. Officers say the car then sped off. A passer-by stopped and took the man to the hospital. The victim is in stable condition, police said. orlandosentinel.com


Greensboro, NC: One dead after shooting outside Four Seasons Mall
One person is dead after a shooting outside the JCPenney at the Four Seasons Mall in Greensboro. Greensboro Police said a call reporting shots fired came in around 1:26 Saturday afternoon. When officers got to the scene they found a man suffering from a gunshot wound in the JCPenney parking lot. He later died in the parking lot from his injuries. At this point police do not have anyone in custody, and they are unsure of a motive. Police did say it does not seem to be a random act of violence. wnct.com


Portland, ME: Police shoot and kill a man waving a rifle outside a Pawn Shop in Union Station Plaza
Portland police shot a man who reportedly was wielding a BB gun. The incident happened shortly before noon, witnesses said the man entered Coastal Trading and Pawn, bought a BB gun, then pointed it around the parking lot and into the sky. The man reportedly dropped the gun when police arrived, but was shot and killed after he picked it up, despite officers warning him not to do so. pressherald.com

Robberies & Thefts

St Louis, MO: South County Center hit by early morning Smash and Grab thieves Various police agencies throughout the area have been busy investigating a series of store break-ins at area malls. Thieves have either smashed out windows to gain access into stores or just walked in the stores in broad daylight. The suspects have walked off with thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise. The latest theft happened Sunday morning at South County Center. Around 7:00 am some customers were surprised to see St. Louis County Police respond to the South County Center for a report of several smash and grabs inside the mall. Once inside, we noticed Footlocker's store front glass was shattered and Victoria's Secrets store was tape off. Investigators say they're not sure how much merchandise was stolen. fox2now.com



Charleston, SC: 12 Dollar General, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree stores robbed 17 times in recent months
The crimes have occurred mostly at Dollar General stores, but robbers have also hit Family Dollar and Dollar Tree locations in North Charleston and rural areas of the Lowcountry. A break in some of these cases came last week, when authorities said they had identified suspects responsible for multiple dollar store robberies in Charleston and Berkeley counties, as well as a Verizon store holdup in Dorchester County. postandcourier.com






St. Louis, MO: 2 suspects in $60,000 Saks Fifth Ave Handbag smash-and-grab plead guilty

Perching Pagoda in the South Shore Mall, Bay Shore, NY reported a Grab & Run on 2/18, item valued at $129

Peoples Jewellers in the Masonville Mall, London, Ontario CN reported a Grab & Run on 2/18, item valued at $1,599

Peoples Jewellers in the White Oaks Mall, London, ON reported a Grab & Run on 2/16, item valued at $5,999

Credit Card Fraud

Stoughton, MA: Two anonymous tips dismantled a credit fraud ring
What started with a video and email, sent as anonymous tips to police, ended with three arrests and the dismantling of a credit fraud and identity theft ring in Stoughton. Sean Akil Trim, 32, his sister Sherrise Trim, also 32, and their cousin Tishon Singh, 26, were all arrested Thursday afternoon on a variety of credit card fraud and identity theft charges. The Stoughton Police Facebook page received a tip in the form of a 46-second video. It showed a room inside the home with hundreds of credit cards and the embosser and skimming devices. Inside the home, police seized a credit card embosser, credit card encoder, computer, several hundred credit cards and at least $7,203. Inside a car that was towed back to the station, police found 19 pre-paid debit cards marked at $150, two for $100 and another one for $200. wcvb.com

Arson

Bossier City, LA: Second suspect arrested for Walmart Neighborhood Market Arson
The second suspect in an arson case at a Walmart Neighborhood Market has turned himself into police. Ryan James Hannigan, 18, turned himself in to the Bossier City Police Saturday afternoon. Hannigan was identified by fire investigators as the male subject in security camera video taken at the store. Bossier City Fire Department investigators arrested Kailey Marie Wise, 18, Thursday for simple arson in connection with the Feb. 3, 2017 incident. bossierpress.com

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