Advance Auto Parts Announces Sensormatic's Michael Creedon as President of Autopart International  Advance Auto Parts, Inc. (NYSE: AAP), a leading automotive aftermarket retailer of parts, batteries, accessories and maintenance items, announced today Michael Creedon will join Autopart International (AI) as President. Most recently he led Tyco’s Sensormatic subsidiary, after working his way up through the Tyco organization where he began as an analyst. Mike takes a lot of pride in the accomplishments of his team at Sensormatic and I am confident he will lead our Autopart International team to continued success.” Prior to joining Autopart International, Mr. Creedon most recently served as Vice President and GM, Sensormatic, LLC – North America Sales and Operation where he was responsible for the strategic direction, operational performance and financial contribution of Tyco Integrated Security’s largest North America vertical. Prior to that Mr. Creedon held various leadership positions with ADT Security Services, Inc. and Tyco International (US) Inc. (Source businesswire.com)

NYC Commission on Human Rights Subpoenas Macy's, Bloomingdale's on LP apprehensions  The New York City Commission on Human Rights has issued a subpoena to Macy’s Law Department, ordering them to provide the commission with documents by Dec. 10 for all Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s locations in New York City, regarding information that pertains to their policies on loss prevention and approaching and detaining individuals suspected of theft. NYC Human Rights Commissioner, said Monday, “It is disappointing that they have not fully cooperated in the commission’s investigation into recent allegations of racial profiling at some of the city’s larger retail stores and instead sought to dictate the terms and scope of our investigation. The commission will be issuing subpoenas to other stores that have been unresponsive, including Old Navy and Banana Republic.” (Source wwd.com)

CFOs souring on U.S. economy
Sixty percent of CFOs believe the state of the U.S. economy will remain the same or worsen during the next six months according to the Grant Thornton LLP 2013 Fall CFO Survey. The survey reflects the insights of more than 1,600 CFOs and other senior financial executives across the United States. (Source businesswire.com)


Coming Soon, a Night Watchman With Wheels?  The night watchman of the future is 5 feet tall, weighs 300 pounds and looks a lot like R2-D2 – without the whimsy. And will work for $6.25 an hour. A company in California has developed a mobile robot, known as the K5 Autonomous Data Machine, as a safety and security tool for corporations, as well as for schools and neighborhoods. (Source nytimes.com)


Online sales yesterday rose 21 percent from 2012
Retailers catering to smartphone and tablet users benefited the most, with mobile traffic accounting for 32 percent of site visits, a 45 percent gain from last year. (Source bloomberg.com)

Cyber Monday online sales are up 17.5% as of 6 p.m. EST on Monday
According to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. Mobile traffic accounted for 29.4% of all online traffic, up almost 62% compared to the same period last year. •Smartphones drove 20.2% of all online traffic compared to tablets at 9.2%, making it the browsing device of choice. (Source chainstoreage.com)

While the web enjoys a robust start to the holiday shopping season, total retail sales fell 2.7% over the long holiday weekend  U.S. online sales from Thanksgiving through Sunday were up 14.5%, IBM says. And as of noon Eastern today, web sales are up 21.4% compared with Cyber Monday last year, says IBM, which analyzes purchases and activity on more than 800 client retail sites for its findings. Meanwhile, the NRF reported yesterday that total retail sales over the four-day long weekend fell 2.7% from $59 billion last year to $57.4 billion this year. (Source internetretailer.com)

Roundy’s, Inc. Announces Strategic Acquisition Of 11 of Safeway's Dominick’s Stores in Chicago

Natural Markets Food Group parent company of Fresh & Green’s grocery stores, to close its six Fresh & Green’s stores in the District and Maryland

Amazon opens pop-up in San Francisco

URM stores implements enhanced security that blocks cyber attack on its payment processing system  The data breach, reported last week, affected most Roseauers, Super 1 Foods, Harvest Foods and Family Foods stores in Montana, and those and others across the Pacific Northwest. The attack appeared to target data found in the magnetic strip on the back of credit and debit cards, which was apparently used to make counterfeit cards that were being used primarily in other states and, sometimes, other countries. (Source missoulian.com)

Universal Protection Security Systems acquires, expanding its capabilities
Universal Protection Security Systems has announced the acquisition of video security services provider THRIVE Intelligence—allowing Universal Protection Security Systems to expand its surveillance offerings (Source securitysystemsnews.com)

HID Global Acknowledges Electronic Pickpocketing Risk Credit Card Companies Continue to Deny  Major credit card companies continue to downplay the threat of electronic pickpocketing, even as a leading entry control point system manufacturer acknowledges that the risk posed by RFID-enabled cards extends well past the potential for monetary theft, Identity Stronghold announced today. Current findings show that transit cards and facilities using contactless card readers are also highly vulnerable to serious security breaches. (Source pymnts.com)

Quarterly Same Store Sales Results

Ascena Retail Group Q1 up 4% with net sales up 5%
Krispy Kreme Q3 company stores up 3.7% with revenues up 6.7%
Shoe Carnival Q3 up 0.7% with net sales down 3.7%
Southeastern Grocers (Winn-Dixie and Bi-Lo) Q3 up 0.5% with sales down 3.1%
 

Interview Series

Interview with Albuquerque Police Department -
Part 1

In this three part series, Chief Raymond Schultz of the Albuquerque Police Department and Karen Fischer, Albuquerque's Strategic Support Division Manager discuss how their public-partnership model emerged and came together to help fight organized crime, how it works, and what the future will bring it. Learn how their model evolved into the highly efficient database sharing and website that helps law enforcement and loss prevention executives fight retail crime.

 
Solution Providers! Have a video or commercial? Want to get it out there?
Contact Mike Crissman at mikec@downing-downing.com to learn about sponsorship opportunities.
 

Does Poor Safety Equal Poor Management?
In interviews with top officials, the majority indicate that they demand excellence in safety because they view poor safety as a warning sign of other management or performance weaknesses. If this is truly the case, which performance areas is safety linked to? What is this link? To answer that question, the causes for poor safety performance has to be analyzed first, and this could include that some organizations try to manage safety but fail, safety could be a lower priority, or safety is not addressed adequately in hiring processes. The causes of failure and maybe a gap in safety culture need to be addressed and looked at further as well. If leaders talk about safety but that culture is not supportive, there is another gap in performance.  (Source ehstoday.com)
 

CAP Index Partners with ABA, FMI, LPRC, and RLPSA in Industry Association Studies

CAP Index has always worked with leading trade associations to help them communicate important industry findings to their members through research studies, data analysis, and presentations at their annual meetings. Recent examples include:

American Bankers Association
CAP Index provides data analytics and quarterly industry reports to American Bankers Association Bank Capture subscribers. Developed in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), ABA Bank Capture is a collaborative initiative led by the ABA, an advisory board of member bankers, and law enforcement. ABA Bank Capture is a data-sharing platform for banks to report and analyze their robbery and other bank crime data.

Food Marketing Institute
We provided statistical analysis for the Food Marketing Institute's Employee and Customer Safety Metrics Survey covering workers' compensation and general liability bodily injury claims. The CAP Index analysis included OSHA recordable cases, DART cases and medically treated injuries. Additionally, the greatest injury types as well as injury causes were reported for individual departments within retail locations and distribution centers.

Loss Prevention Research Council
The Loss Prevention Research Council has typically done much of their own shrink/loss research and included our CAP Index Scores in their analyses. Recently, however, we were given the opportunity to work directly with four major retailers and the LPRC on a preliminary assessment of temporal and spatial robbery patterns across U.S. regions and Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The study illustrated that robbery rates are strongly correlated with the underlying risk of crime in each neighborhood as indicated by CAP Index Scores.

Restaurant Loss Prevention & Security Association
CAP Index has a long history of working with the Restaurant Loss Prevention & Security Association (formerly known as the National Food Service Security Council). Most recent examples of our collaboration include multiple robbery and burglary analysis reports that were presented at their annual conferences. Additionally, a preliminary security measure use survey was conducted earlier this year with the goal of exploring a more advanced countermeasure-related study in the future.
 

Job Opening
 

Company

Location

Origination
 

National Account Mgr

Confidential

Northeast

Downing & Downing

Dir of Loss Prevention

Confidential

Philadelphia, PA

Downing & Downing

Job Opening

Company

Location

Origination

Why Taking Time Off is Good for Your Brain  Keep this in mind during the holidays; catching up on work, or just working through what are supposed to be your resting days is bad for your brain. Your brain actually starts to push back, and that's when you really need to rest. Use these tips to get more rest! (Go ahead, take a nap)

14 Ways to Stay Focused at Work This Holiday Season  As you try to juggle parties, holiday shopping, travel plans, and work you may find yourself losing focus and drive at work. Don't let the holidays interfere on your work time and your agendas, use these guidelines to stay productive and on track. (No multitasking - no online shopping while on the phone!)