By Francis Clark
VP Business Development
Profitect

I find myself being angry toward those that commit ORC, shoplift and even worse, bring violence into our retail stores. Reading D&D every day, I am perhaps too well informed as to the impact that all of this is having on the Retail Industry but am stunned when having conversations with those who are ‘just shoppers’ and are mostly oblivious to what I am seeing. Perhaps we have a role as Retailers to better warn our customers of what is happening, how it is impacting their cost of goods at purchase? Perhaps make them more aware of the ‘people around them’ when shopping and to identify to a ‘member of staff’ anything they see out of the ordinary. We have the obvious warnings over PA systems in some public buildings and all airports, train stations, etc.; but I am speaking of a more subtle way to communicate to our shoppers. Make them aware of ‘what we’re doing’ to combat these crimes and to protect our shoppers and associates. Maybe use receipts, cleverly positioned signage in certain areas of our stores, maybe even buttons worn by staff? The ‘spend’ dollar is getting tighter for many and all of the negatives that I have mentioned are having a grave impact on their shopping results.

We assume that our shoppers are seeing these things on broadcast news, radio, etc., but viewership has been declining for many years relative to broadcast news so it is less an avenue than we may think. I think there is MORE we can do being the clever people we are in Retail....what do you think?