How technology is changing the face of retail
The reality is more along the lines of traffic-tracking sensors, radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, handheld scanners, and heat maps, all designed to provide a real-time snapshot of how the modern consumer is shopping. This wealth of data unlocks an understanding of the in-store customer journey that's deeper and more insightful than ever, and retailers that can successfully leverage this information are the ones that will thrive.

Still, none of this technological wizardry matters if retailers don't get the basics right. "We have all of these [great] technologies," says Bjoern Petersen, president of Sensormatic Solutions, the global leader in enabling smart and connected shopper engagement. "But the No. 1 rule is: Don't destroy the shopping experience."

For Petersen, that starts with inventory accuracy, which is essential to getting shoppers to come back. "If I am coming in to buy or pick up something and it's not there, that's a terrible experience," he says. "Yet almost all retailers have issues with inventory."



America's CEOs Pledge to Rethink Corporate Priorities
Top CEOs from Macy's, Target and Walmart Send a Striking Message to their Shareholders
In a statement released today, the Business Roundtable comprised of 180 CEO's - counting retail members like Macy's, Target and Walmart - announced that it was updating its corporate governance principles, which has served as a guideline on "the purpose of a corporation" for more than four decades.

The group's new standard for corporate responsibility is no longer based on shareholder value alone, which has served as the central tenet in each statement issued since 1997.

The Business Roundtable, a group of the chief executive officers of many of America's largest corporations, said business leaders should take a broader view of the purpose of a corporation that takes responsibility for improving society, rather than simply enriching shareholders.

In its new "Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation" the group said its leaders were committed to working for the benefit of all stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers, and the communities in which they operated.

Each version of the group's document issued since 1997 has endorsed principles of shareholder primacy - that corporations exist principally to serve shareholders. The new statement supersedes previous statements and outlines a modern standard for corporate responsibility.

The statement comes as many progressive presidential candidates have called on corporations to take a more holistic approach to value creation.

"These modernized principles reflect the business community's unwavering commitment to continue to push for an economy that serves all Americans."

The release was signed by leaders at tech giant Apple and investment management firm BlackRock as well as CEOs at major retail chains including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Macy's chairman Jeff Gennette, Target chairman Brian Cornell and Walmart president Doug McMillon. footwearnews.com cfo.com

Walmart - Greatest Entity of Crime - Wants Off-Duty Police in All 15 Stores
Gwinnett County GA solicitor general asks Walmart to increase police presence
Brian Whiteside wrote a letter to Walmart's CEO asking the company to hire off-duty police officers to patrol all Gwinnett Walmart stores.

Gwinnett County's Solicitor General, Brian Whiteside, sent a letter to Walmart's President and CEO, Doug McMillon, last Tuesday asking the company to hire off-duty police officers to provide security at all stores in Gwinnett County.

"Our city and county police forces are constantly being called out to any of the 15 Walmart stores in Gwinnett County," Whiteside said in the letter.

Whiteside provided 11Alive with a statistical report from the Lilburn Police Department. According to the report, between August 1, 2018 and July 31 2019, 70% of all shoplifting incidents occurred at the Walmart in Lilburn.

"I'm asking for this dialog because statistically, Walmart is one of the greatest entities of crime," he said.

A shoplifting suspect killed loss-prevention worker J.D. Ferguson at the same Lilburn Walmart in 2016. Ferguson and another employee were trying to stop a shoplifting suspect from stealing three televisions. 

Whiteside said that off-duty officers would be more beneficial to the safety of Walmart employees and Gwinnett County residents than the current loss-prevention workers.

"They're [loss-prevention workers] not as trained as well as police officers," Whiteside said. "They also don't have the deterrent effect of certified police officers because they are well armed and well equipped."

The Chief Investigator for the Gwinnett County Solicitor General's Office Travis Gatson shares a similar opinion.

"It's very alarming and we want this place to be safe," Gatson said. "Walmart is very important in the community and it should be safe."

Whiteside told 11Alive that he is to hoping have a Walmart's President and CEO, Doug McMillon, within the next 30 days to find a resolution to this issue. 11alive.com

NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill Champions Facial Recognition Software
In a New York Times opinion piece in June, Commissioner James O'Neill nonetheless championed last year's results from the department's facial recognition software, which he said generated 1,851 matches based on 7,024 requests and led to 998 arrests.

O'Neill said his detectives safeguard their investigations by never using facial recognition matches as the sole basis for an arrest. After the system generates a match, he wrote, an "investigator proceeds with further research."

"No one can be arrested on the basis of the computer match alone," O'Neill added. 

This month, O'Neill acknowledged that "there's been some controversy about facial recognition" while insisting "we use that as a lead. That's not probable cause. We're not locking up anyone based on a facial recognition hit." theappeal.org

Industry Pushes Back On ACLU Claims in New Report
'Industry groups criticize facial recognition hysteria'
SIA (Security Industry Association) has published a report to combat misconceptions and provide perspective on facial biometrics while the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) has specifically addressed recent claims by the ACLU with a statement panning the organization's methodology as the industry pushes back on claims made recently by advocates of bans of face recognition technology.

The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Association) recently announced that one in five California legislators were misidentified by Amazon's Rekognition with default settings, as it backs proposed state legislation to ban the use of facial recognition with police body cameras.

"The ACLU is once again trying to make facial recognition appear dangerous and inaccurate. But independent testing from the federal government has consistently shown that facial recognition technology is highly accurate. It now exceeds the accuracy of humans at identifying faces," comments ITIF Vice President Daniel Castro.

The report "Face Facts: Dispelling Common Myths Associated with Facial Recognition Technology" from SIA differentiates between authentication and verification use cases and identification and discovery applications, and the probabilistic nature of both. It outlines actual law enforcement use, then compares a set of seven myths about the technology with facts. These include reference to the existing laws that apply to facial recognition, such as the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Constitutional Amendments, and pointing out that because facial recognition does not make final determinations about identity, "(a) 'false positive' is not misidentification." Other points address allegations of universal technological bias, claims that Americans are generally fearful of facial recognition, that Biometric Entry/Exit is illegal, and that stolen facial biometric data can be used for nefarious purposes.  biometricupdate.com

   Technologies offered to defeat facial recognition and provide alternative for tracking

UK: Reasonable Monitoring of E-Mail May Not Infringe Worker Privacy
United Kingdom (U.K.) employer's review of a departing employee's e-mail was appropriate under the circumstances, the High Court of England and Wales ruled. The decision places workers on notice that they shouldn't rely on data privacy law to argue that a contract has been breached and they are thus freed from post-termination restrictions, legal experts say.

The case "is yet another example of the English court's being sympathetic to [employers] and acting to prevent the unlawful use of confidential information by employees or former employees," according to Nick Ashcroft, an attorney with Addleshaw Goddard in London.

Although this is a first-instance decision that will not be binding on other courts, "it may be persuasive in future cases where employers have similarly investigated their employees," said Carla Feakins, an attorney with Lewis Silkin in London.

The case of Argus Media Ltd v. Halim stems from a dispute between a price-reporting agency and a business development manager for its fertilizer business. The employee left the company in August 2018. During his notice period, or "garden leave"-when he was on the payroll but instructed to stay away from work- his manager became suspicious about the worker's activity and requested access to his e-mail.

Argus alleged that during his notice period, the employee had launched a price-reporting agency to compete with Argus' fertilizer business and had offered fertilizer pricing reports to Argus' clients. The worker had misused confidential information, solicited clients and competed with Argus in breach of restrictive covenants, the company charged. shrm.org

9th Circ. Backs Conviction In $6M 5-Hour Energy Fraud
A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday upheld a California federal judge's move to allow civil deposition testimony in a criminal case in which a married couple was charged with running a $6 million scheme to sell fake 5-Hour Energy products, saying that the inclusion of two witnesses' statements after they invoked the Fifth Amendment was lawful.

Federal prosecutors had used civil deposition statements from Walid Jamil, Joseph's brother-in-law, and Leslie Roman, who conspired with the couple and other co-conspirators in the massive scheme to sell counterfeit 5-Hour Energy drinks. Jamil and Roman, who invoked their Fifth Amendment rights in the criminal matter, pled guilty and the couple proceeded to trial.

Under the scheme, the co-conspirators replaced Spanish labels with English ones on legitimate bottles destined for Mexico and sold them for 15% less than the authentic bottles in the U.S. When the legitimate bottles made by original product maker Living Essentials ran out, they made counterfeit bottles and filled them with mysterious liquids and sold retailers more than 3 million bogus energy drinks.

In 2016, a jury found the couple guilty. The husband was sentenced to seven years in prison and the wife was ordered to serve two years. "This is just a crime of pure greed for people who are worth more than $12.5 million and with assets of $16 million," Judge Koh said at the time. law360.com

BOPIS Users Survey
6 in 10 weekly BOPIS users are male between 25 & 44
Thirty-four percent of weekly retail BOPIS users are 25-34 and another 34% are between 35 and 44. Interestingly, the lowest BOPIS usage rates are among Gen Z consumers 18-24 (10% of weekly retail users and 12% of weekly restaurant users). The remaining 22% of weekly retail users and 26% of weekly restaurant users are between 45 and 54. Almost one-quarter (23%) of retail BOPIS users purchased other items the last time they made a pickup. chainstoreage.com

Urban Fulfillment Centers Are Coming
In fact, a recent DHL e-commerce report shows that delivery timing is one of the key issues for meeting customer expectations, with nearly half of respondents rating it as extremely important, second only to customer service.

In the 2019 DHL e-commerce report, "The E-Commerce Supply Chain: Overcoming Growing Pains," 47 percent of respondents opted for a hybrid insource/outsource strategy, to leverage the expertise of a third-party logistics provider (3PL) to improve the quality of service and increase both fulfillment capacity and speed of delivery. chainstoreage.com

Department stores may be having a bad 'Kodak moment,' one trader warns
"You buy discounters, and you sell department stores," Schlossberg said on CNBC's "Trading Nation " on Friday. "Department stores are actually having a 'Kodak' moment, and not in a very good way. ... They're getting completely disintermediated as we go forward." cnbc.com


Quarterly Results
Home Depot Q2 comp's up 3%, U.S. comp's up 3.1%, sales up 1.2%
TJX Q2 consolidated comp's up 2%, net sales up 5%
   Marmaxx (U.S.) up 2%
   Home Goods (U.S.) flat
   TJX Canada up 1%
   TJX International up 6%
Kohl's Q2 comp's down 2.9%, sales down 3%