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 7/30/20

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Melissa Mitchell, CFI, LPC named Director of Asset Protection for MAPCO Express

Before being named Director of Asset Protection for MAPCO Express, Melissa spent nearly two decades as Director, Asset Protection & Retail Supply Chain for LifeWay Christian Stores. Earlier in her career, she held LP roles with the Cato Corporation, Roses Stores, Revco Drug Stores, and TJ Maxx. She also served in the United States Air Force for four years. Congratulations, Melissa!



Chris Sacramone, LPC promoted to Asset Protection Operations Lead for Walmart
Chris has been with Walmart for 25 years, starting with the company in 1995 as an Asset Protection Coordinator. Before being promoted to Asset Protection Operations Lead, he spent nearly four years as Market Asset Protection Senior Manager and more than five years as Market Asset Protection Manager. Congratulations, Chris!


See All the Executives 'Moving Up' Here   |   Submit Your New Corporate Hires/Promotions or New Position
 
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SafeResource & COVID 19 Response from 3SI Security Systems

As of May 6, 2020, the CDC recommends conducting daily health checks for your staff. But that's easier said than done, right? How do you manage conducting surveys at multiple locations, compiling results, making sure you don't miss anyone?

It's easy if you have SafeResource because it offers simple, completely customizable surveys you can provide to every employee every day.

All survey responses are logged and saved. If anyone indicates possible illness or exposure to COVID19, you'll immediately be notified so you can offer the staff member the information they need to stay safe and keep everyone else safe.

But that's not all...SafeResource offers MANY other safety features as well. From Opening/Closing protocols to Emergency Notification capabilities to streamlined reporting. All of this power is right at the fingertips of your staff and costs less than you think.

Click here to visit our website and learn more about SafeResource. Or go ahead and request a demo so you can see this powerful technology firsthand.
 



Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple Face Difficult Questions
from House Judiciary Committee
The CEOs of Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple all fronted the House Judiciary Committee in the US today as part of a five-hour hearing which intended to establish whether the tech giants have been operating in an anti-competitive manner.

The subsequent rulings based on the hearings could, eventually, result in new regulations restricting, or even reducing, the market dominance of each.

As has become normal in such hearings, some questions related to how the tech companies operate in other respects, and several questions appeared to miss the point. But there were also some tough queries for the CEOs to answer.

All of the questions, backed with fairly clear evidence, support the core case that these larger corporations, due to their size, and now able to quash competition, while questions were also raised around how the platforms use their massive scale to promote their own products, essentially establishing a field of play, and then competing in the same, though under significantly different rules.

As noted by House Judiciary Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee Chair David Cicilline (D-RI) in his closing remarks:

"This hearing has made one fact clear to me: these companies as they exist today have monopoly power. Some need to be broken up, all need to be properly regulated and held accountable. We need to ensure the antitrust laws first written more than a century ago work in the digital age."

That, really, is what's at the core of this investigation, whether the existing laws are as applicable as they could be in the current, digital age. The question now is what comes next? There does seem to be enough evidence to prompt further examination, but a resultant change in regulations could still take some time, if the House is able to agree on the right approach moving forward.

As such, it's difficult to take too much away from the session, which did raise some critical questions that the CEOs, as noted, could not adequately answer. socialmediatoday.com

Bezos Clueless & Unprepared About Vetting
What didn't Jeff Bezos know and when didn't he know it?

Amazon's CEO offered less than satisfactory answers to questions about his company's vetting of third-party sellers and its alleged use of sales data to compete directly with the marketplace vendors and brands it claims are so important to its business.

Rep. Lucy McBath (D - GA) questioned Mr. Bezos about the information that Amazon requires third-party sellers to provide in its efforts to prevent the sale of stolen goods on the site. When asked how his company verified that information supplied by third parties was accurate, he said, "I don't know the answer to your question."

Mr. Bezos would not be the first CEO of a company not to know "how the sausage is made," so to speak, but his lack of a ready-prepared answer is startling since it was common knowledge that the sale of counterfeit and stolen goods on the platform would be on the list of questions he would be asked.

For the record, Amazon introduced a program earlier this year that involves in-person verification of third-party marketplace sellers. When the pandemic hit, Amazon shifted to a video call verification system. retailwire.com

Bezos 'Stumbled' & 'Kind Of' Committed to Working with Law Enforcement
When Grilled

Bezos Defends Amazon's Counterfeit Fight & Stolen Goods
Bezos also defended the company's history of fighting counterfeit sales and even stolen goods. But the track record, which has landed Amazon in hot water with brands and the federal government, demonstrates a lack of willingness to get serious about the problem, according to RILA's Ahrens. Bezos stumbled under questioning about what details sellers must provide in order to trade on the Marketplace.

"Jeff Bezos was completely familiar with details when he views it as important," he said. "This is a solvable problem. It is a choice. Amazon is a company with some of the best data scientists on the planet, but it's not even a technology issue. They ought to have a vetting process on the front end, but he doesn't know how they verify those sellers - how they check that they are who they say they are. This is a multi-billion dollar problem that our members are seeking to address."  retaildive.com
 



COVID Update

US: Over 4.6M Cases - 154K Dead - 2.2M Recovered
Worldwide: Over 17.3M Cases - 672K Dead - 10.8M Recovered


Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 154+   Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 67
*Red indicates change in total deaths


Thanks to COVID
US economy posts its worst drop on record
The US economy contracted at a 32.9% annual rate from April through June, its worst drop on record, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday.

Business ground to a halt during the pandemic lockdown in the spring of this year, and America plunged into its first recession in 11 years, putting an end to the longest economic expansion in US history and wiping out five years of economic gains in just a few months. cnn.com

Harvard Coronavirus Experts Say 13 States Need to Lock Down Now
A report released this week by the Trump administration's coronavirus task force warns that 21 states are now in the "red zone" and need to take aggressive steps to slow the spread of COVID-19.

That sounds serious. But according to new, comprehensive national guidelines from a network of research, policy and public-health experts convened by Harvard University's Global Health Institute and Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, the latest federal report probably isn't serious enough.

"The public needs clear and consistent information about COVID risk levels in different jurisdictions for personal decision-making, and policy-makers need clear and consistent visibility that permits differentiating policy across jurisdictions," said Danielle Allen, director of Harvard's Safra Center. "We also collectively need to keep focused on what should be our main target: a path to near zero case incidence." yahoo.com

California again breaks record for most coronavirus deaths in a single day
California has again broken a new record for the most coronavirus-related deaths in a single day, with 174 deaths reported on Tuesday. The daily average of coronavirus-related deaths over the previous seven days has never been higher, now at 119. Since the first documented COVID-19 death in February, there have been 8,716 Californians who have died.

There are some signs that California's most recent surge - while still growing - has started to slow down. latimes.com

COVID's Huge Impact on Returns
Get Ready for 'Surge in Returns,' Green Returns and More
Amid increased online shopping and the ongoing pandemic, returns experts anticipate a rise in returns and green solutions.

With e-commerce surging generally, and the pandemic making curbside pickup, store-level fulfillment and other processes increasingly beneficial, the report argues "precise inventory management is much harder, yet more important than ever before."

"This crisis has inadvertently made the returns process far more green than it was at the start of the year."
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Even "online return veterans" are shifting gears. "Before the crisis, many retailers gave customers the option to download and print their own labels and return information at home. However, once the pandemic started we saw a huge rise in the number of customers choosing to fill this information in via online forms or through mobile apps, and quickly realized that this was likely due to thousands of shoppers not having access to the office printer anymore,"

With the ongoing move from analogue to digital processes across the supply chain, the argument for paperless returns managed in an online "returns portal" instead of providing a label in a box is just one step taken by retailers such as Asos, Boohoo Group-owned Karen Millen and MissPap to streamline their operations and reduce waste - to a cost savings of 640,000 pounds on return labels alone, or 8,000 trees saved a year, in the case of the former.

The reasons behind consumer behavioral changes in returns are rooted in a need for convenience and safety as confirmed coronavirus cases top four million in the U.S. alone. Traditionally, the steps for returning a package via mail exceed the ease in dropping something off at a store or, in the case of donations, stuffing a garbage bag full of unwanted items, tying it off and depositing it on the steps of the nearest drop-off location. wwd.com

Shoppers Are Scared Most of Malls
Consumers' Retail Fears Aren't Fading


New research from First Insight finds that fears of shopping aren't going away.

A huge 80% of women feel unsafe trying out beauty products, 68% feel unsafe trying on apparel in dressing rooms and 61% feel unsafe trying on shoes. This represents an uptick compared to the company's first study in April.

From a generational standpoint, baby boomers feel the least safe returning to stores with 73% saying they don't feel safe trying on clothes in dressing rooms, up 2% since April.

Shopping malls, warehouse clubs and big box retailers may have more of an uphill battle with 32% feeling unsafe visiting shopping malls, 20% with warehouse clubs and 18% with big box retail.

The only retailers where people appear to be getting more comfortable since April are essential retailers and local small businesses. Only 11% feel unsafe at grocery stores, versus 13% in April, and the figure for drug stores hovers around 15%. For small businesses, the figure dropped from 21% to 17% in the past three months.

As for how much a face mask police eases fears, 84% said it makes them feel most safe while temperature checks at the door are important to 71% of consumers. retaileader.com

Get your house in order
Customer Service Requests Increase 48% Since Late February
One study found that customer support requests for sectors including retail and e-commerce have seen the highest increase since late February 2020 - up an average of 48%. 

Retailers have struggled with poor user experiences that make it difficult for customers to navigate service inquiries and fewer agents equipped to manage the increase in demand. 

These are issues that need to be solved and solved quickly. Across the board, the pandemic has opened retailers' eyes to the importance of sophisticated and stellar customer service - the failure to do so being the difference between customer retention and attrition. 

Today, customers have high expectations for personalized, proactive and always-on customer service. So, retailers must have the tools in place to meet these needs. 

Automate the mundane - eliminate manual customer service tasks - Meet customers where they want - with a multi-channel, self-service approach - Get your house in order - eliminate cross-team siloes

Today, the customer experience is one of the most critical touchpoints a retailer has with its customers. After all, as retail continues to evolve, great customer service means more loyal customers - and that's not something you can pass up!  retaildive.com

Reducing Risk at the Office
The Office Redesign Has Only Just Begun

Plexiglass dividers and floor decals might not be permanent, but the pandemic will bring lasting change to offices. Experts from the architecture and real-estate industries share how they are getting back to work and what offices will look like in the future. Photo: Cesare Salerno for The Wall Street Journal. wsj.com

Retailers Back Senate Republicans' Proposed Liability Relief HEALS Act

Pilot Requires Face Masks at all 680+ Locations
 



Retailers in Administration (Bankruptcy) & Closing Stores in the UK
Just as impacted as the U.S. if not maybe slightly worst


UK: The Crisis in Retailing: Closures and Job Losses
The effect of the coronavirus lockdown came on top of retail's existing problems. It has been a hammer blow against the sector. Government advice to stay at home, avoid shops, pubs and restaurants was followed a few days later by the lockdown and closure of most stores. We have revised our figures to show the impact on jobs in retail and the number of stores being closed (see below). Our Economic Forecast for the Sector is that lost sales in 2020 will amount to -£17,281bn and retail's Annual Sales Total will fall by -4.6% this year (see Economic Forecast https://www.retailresearch.org/retail-forecast.html)

Hence in 2020 our revised figures are that 20,622 stores will close (against 16,073 in 2019) and job losses will rise to 235,704 people (against 143,128 last year) [forecast prepared on 31 March 2020].

Several important retailers have already gone bust and we expect many more to do so, making this the worst year since 2008/9. Many companies in a better financial position will not go bust, but have to rationalise their store portfolios. Moreover, the massive peak in online sales, whilst physical shops have been shuttered, presents greater problems for British high streets because many shoppers will not return.

Who's Gone Bust in Retail in UK Retailing in 2019-2020?

More bricks-and-mortar retailers have gone into administration this year (by June 2020), putting more stores at risk and more employees under threat of losing their jobs than in the whole of 2019, which was described some some observers as 'the worst year for 25 years' for the industry.'

So far (to July 2020) of the stores' at risk', 53% or 1,424 have been closed and 43.7% of 'at risk' staff have been made redundant. The equivalent figures last year were 36.9% and 20.6% respectively. retailresearch.org

J.C. Penney looks to sell itself in bankruptcy
J.C. Penney is moving quickly to sell itself in a bankruptcy auction by the fall in a plan that would keep the retailer operating under new ownership, attorneys for the retailer said in a hearing Wednesday.

Private equity firm Sycamore Partners, department store retailer Hudson's Bay Co., and landlords Simon Property Group and Brookfield Properties have proposed bids for Penney, according to anonymously sourced reports in the New York Post and Women's Wear Daily.

Joshua Sussberg, who is representing Penney in its Chapter 11 case, mentioned the Post's story in the hearing, confirming three separate bidders for Penney, without naming them.

But Sussberg also said aspects of the Post's story were incorrect, including the possibility of Penney being subsumed by a competing department store brand in one of the bids. (The Post reported that Sycamore planned to merge Penney with Belk and move it under the latter's banner and CEO.) Sussberg also said there was "not one discussion" taking place around liquidating Penney.  retaildive.com

C-Stores - Safety - Curbside Pickup - Home Delivery
Convenience stores continue to add safety protocols, new pickup options

Nine in 10 stores (89 percent) have installed plexiglass barriers at checkout, and 87 percent provide hand sanitizer inside the store. Convenience stores sell an estimated 80 percent of the fuel purchased in the country, and 24 percent of stores are offering hand sanitizer at the fuel island, according to a national survey of U.S. convenience store owners conducted by NACS.

Overall, 98 percent of respondents say their stores have remained open: 64 percent of stores have kept the same hours, and 34 percent have stayed open but with reduced hours.

Many retailers also say they are driving forward new convenience offers that respond to customer demands, such as new payment options that have accelerated within the industry: 40 percent say they have introduced or increased contactless payment options inside stores, and 62 percent say fewer customers are paying by cash, reflecting a broader retail trend. In terms of product pickup, 33 percent of stores have introduced or expanded curbside pickup, 29 percent have increased a drive-thru element to their operations and 21 percent increased delivery. foodsafetystrategies.com

Converting Millions of Sq.-Ft. of Retail Space
Shippers eye struggling retail properties for conversion to last-mile, fulfillment centers
Retail to industrial real estate conversions are on the rise, according to a CBRE report released Thursday.

The top five markets for retail facility conversions are Milwaukee, Cleveland, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Omaha, Nebraska, according to the report.

Generally, properties without existing docking bays or compatible ceiling heights are often demolished in favor of new-build warehouse facilities, the report said. retaildive.com

You've Been Zoomed
Walmart Eliminating Hundreds of Corp. Jobs
Some of those affected were told in person, while others learned their fate over a Zoom call. Those who lose their jobs will be paid until the end of January according to one of the people. Mostly in real estate, store planning and logistics.

Retailers of all shapes and sizes have been trimming back-office workforces during the pandemic. L Brands Inc., the owner of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, said this week it will eliminate 850 office jobs, or about 15% of its corporate staff. Last month, Macy's Inc. said it was eliminating 3,900 corporate and management jobs. Tailored Brands and Levi Strauss & Co. are cutting corporate positions, too. bloomberg.com

Introducing the New FEMA.gov
I encourage you to check out the redesigned FEMA.Gov website and see what is new. Note the new coronavirus page that is highlighted at the top.  fema.gov


Quarterly Results
Blue Apron Q2 sales up 10%


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eBay Hits it Out of the Park in Q2
eBay's Q2 sales grow at the highest rate in 15 years

U.S. gross merchandise value grew 34.6% in the second quarter, the online marketplace reported Tuesday. Total GMV, including its international markets, grew 26.3% in Q2, the highest quarterly growth rate eBay has seen in 15 years.

EBay Inc. is yet another example of an ecommerce merchant benefiting from more consumers shopping online as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The gross value of goods sold on eBay's U.S. marketplace grew 34.6% to $10.49 billion from $7.79 billion in the second quarter ended June 30, the company reported Tuesday. Global GMV reached $27.13 billion in Q2 2020 from $21.48 billion in the same period of 2019.

EBay is ranked No. 5 in the 2020 Digital Commerce 360 Online Marketplaces Database.

For the first 6 months of the year, total GMV reached $48.39 billion, up 12.4% from $43.05 billion. U.S. GMV was $18.12 billion, up 15.3% from $15.71 billion over the same period in 2019.

Executives pointed to three core initiatives this year: growing eBay's consumer-to-consumer business and "non-new" products, adding more small business sellers and retaining new customers. digitalcommerce360.com


 

 


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6 Slides Every CISO Should Use in Their Board Presentation

Do you struggle to quantify your cybersecurity posture for c-suite colleagues and the board of directors?

The end of the quarter is fast approaching and it's time to put together your slide deck for the board meeting. Before you begin creating bulleted slides for all the projects your team is working on, take a moment to zoom out. What do your board of directors and C-suite colleagues really want to know?

These 6 slides are key to answering the most important questions about cybersecurity and getting buy-in from stakeholders for your new and ongoing projects.

1. Level the conversation
Set expectations for your board and overview the conversation. The goal of the next 15 - 20 minutes will be to establish where there enterprise is on cyber risk, where it should be, and how it will get there.

2. Quantify the cyber risk spectrum
Provide a bar chart with breach likelihood for every high impact group of assets. Use this to quantify where the company currently is on the cyber risk spectrum

3. Put numbers to risk
Quantify your cyber risk in dollar figures. Support this number with your current breach likelihood and financial likelihood.

4. Tackle breach likelihood
Share how many assets are at high likelihood of breach and how many are at medium likelihood. Summarize the security issues and current threats that are affecting breach likelihood.

5. Show progress with risk trends
Give a high-level summary with visualizations showing how risk levels have changed since your last meeting. Point out specific areas of risk that have decreased or increased and support with data.

6. Lay out a plan
Present your prioritized list of projects and deployments for the next quarter. Show the impact that each will have on decreasing breach likelihood and overall risk. balbix.com

The Future's Biggest Cybercrime Threat May Already Be Here
Current attacks will continue to be refined, and what may seem a weakness now could turn out to be a disaster.

The majority of significant threats we face today have been around for years, even centuries (for example, fake news via propaganda, demands for ransom, data compromise), and while we may see something new, it's more likely that current attacks will continue to be refined, growing in sophistication to focus on what penetrates defenses best.

We are all targets. Research from Information Security Forum (ISF.org) finds a thriving marketplace on the Dark Web full of wannabe criminals. Products and services start as low as $300 simply to have an individual hacked. A young adult in Eurasia can garner $7,000 per month from conducting cyber extortions. A $900,000 annual payoff is readily achievable. An extremely lucrative proposition looks even more enticing when you consider a virtually nonexistent arrest rate of 0.1%.
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But the "human firewall" remains the weakest link, leaving phishing attempts as the most popular malicious attack route - 70% to 90% of successful breaches derive from social engineering.

We can expect to see this continue and evolve as the development of deepfakes, or doctored video and audio, progresses quickly (see below case example)

In early 2019, we saw the first case of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted vishing - social engineering using an automated voice - to perform a high-profile scam.

Attackers replicated the voice of an energy company CEO, able to convince a co-worker to transfer $243,000 to a bogus supplier that, upon a background check, looked like an established business, complete with social media profiles, website content, and fake personas posing as the management team. AI-based vishing was used to fool an employee into calling the CEO and, because the voice sounded exactly like the real-life CEO, the employee processed the cash transfer.

Technological Advances - but How to Process Risk? darkreading.com

Well Funded - More Sophisticated - Becoming Mainstream - Ransomware Gangs
Ransomware is now your biggest online security nightmare.
And it's about to get worse


Criminals understand our weaknesses and how to exploit them. That means ransomware isn't going away.

Ransomware is rapidly shaping up to be the defining online security issue of our era. It's a brutally simple idea, executed with increasing sophistication by criminal groups. A huge chunk of our lives is now stored digitally, whether that's photos, videos, business plans or customer databases. But too many of us, both businesses and consumers, have been lazy about securing these vital assets, creating an opportunity which criminals have exploited.

Their brilliant twist was to realise they don't have to steal that data to make money: they just have to make it impossible for us to access it again -- by encrypting it -- unless we pay up.

Just last week, there were warnings about a new wave of ransomware attacks against at least 31 large organisations with the aim of demanding millions of dollars in ransom. The attackers had breached the networks of targeted organizations and were in the process of laying the groundwork for their attacks.

The vast majority of targets were household names, including eight Fortune 500 companies, tech security company Symantec said: if the attack (by a group calling itself Evil Corp) hadn't been disrupted, it could have led to millions in damages and downtime, with the impact felt through the supply chain.

It's quite possible that ransomware will form the core of a new type of a digital attack, used by nation states and others who simply want to destroy networks. Wiper malware is ransomware whose encryption can't be reversed, so the data is lost forever. There have been a few of these incidents, but the fear is they could become more mainstream.

These cyber criminals often spend weeks poking around in a network before they make their attack, which means they have time to understand key digital assets, like the CEO's emails for example, allowing them to put even more pressure on their victims. zdnet.com

Phishing Campaign Uses Fake SharePoint Alerts

Fraudsters Leverage Automated Messages in Effort to Steal Office 365 Credentials

Fraudsters are mimicking automated messages from Microsoft SharePoint for a phishing campaign that attempts to steal Office 365 credentials, according to the security firm Abnormal Security.

"The email itself is not addressed to any specific individual and is meant to cast a wide net to phish for employees' credentials," the firm's new report states. The malicious emails have reached about 50,000 inboxes so far, and the campaign may still be active, according to Abnormal Security.

The brief spoofed emails use language similar to automated file-sharing notifications, according to the report. govinfosecurity.com

Kaspersky Uncovers New APT "Mercenary" Group
Security researchers at Kaspersky have uncovered a new cyber-mercenary group that they claim has been providing hacking services for hire for almost a decade.

Dubbed "Deceptikons," the APT group isn't particularly sophisticated from a technical perspective and isn't known to have deployed any zero-day threats during that time, the Russian AV vendor said in a Q2 round-up report. darkreading.com


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Cannabis Shops Call for More Protection
Rash of Violence has Oakland Cannabis Retailers on Edge
An incidence of fatal gun violence last week in a south Oakland dispensary has Bay Area cannabis retailers calling for more police protections, in the wake of looting during local George Floyd protests in May, and this latest incident.

Oakland cannabis business owners claim that since the end of May, when U.S. cities were first swept by a wave of protests in the wake of the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis on May 25, there have been at least forty break-ins at local cannabis facilities.

On June 1, mgRetailer reported a spate of looting incidents that coincided with the protests, which hit California dispensaries particularly hard, including Bay Area locations in Oakland, San Francisco, and Berkeley.

Some of Oakland's cannabis business owners pointed out that, for the amount of tax that is collected from local legal cannabis retailers (up to 35 percent of sales goes to the city), there should be more police protection for stores or even a police unit assigned to investigate crimes that victimize their businesses.

Since legal cannabis businesses are prevented from using regular banking services due to continued federal prohibition, criminals target stores for robberies knowing that there may be a large amount of cash on hand, in addition to valuable product. mgretailer.com

Democrats Reject Marijuana Legalization In Party Platform
Democratic National Committee delegates voted 105-60 against including marijuana legalization in the party platform on Monday. The draft version of the platform supports decriminalizing marijuana use and legalizing medical marijuana, adding that it should be left up to the states "to make their own decisions about recreational use."

The platform was unlikely to ever endorse full legalization, since Joe Biden, the presumptive nominee, does not back the policy. He supports federal decriminalization, which would take away incarceration for possession.

But Dennis Obduskey, a delegate who introduced the legalization amendment during the meeting of the DNC's platform committee, noted that the current document is a step back from the 2016 platform, which supported "providing a reasoned pathway for future legalization." cannabisbusinessexecutive.com

Cannabis Edibles & Their Risks
According to Dr. Lawrence Loh, a faculty member from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, Canada, overconsumption is more possible with cannabis edibles since- in contrast to smoking and inhaling cannabis- the effects of ingesting cannabis do not become noticeable until about thirty minutes to an hour later. sapphirerisk.com

Clint Eastwood Sues, Says He Has Nothing to Do With CBD Products

When California declared war on cannabis growers and called in the Army


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COVID Impact - Online Counterfeits
Counterfeits and quality control in a crisis
Over the past few months, tens of millions of new counterfeit products have been seized or identified on the web. These include fraudulent face masks, ventilators, disinfectants and testing kits.

Across China, authorities seized more than 80 million counterfeit or faulty masks in March alone, along with 370,000 defective or fake disinfectants and other "anti-coronavirus products." Similar reports are cropping up in other countries around the world, adding undue fears to a population already on the edge.

In addition to counterfeits or ripoffs of trusted products, bad actors have flooded the e-commerce market with fake medicines, vaccines, and other products that wrongly promise to treat or prevent COVID-19. As of early May, Amazon had banned more than 1 million products claiming to cure or protect against a disease with no medically approved remedy. securitymagazine.com

Brand Safety Institute's New Certification
1st certified brand safety officers quickly put to the test

Graduating from the Brand Safety Institute's new certification program during a pandemic and just before racial justice protests erupted, these experts help advertisers and brands navigate difficult waters.

When the first class of certified brand safety officers graduated from the Brand Safety Institute (BSI) in late May, the experts' skills were quickly put to the test by a marketing landscape facing disruption from an ongoing pandemic and an eruption of racial justice protests.

While there is little precedence for marketing during such crises, the environment the new graduates found themselves in wasn't so unusual in that, over the past few years, marketers frequently have been required to adapt to changing consumer values as well as new technological opportunities and challenges. As these hurdles have grown, protecting a brand from negative impacts to its reputation and return on investment has become more challenging. brandsafetyinstitute.com marketingdive.com

Editor's Note: While this deals with the marketing side of the house, it shows how brand safety and corporate reputation has taken center stage priority in every aspect of business. Starting with the consumer packaged goods ide all the way through to the retailers. Interestingly enough ad fraud is heavily incorporated here and to some extent these Brand Safety Officers are investigators identifying fraud and safeguarding the brand.

Walmart's marketplace doubles in a year: report
The number of sellers on Walmart's marketplace has doubled to more than 50,000 since July 2019, according to a report from Marketplace Pulse. More than 5,000 new sellers have joined the platform since the retail giant announced its partnership with Shopify last month.  retaildive.com

Shopify Saved Main Street. Next Stop: Taking On Amazon


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Manteca, CA: Officer makes big dent in Organized Retail Crime teams
Manteca Police Officer Dave Brown noticed a disquieting trend that was sweeping across retail businesses being targeted by seemingly organized teams looking to clean them out of valuable merchandise in a brazen and efficient manner. And for his efforts in working to stamp out organized retail theft - where specific retailers are targeted for high-value items that are then resold on the street - Brown was honored as the Manteca Police Department recipient of the Don. I Asher Memorial Officer of the Year Award. "Officer Brown is committed to his job and to helping our community while keeping them safe. He promotes teamwork within our department and within our community," the Manteca Police said in a statement about Brown's honor. "Officer Brown personifies the commitment that we want our officers to have in serving the community - his efforts and work are appreciated by many and he is always willing to help his co-workers and those in the community. "His dedication and commitment to addressing issues is why he was chosen as our Officer of the Year."Advertisement

It was in his work as a patrol officer that Brown first started working closely with loss prevention officials from local retailers, and was the first to suggest the idea of local retailers submitting online shoplifting reports to the department that could then be tracked for trends across the community and compared to other cities in the region. In developing that program and continuing to build on the relationships he had created within the big box retailers across the community, the department was able to more clearly establish crime trends and figure out an efficient way to respond to these crimes as they were occurring - a plan that eventually including having officers assigned to a specialized unit that Brown would eventually become a part of surveilling areas likely to be subjects of the brazen criminal thefts. And his efforts did more than just protect the retailers and help keep prices down for consumers. mantecabulletin.com

Murfreesboro, TN: Suspect could be part of organized identity theft ring
Police are looking for a woman in connection with an organized identity theft ring in Middle Tennessee. Murfreesboro police says she could be part of a credit card fraud ring that's worked the area for months now. She was captured on security video making several purchases with a credit card number - in this case one from a victim in Knoxville. Like other suspects in this case, she doesn't actually us a credit card - rather a stolen credit number programmed into her cellphone and she pays with a touch free option. She most recently was spotted in the Kroger on Old Fort Parkway in Murfreesboro and left in a black four-door sedan. newschannel5.com

Fulton County, NY: 5 arrested in Gun store burglary; 3 of 6 handguns recovered


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Shootings & Deaths

Garden Ridge, TX: C-store clerk killed over cash, lottery tickets; police search for killer
Police are searching for a man who they say shot and killed a convenience store clerk in Garden Ridge early Wednesday morning. According to the Garden Ridge Police Department, a man armed with a handgun entered the EZ Mart in the 19500 block of FM 3009 at about 3 a.m. Investigators said the man shot Pollyanna Smotherman and fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of cash and lottery tickets. kens5.com

Auburn, ME: Man charged with murder in McDonald's parking lot shooting
Police arrested a Lewiston man Thursday morning in connection with the Wednesday night killing of a Massachusetts man at a McDonald's parking lot. Trai M. Larue, 22, was charged with the murder of Roger I. Cornell, 21, was in the restaurant's parking lot. According to Katy England, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public safety, the Major Crimes South unit was called to Auburn to assist Auburn police in the investigation after a man died following an altercation in the McDonald's parking lot. According to England, before police arrived multiple people had fled the scene in a vehicle. pressherald.com

Hammond, LA: Employee shot to death at lawn equipment store
Deputies with the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office say they are investigating after a man was fatally shot at the Hammond lawn equipment store where he worked on Wednesday, July 29. Dawn Panepinto, a sheriff's office spokesperson, says deputies responded to Z-Equipment in Hammond around 8:15 a.m. after receiving a report of a man found lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

Deputies say they found the body of Wayne Bourliea, 36, of Hammond, inside the store. Bourilea, an employee of the store, was shot multiple times before 8 a.m., according to the sheriff's office. Panepinto says the shooter fled the scene before deputies arrived. Investigators say they have not identified a suspect or motive at this time. wafb.com

Wichita, KS: Update: Teen arrested in AutoZone shooting death
Wichita Police say they've arrested a man in the shooting at a southside AutoZone on Sunday. Nick Blue, a clerk at the store, died in that shooting. Police say your tips helped lead them to 18-year-old Lamontae Lucas of Wichita. He now faces first degree murder charges. Blue's friends say they still have many unanswered questions about what happened. "I just broke down in tears to see such a wonderful person and a wonderful soul, that would not even hurt a fly, be the target of just senseless violence," Justin McIntosh told KAKE News Monday about his friend and former co-worker. Two days later, investigators made the announcement. "We've been able to identify a suspect and have since arrested a 18-year-old Lamontae Lucas of Wichita," said Capt. Jason Stephens of the Wichita Police Department. Investigators say Lucas is the person who walked into the AutoZone on Sunday night, shot Nick Blue, then ran away. cbs19news.com

Baltimore, MD: Man Sentenced to 30 Years for the Attempted Armed Robbery of His Former Employer-A Food Service Company-Including Shooting an Employee
U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett today sentenced Cornell Slater, a/k/a Chopper, age 34, of Odenton, Maryland, to 30 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for using, carrying, and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence; for committing a commercial robbery; and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Slater's convictions arose from the attempted armed robbery of a food service business in Baltimore in 2018, during which Slater shot an employee of the business, and from another shooting on November 14, 2018, during which Slater shot the driver of a nearby vehicle. justice.gov

Denison, TX: Police arrest suspect in convenience store shooting; employee injured

Canada: Suspects sought after shots fired at scene of jewelry store robbery in Mississauga
 



Robberies, Incidents & Thefts

Edmonds, WA: Burlington Caot Shoplifter pulls gun on Loss Prevention; no injuries

Wichita Falls, TX: Formed O'Reilly's employee involved in the 2016 Staged Robbery has probation modified after violating terms

Edgewater, CO: DNA from clothing helped police ID suspect accused of assaulting Target employees

Boston, MA: Convenience store owners are demanding more from law enforcement

Charlotte, NC: AT&T Armed Robbery suspect crashes 3 times while being pursued by officers

UK: Runner chases down Primark thief moments after 13-mile run


 

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AT&T Charlotte, NC - Armed Robbery
Burlington - Edmonds, WA - Armed Robbery
C-Store - Latrobe, PA - Robbery
C-Store - Garden Ridge, TX - Armed Robbery/ Employee killed
C-Store - Wichita Falls, TX - Armed Robbery
C-Store - Houston, TX - Armed Robbery
CVS - York County, PA - Robbery
C-Store - Reno, NV - Armed Robbery
CVS - Middletown, OH - Armed Robbery
Clothing - Floral, AR - Armed Robbery
Family Dollar - Richland County, SC - Burglary
Guns - Fulton County, NY - Burglary
Grocery - Polk County, NC - Burglary
Grocery - Paris, TN - Burglary
Jewelry - Brunswick, GA - Robbery
Metro PCS - Rossville, GA - Armed Robbery
Restaurant - Frankfort, IL - Burglary
Restaurant - Graham, NC - Armed Robbery
Restaurant - Fort Lauderdale, FL - Burglary (Subway)
Restaurant - Fort Lauderdale, FL - Burglary (Popeye's)
7-Eleven - Greensburg, PA - Robbery

 

Daily Totals:
• 14 robberies
• 7 burglaries
• 1 shooting
• 1 killed


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Joslyn Indreginal promoted to Regional Loss Prevention Manager
for Amazon

Corey Finke named Area Loss Prevention Manager for DD's Discounts

David Cobarrubias, CFI named District Asset Protection Manager for Burlington Stores


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Featured Job Spotlights


 

Division Safety and Loss Prevention Manager
Houston, TX
- posted July 28
Under the guidance of the Directors of Loss Prevention (LP) and Health, Safety and Environment (HSE), the Loss Prevention & Safety Manager is responsible for overseeing and championing initiatives and company programs, processes and controls that builds a culture around continuous improvement in safety/environment incidents, loss prevention, and security outcomes...


Vice President, Loss Prevention
Commerce, CA - posted July 29
The Vice President of Loss Prevention will develop, implement and manage the loss prevention strategy for the Company. This role will have accountability to improve company profitability through the effective management of asset protection, safety, compliance programs, and community programs...


Director of Asset Protection
Quincy, MA - posted July 28
The primary purpose of this position is to provide protection of company assets by organizing the investigation and distribution of information. The AP Director is responsible to ensure Brand needs are met through staffing and development of their respective AP team...


Director of Asset Protection & Safety
Atlanta, GA - posted July 27
The Asset Protection & Safety Director is responsible for the protection of assets and the reduction of loss in the retail and dining divisions. This shared services position oversees the hiring, training and development of a team of Market Managers...


 

Director of Loss Prevention
North Bergen, NJ - posted July 29
Key responsibilities include but are not limited to the following: Analyzing information, determination of exception data to drive investigation, communication and coordination of information to field teams and other partners...
 

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Sometimes you've just got to draw the line on what advice to follow and who you ask. Certainly getting advice is important on any issue or decision. But at the end of the day you've got to own your own decision and listen to the bird on your shoulder. We all have one and oftentimes it's muted by our friends and family members. At 5 am staring into that mirror is usually when the bird whispers the clearest. The only problem then is if you don't hear it because you're not listening.

Just a Thought,
Gus

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