Coming Sept. 8/11...

2017 GLPS - Group LP Selfies
Your Team - Your Pride - Our Industry
Building Industry Pride - One Team Selfie at a Time

The Walmart U.S. AP Team at the 2017 AP National Meeting for Market, Regional and Corporate Teams.
 
Walmart is committed to protecting people and profit

"Direct. Deter. Detect"

This picture represents Walmart Market AP Managers, Regional Directors, Divisional Senior Directors and Corporate Team

Thank you to Joe Schrauder, Vice President Asset Protection and Safety - Walmart US for this picture submission!

Q2 2017 Comp Store Averages 32.5% Comps Improvement, 44% Sales Decline   Quarterly Comps and Sales Numbers reported in Q2 Average quarterly comps: Down 1.08% Average quarterly sales: Up 1%   Best quarterly comps Chipotle up 17.8% Ulta up 14.3% Domino's up 14.1%  Worst quarterly comps Cato down 17% Conn's down 15.2% Michael Kors down 14.1%   Q1 & Q2 Comps & Sales Comparison

Americans Fear Natural Disasters More than Terrorism, Global Pandemic or Cyberattack Combined
A poll by Healthcare Ready showed that Americans fear natural disasters more than terrorism, global pandemic or a cyberattack, combined.

America's concern about natural disasters (34 percent) continues to exceed worry about terrorist attacks (15 percent), cyber-attacks (six percent), or environmental disasters (six percent). The poll was conducted by international polling firm YouGov for Healthcare Ready, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit that works with the public and private sector to address healthcare resiliency before, during and after disasters.

"The findings from the survey once again highlight the importance of preparedness in the face of an unexpected natural disaster to ensure communities and families are not taken by surprise. Natural disasters do not provide ample lead time, so it is important to take steps to prepare now." securitymagazine.com

A Double Whammy - Never Before in History
Retail Industry's Emergency Operations Centers Working Double Duty
There's never before been such an occurrence as what the Southern U.S. is about to experience. With two storms in two weeks, and southern Florida already experiencing flooding in some locations, even before the storm has hit, this next one will be historical.

FEMA and first responders from all over the country are already stretched thin and without time to even catch their breath, here comes another one. The economic impact on our nation will be devastating and this is the last thing the nation and the nation's retailers need is another historical storm.

Good luck to everyone in Southern Florida and the Eastern Seaboard as the nation's retailers start planning store closures.

Emergency Operations Centers Working Double Duty

Of special note is the retail industry's emergency operations centers. These executives have been working non-stop now for weeks with no end in sight.

As we all focus on the impacted areas, and rightfully so, let's not forget the men and women working in these operations centers across the nation. If you know one reach out and offer your support. Go over and cut their grass or drop them a note of thanks, as they too are doing everything they can to help save lives and property. And just as important they're making sure we can get these stores back open as soon as possible so the impacted ones can get their medicine, their food and the basics of life. Sometimes we forget the ones back stage. Just a thought. Gus Downing

Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful storms ever measured, is slamming the Caribbean - and Florida is now in the crosshairs
A week after Hurricane Harvey made landfall, devastating Texas with torrential flooding, Hurricane Irma has begun steamrolling several Caribbean islands.

The National Hurricane Center's latest forecast for Irma projects that the centerline of the Category 5 storm will go up the east coast of Florida. However, the storm is big and powerful enough to impact most of the state, even if it stays offshore.

"Even if Irma does take this trajectory passing directly over the eastern coast, we certainly would expect it to impact the whole state," James Belanger, a senior meteorological scientist with The Weather Company, the group behind the Weather Channel and Weather Underground, told Business Insider on Wednesday.

Though it's too soon to say for certain where the storm will go, the forecast strongly suggests Irma will hit South Florida as a major hurricane this weekend.

"We do not know the exact path of this storm, but weather can change in an instant, and while we hope for the best, we must prepare for the worst," Gov. Rick Scott of Florida said in a Tuesday statement.

To prepare for Irma, Scott ordered all 7,000 members of the Florida's National Guard to report for duty on Friday morning. Miami-Dade County is also evacuating some of the lowest-lying areas prone to storm surge, including Miami Beach.

President Donald Trump declared states of emergency in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands on Tuesday evening to free up federal resources for a major response to the storm's impact. businessinsider.com

Retailers rush to restock supplies in preparation for Irma
On the heels of Hurricane Harvey's fury in Texas, retailers are recalibrating and bracing for a second disaster as Hurricane Irma closes in on Florida. 

By Tuesday around Florida, shortages spiked and word quickly spread on social media as residents leapfrogged from store to store in search of emergency-preparation supplies.

Retailers, especially big-box stores such as Target, Walmart and Costco, were hard hit, seeing shelves cleared of water, toilet paper and generators.

"The retailers are well aware of the shortages," said James Miller, a spokesman for the Florida Retail Federation, "And they have a plan in place to stock the shelves as fast as they can." usatoday.com

Empty shelves everywhere, but retailers say supplies are on the way
For consumers stocking up on hurricane supplies, help is on the way.

Walmart Stores said it has activated its Emergency Operations Center for Hurricane Irma to "get those shelves stocked as soon as possible," said Ragan Dickens, director of national media relations. "This is an all-hands-on-deck operation." He said 800 truckloads of supplies were deployed Tuesday from its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, and are on the way to Florida with water, flashlights, batteries, ready-to-eat foods and other supplies. They will be routed to the stores with the most needs, he said.

The Home Depot has also been mobilizing supplies to the area "as quickly as possible," said spokesman Matt Harrigan. "We will continue to do so all week. Many of those trucks come from a network of distribution centers where we've pre-staged loads of hurricane supplies ahead of the hurricane season, including our hurricane distribution center in Lakeland."

Wal-Mart and Home Depot were far from the only stores with empty shelves as South Floridians filled social media timelines with photos of empty shelves at stores including Publix and Wal-Mart. miamiherald.com

Hurricane Irma: City-by-city updates for South Florida

Hurricane Irma could be a $300 billion catastrophe if it hits South Florida

Coast Guard Exchange Delivers Emergency Supplies to Assist Coast Guard in Hurricane Relief Efforts
Last week the CGX Deployable Support Exchange (DSE) headed to Texas to assist the Coast Guard with Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. The Deployable Support Exchange is a mobile "Exchange on Wheels" that goes where the Coast Guard needs it. In times of an Emergency Response Operation, or servicing a remote CG location, the DSE brings a selection of necessities, personal products, refreshments, snacks, Coast Guard uniforms and even CG logo apparel and gifts.

Thank you to Jim Palmer, CSO & Sr. Director of Loss Prevention & Security, U.S. Coast Guard Community Services Command (CGCSC), for the picture submission.

Profitect to Discuss Prescriptive Analytics Success at Goldman Sachs 24th Annual Global Retailing Conference in New York City
Profitect Inc., the leading prescriptive analytics provider for the retail and CPG industries, today announced company CEO, Guy Yehiav, will be speaking on prescriptive analytics and the successes seen at Profitect at the Goldman Sachs 24th Annual Global Retailing Conference. Yehiav will participate in a panel session on Emerging Technology Solutions for Retail. Profitect is only one of a select few technology companies attending the exclusive conference taking place in New York City September 6 and 7 at The Plaza Hotel. Yehiav's presentation will begin at 3:55 pm ET on September 6. globenewswire.com

Shoplifting Without Cashiers
Writer tests out new checkout-free shopping experience
Gets caught stealing
Another prototype store in Santa Clara, California, using artificial intelligence eliminates the cashier at checkout. Take your basket, fill it up then walk to a tablet computer near the door. The tablet shows a list of everything that's in your basket and how much you owe; you pay, and you leave.

This store is actually the demonstration space of a startup called Standard Cognition, which is using a network of cameras and machine vision and deep-learning techniques to create an autonomous checkout experience.

Amazon is running a private beta test in a store in Seattle for a very similar project, Amazon Go. A Stockholm-based startup called Wheelys is testing a similar store in China.

I tried it out myself and the results were impressive. I wandered down the aisle, placing items in the basket, then I quickly shoved a can of Red Bull up my shirt in hopes that the cameras would miss it, and loaded up on similar-looking items.

When I was done, I walked over to a tablet that showed me a list of all the items Standard Cognition thought I had in my basket. It missed one of my two bottles of Coke and added an additional bottle of soap - things we could edit in the checkout app on the tablet. But the list was mostly correct, and, to my chagrin, it caught that Red Bull, too.

Item classification in the demo store is currently correct 98 percent of the time. Standard Cognition is working on it, in part by teaching its computers to identify more products - Ogle says the more items the company has added, the more accurate it has gotten. technologyreview.com

More e-tailers are opening brick and mortar stores
Online brands, such as Warby Parker, Zappos and Bonobos, have been opening their own stores for the past decade, but not at the rate it's happening now. "In the past year, it's become more noticeable," said Jill Dvorak, senior director for digital retail at the National Retail Federation. "Much bigger players are making huge moves."

Reid Greenberg, e-commerce lead researcher at Kantar Retail, said traditional brick-and-mortar stores and malls are only disappearing because they simply aren't modernizing their business models. "It isn't that retail is dead. Roughly 85-90 percent of retail takes place in brick-and-mortar locations," "But bad brick-and-mortar is. These mall-type department stores are faced with many challenges because they aren't connecting with shoppers in the way they want to be connected with. Consumers already know what to expect when walking into one of these stores."

E-commerce brands are making sure that's not the case with their new stores by interlacing digital touch points and apps with their physical presence. "We are seeing a blurring of the lines between what is really digital and what is brick-and-mortar retail," said Greenberg.

"The brands that can embrace the convergence of offline behavior and online media and use that effectively, those are the brands that are really striving," said Boll & Branch's Tannen. digiday.com

Amazon to open stores in 10 Kohl's stores in LA & Chicago
Kohl's said it will dedicate 1,000-square-foot "zones" within its stores to Amazon products, including the Echo, Echo Dot, Fire TV and Fire tablets.

Customers can then schedule an Amazon expert to come to their home and install smart home devices, Kohl's said.

Through the partnership, Kohl's is also promoting Amazon Home Services, which offers customers access to local service professionals who help with tasks like cleaning and plumbing. cnbc.com

America is facing a 'retail refugee crisis' as thousands of stores shut down
And millions of people become the 'blacksmiths of their era'
The retail landscape looks like it's about to get rougher for everyone - especially those on the lowest rung of the ladder.

But estimates also say that the sector has shed more than 89,000 jobs in general merchandise stores alone between last October and May of this year. At last count, over 6,375 stores have been announced for across the country this year.

It's this shedding of jobs that's about to create what retail-industry consultant Doug Stephens is calling a "retail refugee crisis" in an article in Business of Fashion.

It's not hard to envision a store of the future where there are very few employees, if any at all.

Automation is spreading into more and more places in stores, from ringing up customers at the cash register to stocking product. The phenomenon also extends outside of the store itself, with robots that can do fulfillment and order processing both for stores and for going directly to customers. Automation could also reasonably apply to driving trucks and performing simple customer-service tasks.

"Retail workers will become the blacksmiths of their era," Stephens wrote. businessinsider.com

Court Rules: A Trailer is not a Warehouse; $710,000 computer theft case
Coverage Disputes P/C Insurers
A trailer is not a warehouse covered by an insurance policy, says a federal appeals court in upholding a ruling in favor of Starr Indemnity & Liability Co. in a coverage dispute with a computer wholesaler over a theft.

On Dec. 15, 2013, two women approached a security guard at a warehouse property in Miami owned by Miami-based LaptopPlaza Inc. and asked for assistance with their car, according to court papers in LaptopPlaza Inc. v. Starr Indemnity & Liability Co.

The guard had been instructed to watch LaptopPlaza's warehouse building and three storage trailers that it had leased for three or four days to hold inventory as it completed a project inside.

When the guard left to help the women, a thief driving a tractor cab stolen from an adjacent business connected the cab to one of the trailer containing LaptopPlaza merchandise and drove away.

While the Miami-Dade Police Department ultimately recovered the tractor cab, it has never found the trailer or the stolen goods. LaptopPlaza calculated it lost $710,684 in the theft.

The firm's predecessor had purchased a Marine Open Cargo policy from New York-based Starr in 2009, and in November 2013 an endorsement extended the coverage to "cover goods and merchandise which are owned by or held by Assured (LaptopPlaza) ... while temporarily detained in warehouses," according to court papers.

Starr denied LaptopPlaza's claim in the theft, and the company filed suit against the insurer in U.S. District Court in New York, charging the insurer had breached its policy. The court ruled in Starr's favor in August 2016. A three-judge appeals court panel unanimously upheld the lower court's decision in Friday's ruling. LaptopPlaza argues the theft is covered by the policy endorsement, but "a trailer is designed for the transportation, and not the storage, of merchandise," said the ruling.

"LaptopPlaza has offered no persuasive argument that the trailer in this case, which abutted a warehouse but was not permanently attached to it, should be considered a 'warehouse,'" it said, in affirming the lower court's ruling. businessinsurance.com

Gap to close 200 stores while Old Navy and Athleta open 270

Vitamin World - 334 stores - to file for bankruptcy

Quarterly Same Store Sales Results
Lululemon Athletica Inc.'s Q2 comp's up 7%, e-commerce up 29.3%, sales up 12.9%
At Home Q2 comp's up 7.8%, net sales up 23.2%
Hudson's Bay Corp. Q2 consolidated comp's up 0.4%, sales up 1.2%
    Saks Fifth Ave comp's up 1.7%
    DSG comp's down 1.6%
    HBC Off Price comp's down 2.3%
    HBC Europe comp's down 2.8%

 

The Top Cybersecurity Schools
CyberDegrees.org, a Washington, D.C.-based publisher of informational websites on higher education, has ranked the top 20 schools for cybersecurity, based on subject expertise, scholarship opportunities and designation as a national security agency national center of academic excellence in cyber defense.

Purdue University received the top ranking, specifically for the university's work in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute Department of Computer and Information Technology and the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS).

The full list is at http://www.cyberdegrees.org/listings/top-schools/#Best_Cyber_Security securitymagazine.com

Verizon cites link between PCI standard compliance, cyberattack defense
As cybercriminals have stepped up their methods to compromise credit cards, Verizon is seeing payment card security increasingly becoming a focus for companies and consumers alike.

In its 2017 Payment Security Report (2017 PSR), Verizon demonstrated a link between organizations being compliant with the standard, and their ability to defend themselves against cyberattacks.

Out of all of the payment card data breaches Verizon investigated, no organization was fully compliant at the time of breach, and showed lower compliance with 10 out of the 12 PCI DSS key requirements.

Overall PCI compliance has increased among global businesses, with 55.4% of organizations Verizon assessed passing their interim assessment in 2016.

This is an increase over 2015, when only 48.4% of organizations achieved full compliance during their interim validation. This means that nearly half of retailers, restaurants, hotels and other business that take card payments are still failing to maintain compliance from year to year.

Globally, about half (50%) of the retail industry achieved full compliance during interim validation in 2016.

The 2017 PSR also looked at compliance challenges faced by specific business sectors including: Retail: Security testing, encrypted data transmissions and authentication. fiercetelecom.com

Data Breach Costs Vary Significantly by Organization
Don't use publicly reported breach costs at other organizations as an estimate for what you might end up paying for a breach, Forrester says.

In reality, data breach costs can vary substantially by organization and some of those costs may not even become apparent for several years, analyst firm Forrester Research cautioned in a report released this week. So, when building a business case for investments in data security and operational security, it is better to develop tailored breach estimates instead, Forrester said.

What's publicly reported in other breaches is typically a subset of measurable short-term costs, such as the cost of investigation and breach notification, she says. They do not always include all other breach-related costs such as those associated with lost employee productivity, regulatory fines, lawsuits, brand damage and recovery, and additional security and audit requirements.

Costs can also vary by the type of data that was compromised. For instance, a breach of customer data or employee data will have very different cost implications compared to breach of intellectual property.

"When organizations think of costs, most of them are the immediate or short-term costs" that typically are incurred in the first six to nine months or so, Shey says.

Firms can overlook some of the squishier, more difficult to measure costs, such as reputation with customers and reputation as an employer.

When developing a breach estimate, it is better to use a range that shows how different variables can affect the final outcome, rather than a specific number. "The goal," says Shey, "is to understand the factors that influence the costs and move forward the internal discussion about breach impact in a meaningful way." darkreading.com

Know Your Data and Your Enemies:
Establishing a Baseline for Proactive Threat Hunting
Host-Based Threat Hunting

From a host-based perspective, threat hunting can be performed with an emphasis on several different metrics. A big indicator of compromise (IoC) for client systems is access attempts, both failed and successful. Most users access 30 to 50 files per day, with maybe a couple of them showing failed access. That failed access would likely be a result of clicking the wrong folder or file several times before the user realizes the error. However, if you see a client on your network accessing 20,000 different files with 100,000 failed attempts, that should raise more than a few red flags.

Another indicator of a breach is unusual ports, protocols or services being run on a user's machine, specifically if they are not included in the secure baseline. A user transferring data in bulk to a USB drive can also point to an insider threat that should be investigated.

The good news is that many of the pieces of information required to perform host-based threat hunting might be available from existing tools. For example, network monitoring tools can be used to identify anomalies in central processing unit (CPU), memory and disk utilization. Similarly, configuration management tools can identify processes and programs that run when the system starts. Logs correlated with a security information and event management (SIEM) tool can also identify failed and successful access attempts.

Network-Based Threat Hunting

There are many ways to perform threat hunting from a network perspective. One IoC is connection length. A typical client in your network will most likely have short outbound connections.

Another IoC is the amount of data being transferred. A normal connection will not transfer data in bulk over the public internet. The destination IP can also be a breach indicator. Other clues include outbound connections to anomalous or foreign IP addresses.

Similar to host-based threat hunting, network-based hunting can also utilize existing tools to proactively identify an adversary. Network intrusion detection systems, for example, can track the number of connections and other details about traffic. SIEM tools can also correlate and identify unusual traffic patterns. In addition, network forensics tools can provide better details into the payload and distinguish between malicious and normal activity. securityintelligence.com

Battleford, SK: Shoplifting issue subject of chamber forum
Chamber members have long been vocal about the issue for years, an issue which has cost businesses thousands of dollars in lost merchandise.

Spearheading the setup of this meeting was Brett Payne of Canadian Tire and Janice Sander, chamber director and property manager of Frontier Centre. Both had reported their businesses and tenants have been hard-hit by a rash of shoplifting issues and they were looking for information.

Stephens noted the RCMP responds to active shoplifting while the other calls would be handled by the community safety officers. He provided tips on how to assist the RCMP, including photos and videos, by considering the location and the angle of cameras when installing, by providing pictures of any scars or tattoos the suspects might have, and by gathering information on vehicles they leave with, including makes and models and directions on where the vehicle went.

Stephens also said it was a good idea for retailers to work together, in terms of sharing pictures and so on. He also provided some advice about the difference between a loss prevention officer versus a security guard. A security guard provides a uniformed presence to deter shoplifters, while a loss prevention officer would "blend-in" and be trained to catch shoplifters and detain them while waiting for police to arrive. newsoptimist.com

Harvard studying Mac's StreetArt program. Two decorated North Bay stores
The side wall of the Mac's Convenience store on Trout Lake Road was tagged with spray paint early Monday morning, but police aren't concerned. In fact, this time the act was encouraged, as another project supported by the Mac's StreetArt Program.

"A few years ago I was speaking at a conference about what we're doing at Mac's and the program we had started in Thunder Bay," explained Sean Sportun, Manager, Security and Loss Prevention for Central Canada. "It caught the attention of Harvard University and after some discussion about some positive results we were seeing early on, they decided to fund the project. They're doing a case study on the affects of this unique approach to prevent crime and engage the youth." baytoday.ca

LPRC Hosting Canada-Only LP Research Webinar
The LPRC team and the LPRC Board of Advisors is hosting a Canada-only LP Research Webinar on Tuesday, September 12 at 3:00PM EDT to give insight on the Loss Prevention Research Council and our upcoming IMPACT 2017 conference! Please contact operations@lpresearch.org if you are interested in joining.

Amazon reportedly expanding Prime Now to Canada

North York, ON: Shooting at Sheridan Mall leaves one man dead
According to officers, a man was chased into the mall after an altercation took place in the parking lot outside. Police said the commotion carried into the shopping centre before the man was fatally shot. Toronto paramedics confirmed the victim was pronounced dead at the scene. No other injuries were reported.

Police are unsure exactly how many suspects were involved, saying witnesses saw multiple people fleeing the scene on foot. In a tweet, police said they are searching for at least four suspects who were all wearing dark clothing and had their facing concealed at the time. While the mall was shut down after the shooting a witness told CP24 he was "barricaded" with 15 people. cp24.com

Mississauga, ON: Young woman shot in restaurant parking lot while sitting in car
An 18-year-old woman was shot early Friday morning in the parking lot of a popular 24-hour diner in Mississauga. Peel paramedics were called to Zet's Restaurant on Airport Road, close to Pearson International Airport, just before 1 a.m. on Friday morning. Peel police say the shooting was from one car to another. The woman, from Toronto, was sitting in the drivers seat when she was hit by a single bullet. Police are now seeking two black male suspects in their 20s, who fled in a black car after the shooting. cbc.ca

Calgary, AB: CCTV shows 'hero' shopkeeper fight off two armed robbers
Nisar Ahmed was working alone when the two masked robbers rushed into the A Plus One Convenience Store and told him to "get down."

When the robber lunged at Mr Ahmed, the shop assistant grabbed him and pulled off his balaclava so his face would be visible on the surveillance camera. The second attacker, who had been rifling through the shelves of cigarettes behind the counter, turned and started swinging at Mr Ahmed with a crowbar as he grappled with the unmasked man.

Mr Ahmed grabbed hold of the crook's crowbar with his left arm while he was wrestling with the first attacker. He managed to escape from behind the counter and ran out of the store after the scuffle.

The quick-thinking cashier then dragged large metal benches in front of the shop's doors to barricade the criminals in as they stuffed stolen goods into a bag. independent.co.uk

Minto, ON: Thieves try to steal Foodland safe by cutting hole in floor
Just three weeks after the temporary Minto Foodland opened, thieves broke in through the basement Sunday morning and cut a hole in the floor where the business keeps its safe one level up. The former Foodland burned to the ground on June 5. A temporary Foodland, set up by parent company Sobeys, opened in early August. Alarms at the Foodland went off at around 4 a.m. Sunday. Veenhuis said he's beefing up the alarm and security camera systems to make sure it doesn't happen again. cbc.ca

Montreal mayor's son pleads guilty to nearly $17K in fraudulent online purchases

Toronto, ON: Smokes targeted in gas station thefts

Lake Bonavista, AB: Thieves steal ATM in smash and grab

Alibaba to open its first brick-and-mortar mall in China, local report says
The five-story shopping center - called "More Mall" - is part of the e-commerce giant's push into real-world retail and is located at Alibaba's headquarters in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.

Under the initiative, Alibaba is moving fast into offline spaces to help remake traditional retailing, including launching unmanned convenience stores and bringing big data technology to 1 million mom-and-pop stores. Now, it's building its first shopping center.

Alibaba will bring its "new retail technologies" to More Mall, including high-tech makeup-testing mirrors and virtual fitting rooms, the report said, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter. Alibaba unveiled these technologies in June in what it called a "New Retail Interactive Store," in a shopping mall in Hangzhou. marketwatch.com

Ad Fraud Is The New School Mafia
The World Federation of Advertisers estimates that within the next decade, fraudulent Internet traffic schemes will become the second-largest market for criminal organizations.

Besides the huge opportunity, criminals can feel secure they won't get caught. There isn't consensus around legal digital advertising procedures that can be enforced. It's not clear what constitutes a crime, how it should be measured, and the acceptable punitive measures.

Law enforcement officials don't have the technology, training, or expertise to tackle ad fraud. Until recently, it wasn't considered a major threat and there was only limited awareness of the financial impact.

Then there is the difficulty solving the crime itself, where the identity of the fraudster is often hidden due to all the players in the ad fraud ecosystem that are involved with each ad placement including media agencies, demand side platforms, exchanges, ad networks, and supply side platforms.

Even if they are caught, fraudsters can recover quickly. For example, fraudsters can create web sites and then deploy bots to create fake eyeballs and ad interactions. It may take time for the sites to be flagged as suspicious, but even if they are caught, fraudsters can always close shop and create a new site in an instant. Creating bad traffic is fairly easy with few technical hurdles, which has created the reality that many are happy to look the other way. huffingtonpost.co.uk

Omnichannel strategies help propel online hardware sales
One of the principal findings of the just-released Online Hardware and Home Improvement report reveals that 7.7% of total retail sales in the category were transacted on the web last year, up from 4.0% five years ago.

It's largely the big retail chains that are benefiting from this shift. As a group, nine hardware and home improvement retail chains in the Internet Retailer 2017 Top 1000 experienced collective sales growth of 18.5% in 2016, reaching $13.2 billion. Compared with Top 1000 retail chains across all categories, that was impressive growth. That easily beats the online sales growth in 2016 notched by all 223 retail chains in the Top 1000, which was 10.8%, to $121.5 billion. digitalcommerce360.com

Amazon to open 855,000-sq. ft. robotics-based fulfillment center in NYC borough Staten Island

Lands' End plans upgrades to its e‑commerce operations as online sales grow in Q2

By 2018 online food and drink sales could reach $18 billion

State seeks $6.5 million from owners of busted Middletown, DE pawn shop
The Conclusion of a Great ORC Case
Originally Reported on August 11, 2016
State prosecutors want the owners of a Middletown pawn shop busted for selling stolen goods to pay $6.5 million in civil penalties.

A complaint filed in New Castle County Superior Court contends that the family operating the Gold Fever Pawn Shop on Broad Street in Middletown violated the state's organized crime and racketeering act and asks a judge to enforce the multi-million-dollar fine.

Shaun Reilly, 36, his wife, Kisha Reilly, and his mother, Denise Toy, 63, were indicted in August 2016 as part of an 18-month investigation into organized retail theft.

Investigators contend the trio enlisted shoplifters to steal items from local retailers, stored them in a trailer at Toy's home, sold the stolen items at the pawn shop and eventually paid the shoplifters a third of the sale price, according to the Department of Justice.

Each of the three pleaded to various criminal charges tied to the scheme earlier this year.

The new civil complaint filed by Delaware Department of Justice officials alleges 64 different infractions prosecutors say violate the state's organized crime and racketeering act. The complaint asks the judge to assess a $100,000 penalty for each count. 

The state asked for additional $100,000 fines against Shaun Reilly for possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony and Kisha Reilly for possessing a firearm as a felon.

The proposed civil penalties come in addition to jail or probation time served by the three for the criminal charges.

In February, Toy pleaded guilty to providing a firearm to a person prohibited, third-degree conspiracy and theft. She was sentenced to six months in prison followed by one year of probation.

In April, Shaun Reilly pleaded guilty to racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He was sentenced to nine years in prison followed by 18 months of probation.

Kisha Reilly in April pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal solicitation, felony theft and two counts of possession of a firearm by a person prohibited. She was sentenced to six months of home confinement followed by 18 months of probation.

Read the article from when the Daily first reported on this case. delawareonline.com


Burlington City, NJ: Fencing Operation - C-Store Owner charged with Reselling Stolen Goods
A local business owner was arrested after encouraging people to steal merchandise from nearby stores for him to resell at his own food mart, police said Wednesday. Gurinder Singh, 40, allegedly purchased the shoplifted items for a fraction of their value and resold them at his store, SS Food Mart, better known as Fresh 2 Go Food Mart, at East Federal and York streets. nj.com


Three charged with using fake money to buy Home Depot merchandise
Three people from New York were arrested last week after allegedly using counterfeit money to buy items from Home Depot in Bel Air, MD. After their arrest and during a search of the car all three had been riding were in, police found nearly $11,000 in counterfeit money, among other items. Two of the three, a woman and a man - later identified as Albert Jones - allegedly walked out of Home Depot in with several drill kits, HD's Loss Prevention notified Bel Air police. The value of the items was $1,485, according to police. baltimoresun.com

Update: Staten Island, NY: Brazen daytime heist: Masked robbers flee T-Mobile with 50 phones

Shootings & Deaths

Fayetteville, NC: Men found shot in car at restaurant near Cross Creek Mall, 1 dead, 1 critically injured
Authorities in Fayetteville are investigating a homicide after two men were found shot inside a car in a restaurant parking lot. Just before midnight, police officers spotted a lone vehicle while doing security checks near the Smokey Bones Restaurant on Skibo Road, about 1,000 feet from Cross Creek Mall. abc11.com

Robberies & Thefts

Armed Robbers Storm Jersey Garden Mall Jewelry Store
The group of four, all in dark clothing, masks and caps, held up the Jewelers on 5th Jewelry Exchange inside Jersey Gardens Mall in Elizabeth Tuesday morning. One was armed with the semi-automatic gun. Despite shouts and reports of a shooting, there were no shots fired. nbcphiladelphia.com




Update: Emeryville, CA: Armed Robbery at Target caught on camera
Police have released a video of a takeover robbery over the weekend at a Target store in Emeryville. Three masked men armed with a handgun and a rifle entered the store as it was closing late Friday night. Before the suspects made off with an undisclosed amount of money, they told everyone, including customers, to get on the floor while they took the money from a cash drawer. abc7news.com


San Francisco, CA: String of grab-and-run thefts hits Fillmore Street businesses; over a dozen in August

Fayetteville, NC: Police arrest 2 in string of Armed Robberies

Tucson, AZ: Serial Armed Robber striking north side

Kay Jewelers in the Lloyd Center, Portland, OR reported a Grab & Run on 9/5, item valued at $2,799

Piercing Pagoda in the Monroe Crossing, Monroe, NC reported a Grab & Run on 9/5, items valued at $839

Zales in the Woodburn Premium Outlets, Woodburn, OR reported a Grab & Run on 9/5, items valued at $1,049

Sentencings

Santa Rosa, CA: Jewelry store robber sentenced to 159 years in prison

St. Louis, MO: Man gets 27 years for store robberies, shooting

Credit Card Fraud

Washington, DC: Credit card fraud investigation exposes alleged D.C. dogfighting ring
The government last week seized seven pit bull dogs from a home in Southeast Washington and six from a home in Temple Hills, Md., that had been searched as part of the credit card probe. washingtonpost.com

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Improving Workplace Engagement
 

5 Simple Questions for Improved Staff Engagement  Looks can be deceiving. Where you think your team is fully engaged in their projects and promoting your organization's mission, sometimes we don't see the reality of the situation. Here's how you can gauge your staff's engagement and make it better. Give them something to believe in

Creating High-Performing Teams: Do You Have What it Takes?  Maybe you've inherited a new team, or maybe you're a new leader, guiding your team to develop an efficient solution or finish a project. With failure not an option, how can you guide your team to high productivity and develop their performance? Here's the four stages. Moving forward

4 Ways Managers Can Restore Team Members' Motivation  Everyone has days when we feel uninspired, unmotivated and productivity is down the drain. When this happens, we have to dig deep to find motivation, and managers can help restore their teams inspiration with four things. Rock it out

The Employee-Friendly Way to Actively Motivate Your Work Staff  There are endless methods on how to achieve a consistent state of employee motivation, but what really needs to be figured out is what lies beneath the surface, or the cause of one's motivation. Here's what employee want from their jobs. Positive Impact

A career is like a horse race that starts fresh everyday, every week, every inventory period, every management change and every new employer. Quite frankly it never stops, and you don't want it to actually. Because if it does then you're not in the game, and being in the game is what it's all about. As in every race, some days you win, some days you show, some days you place and some days you just downright lose. The bottom line is learning how to lose with dignity and how to win with humility. But the most important thing is just staying in the game and keeping focused.

Just a Thought,
Gus

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