Build-A-Bear was forced to shut down its 'Pay Your Age' deal
After huge crowds and 'madness' overtook stores across the US
Build-A-Bear was forced to shut down a deal that allowed customers to "pay their age" for bears after chaos overtook malls across the United States.

On Thursday, Build-A-Bear was set to celebrate "Pay Your Age Day" in the US, Canada, and the UK. Customers had the chance to purchase a stuffed animal and pay only their age for the day. Kids were able to pay just a few dollars for stuffed bears, while adults' fees were capped at $29. The bears usually fall in the $20-$35 range.

However, the event had to be cut short after stores descended into "madness."

"Per local authorities, we cannot accept additional Guests at our locations due to crowds and safety concerns," Build-A-Bear posted on Facebook at 11 a.m. ET. "We have closed lines in our U.S. and Canada stores. We understand some Guests are disappointed and we will reach out directly as soon as possible." businessinsider.com

Avigilon’s President & COO, James Henderson Wins Canada’s Top 40 Under 40® Award
Avigilon Corporation (“Avigilon”), a Motorola Solutions company, is pleased to announce that James Henderson, Avigilon’s President and Chief Operating Officer, has been selected as a recipient of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40® Award for 2018.

Considered the country’s most coveted award for young business leaders, Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 annually recognizes the exceptional achievements of 40 outstanding Canadian leaders and innovators under the age of 40 who are making significant impacts on their organizations and in their communities.

James was selected from over 800 nominees by an independent, cross-national Advisory Board, based on four key criteria: Vision & Innovation; Leadership; Impact & Influence; and Social Responsibility. Since joining Avigilon in 2011, James has been instrumental in the company’s rapid growth and continued success. Under his leadership, Avigilon has expanded its market presence, brand awareness, and corporate profile, to become a globally recognized leader in the security industry. avigilon.com

Fashion retailer Scalpers partners with Nedap for international RFID roll-out
Nedap today announced that the Spanish fashion retailer Scalpers has selected Nedap as their technology partner for the RFID roll-out to their 150 stores. Nedap will provide its !D Cloud software platform and the RFID hardware to enable the complete traceability of Scalpers’ inventory and raise the retailer’s stock accuracy. The RFID roll-out to all stores will be completed within two months.

Alfonso Vivancos, CEO at Scalpers, explains: “RFID is the first step in our digitalization process and essentially it is the pillar for our future growth strategy. Scalpers is a fast growing fashion retailer and it is our ambition to become top of mind globally in menswear fashion. But we realize that this can only be achieved if our operations have a solid foundation and the inventory data we work with is accurate.”

Nedap’s !D Cloud software suite is a Software-as-a-Service solution specifically developed for retail RFID applications. It offers retailers the quickest route to implement RFID and improve their in-store stock accuracy to over 98%. Real-time insights into the stock levels and the exact location of each item also enables the successful introduction of Omni channel services. nedap-retail.com

Facing “a new era of catastrophes,” book by Wharton profs offers tips for business leaders
Wharton’s Howard Kunreuther and Michael Useem’s recent book Mastering Catastrophic Risk: How Companies are Coping with Disruption dives into the ways top companies have rebounded after their own worst-case scenarios. “The ‘unthinkable’ has gone from not being on anyone’s radar screen to now being central,” says Useem. “But to think about it, you need tools, and wisdom.”

For firms large and small, with each day comes a new possibility for disruption. Perhaps there’s a natural disaster, a terrorist incident, or an economy-wide shock, like the 2008 U.S. financial crisis. Threats can emerge within a firm’s own walls, or through a government regulation, or even come in the form of a technological breakthrough—overturning business models that have been in place for years.

No matter the cause, there’s little doubt about the trend: The country, and world, face “a new era of catastrophes,” says Howard Kunreuther, the James G. Dinan Professor at the Wharton School and co-director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center. Kunreuther, along with Michael Useem, the William and Jacalyn Egan Professor of Management at the Wharton School and the director of the school’s Center for Leadership and Change Management, recently published Mastering Catastrophic Risk: How Companies are Coping with Disruption. The book showcases what Useem calls the “hidden story” within S&P 500 companies that have ramped up risk-management after being overcome by their own worst-case scenarios, including catastrophes like the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the financial crisis of 2008-09, and the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

“We wanted to find out what’s going on, in-depth, inside these companies,” Useem says. “Seeing this happen repeatedly to others is causing companies to double down on their own risk management.”

Kunreuther and Useem end their book with a “mission-critical checklist” as a means of “transforming deliberative thinking into deliberative action.” homelandsecuritynewswire.com

7 Fast-Food Chains to End ‘No Poach’ Deals That Lock Down Low-Wage Workers
Seven major restaurant chains, including Arby’s, Carl’s Jr., McDonald’s and Jimmy John’s, have agreed to drop a hiring practice that critics say may be keeping tens of thousands of fast-food workers locked in low-wage jobs.

Under agreements with Washington State announced on Thursday, the companies — Auntie Anne’s, Buffalo Wild Wings and Cinnabon are the others — have pledged to remove so-called no-poach clauses from their contracts with franchisees.

The provisions prohibit workers at, for example, one Carl’s Jr. franchise from going to another Carl’s Jr. They do not stop those workers from taking jobs at restaurants run by a different chain.

In addition to stripping the clauses from existing franchise contracts in Washington, the seven chains have also vowed not to enforce them nationwide — a move that affects workers at tens of thousands of stores. The clauses cannot be included in new and renewed deals either.

“Not all are as cooperative as these seven have been.” nytimes.com

Editor's Note: All it takes in today's political environment is the hint of a nationwide investigation and some media coverage and corporate America shakes. This to will drive wages and benefits up.

California Shopping Centers Are Spying for an ICE Contractor
A company that operates 46 shopping centers up and down California has been providing sensitive information collected by automated license plate readers (ALPRs) to Vigilant Solutions, a surveillance technology vendor that in turn sells location data to Immigrations & Customs Enforcement.

The Irvine Company—a real estate company that operates malls and mini-malls in Irvine, La Jolla, Newport Beach, Redwood City, San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale—has been conducting the ALPR surveillance since just before Christmas 2016, according to an ALPR Usage and Privacy Policy published on its website (archived version). The policy does not say which of its shopping centers use the technology, only disclosing that the company and its contractors operates ALPRs at “one or more” of its locations. 

Update 10:45 a.m., July 11, 2018: The Irvine Company has disclosed the three shopping centers are Irvine Spectrum Center, Fashion Island, and The Marketplace. The local police departments are the Irvine, Newport Beach, and Tustin police departments.  

Update 7:30 p.m. July 10, 2018: The Irvine Company provided The Verge with the following response. 

“Irvine Company is a customer of Vigilant Solutions. Vigilant employs ALPR technology at our three Orange County regional shopping centers. Vigilant is required by contract, and have assured us, that ALPR data collected at these locations is only shared with local police departments as part of their efforts to keep the local community safe.”

In December 2017, ICE signed a contract with Vigilant Solutions to access its license-plate reader database. Data from Irvine Company’s malls directly feeds into Vigilant Solutions’ database system, according to the policy. This could mean that ICE can spy on mall visitors without their knowledge and receive near-real-time alerts when a targeted vehicle is spotted in a shopping center’s parking lot. eff.org

Judge Rules California Employers May Allow ICE Access Without Warrant
Companies must still notify workers before an I9 inspections
California employers will not be penalized for allowing federal immigration enforcement agents without a judicial warrant or subpoena to access their worksites and review employee records after a federal district court temporarily blocked the state from enforcing a key provision of a controversial 2017 law.

Judge John Mendez of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of California approved the Justice Department's request for a preliminary injunction against sections of the Immigrant Worker Protection Act, signed into law in October 2017. The court determined that most of the law, which went into effect Jan. 1, was pre-empted by federal statute, but it left in place a provision that requires employers to notify employees and their labor unions before and after Form I-9 inspections.

Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, the chief sponsor of the bill that became the law, said that it "provided employers with clarity about what to do when ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents target their places of business with indiscriminate raids."

Until further notice, employers will not violate state law if they grant access to ICE agents without a warrant or subpoena or allow those agents to access employee records. However, employers may still choose to require a warrant before admitting enforcement agents or before granting records access.

The court also blocked a section of the law limiting an employer's ability to reverify the legal work status of employees. Current federal law requires employers to conduct reverification before an employee's existing work authorization expires.

Employers continue to be subject to requirements to notify employees 72 hours before receiving a Notice of Inspection and to provide written notice of the results of the inspection within 72 hours after it has ended. shrm.org

The True Value of Trade Associations
Which retailers spend the most on lobbying?
5 of the Top 10 Are Trade Associations
Last year, the National Retail Federation spent $12.9 million on lobbying efforts. Walmart and CVS shelled out $6.9 million and $6.4 million respectively. These trade groups and companies were the the top retail sector spenders on lobbying in 2017. Last year Walmart had 62 lobbyists, Target 20, and Amazon hired 94.

Collectively, spending by retailers and retail trade groups totaled $58.1 million in 2017, a significant increase from the $46.1 million spent the year prior, according to data collected through Open Secrets, an arm of the Center for Responsive Politics that produces a database on lobbying spending.

Overall, the retail industry lobbies primarily on trade policy, taxes, antitrust and labor and workplace laws. Many retailers are a part of trade groups like the NRF and the Retail Industry Leaders Association, both of which are consistent top spenders and rally around broad consensus issues like the new tax bill, e-commerce taxes and trade. But individual corporations have bulked up their lobbying efforts in recent years — especially Amazon.

Amazon made one of the biggest lobbying leaps last year — spending a whopping $13 million, up from $11.5 million the year prior.

The retail industry has won several major public policy fights over the last year, including the passing of the new tax bill, which notably does not include the previously proposed border adjustment tax that stood to hurt retailers’ bottom lines. The existential threats posed by that issue rallied together retailers in a way that public policy issues rarely do. Historically, many left their political positions on legislation up to trade groups.

While RILA's spend only increased 14.2%, NRF's spend rose a whopping 81%. When asked whether the rise indicated a strategic shift for the organization, NRF Senior Vice President of government relations David French told Retail Dive it "reflected a concurrence of first term of the new administration, a very robust legislative agenda and extraordinary, even existential, threats for the industry. All the things going on at once meant that we needed to raise and spend a lot more money." retaildive.com

Editor's Note: Earlier this year the NRF hired Christian Beckner as the new Sr. Director of Retail Technology and his back ground makes this a brilliant move by the NRF. As Christian joins the NRF after having spent four years as Deputy Director at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University and six years as a Staff Member and Associate Staff Director with the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

Hear Christian talk about the NRF's Technology efforts in The Daily's LPNN upcoming episode filmed at 'Live in Dallas at NRF Protect'

'Live in Dallas at NRF Protect' - episode schedule being released next week.

Video surveillance equipment market growing
Growth in the global professional video surveillance equipment market accelerated in 2017, and is forecasted to continue growing in 2018, according the latest IHS Markit research.

The world market for professional video surveillance equipment grew by 9.3 percent in 2017, IHS found, a much higher rate of growth than in 2016 (3.9 percent) and 2015 (1.9 percent).

Global demand for security cameras grew rapidly in 2017, but average prices continued to fall. “Nevertheless, revenue grew in most countries,” said Cropley. “Two of the fastest-growing country markets were Brazil and India. A major factor behind the growth in both countries was increased spending by private retail and commercial organizations on HD CCTV systems used to prevent crime.”

Accounting for 44 percent of all global revenue, the Chinese professional video surveillance equipment market grew by 14.7 percent, while the world market excluding China grew just 5.5 percent.

● Overall, 62 percent of all security cameras shipped in 2017 were network cameras.

● Deep-learning-enabled recorders and servers, a new category this year, are an important element in powering what many expect to be the next generation of video analytics using artificial intelligence. They accounted for just 1 percent of global market revenues in 2017. securitysystemsnews.com

Rite Aid Booted, Walgreens Stuck In Suit Over Failed Merger
Rite Aid Corp. can duck a proposed class action alleging it misled investors while trying to clear antitrust hurdles that ultimately dampened a $17.2 billion takeover bid by Walgreens, a Pennsylvania federal judge said on Wednesday, but Walgreens may still be liable.

U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III said statements made by Rite Aid and several of its top brass amid mounting pressure from regulators could be classified as protected forward-looking statements, opinions or corporate optimism. But he left Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. on the hook, calling its executives' assurances "reckless," given the circumstances. law360.com

What HR is Instructing Industry-Wide
Viewpoint: 6 Steps for Responding Properly to Workplace Disruptions
In today's political environment, disruptions are occurring more frequently. An unsuspecting employer can quickly find itself on the wrong side of a hot-button issue and in the middle of a workplace disruption. Disruptions often become news events and are a favorite tool of labor unions and other protest groups.

They can lead to legal problems, as protestors often are trained to dupe ill-prepared managers into breaking the law, such as by goading managers into threatening to fire them. It also often leads to lost work time and revenue. Furthermore, a disruption can destroy customer relationships and hurt a company's image. And if you respond poorly, it can cost you the trust of your team and harm employee morale and engagement.

That's why managers need some simple, practical tools for properly responding to these situations. Here is a six-step model to help companies respond effectively to a workplace disruption:

1. Prepare. Make sure your managers know your corporate guidelines and protocol for responding to a disruption. Often, your loss prevention or security team will lead this work. This includes things like understanding who to call and drafting simple "holding statements" for the media and others. Also, make sure your managers know and have marked your property lines and have secured schedules, lists and other sensitive documents.

2. Do no harm. A workplace disruption can be emotional. Protestors often count on this as a way to get more publicity for their cause. During a disruption, protestors may try to provoke a company leader into becoming the next YouTube sensation. They may call out managers or make outrageous claims about the company. It is human nature for leaders to try to defend the reputations of the company and team they care about.

Protestors count on these natural emotions to take over. Leaders must learn to remain calm and resist the urge to debate or fight back during a workplace disruption. They shouldn't get baited into taking an action that will reflect badly on them—and the company—forever. They should avoid making statements on camera or taking any action to physically restrain a protestor. Leaders must project calm, control and concern. shrm.org  Continued on page 2


Arizona Limits Liability for Hiring Ex-Offenders

Sexual Harassment Legislative Updates
● New York Mandates Anti-Sexual Harassment Policy & Training
● Maryland Disclosing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Act

Ban the Box Legislative Updates
● Massachusetts Modifies Ban-the-Box Law
● Washington Bans the Box
● California: San Francisco Amends Ban-the-Box Law

Finance Execs Fearful of Spending Tax-Cut Proceeds

After admitting to using N-word, Schnatter steps down as Papa John’s chairman

Back-to-School and College spending to reach $82.8 billion

Old Navy Rolls Out BOPIS Nationwide

Sears Cuts 200 at Corporate Offices


Quarterly Results
Canada's Aritzia Q1 comp's up 10.9%, net revenue up 15.1%
Burberry Q1 comp's up 3%