By Francis Clark
VP Business Development
Profitect

I once worked for a man who owned a regional supermarket chain which dominated the market we were in. He asked me one day ‘what have you done for the company lately?’ To which I began to tell him what I was doing for my boss. He quickly re-focused me back to his question saying, “I don’t want to know what you are doing for Joe or even me but what are you doing for ‘the company’”? I stumbled to a wobbly answer but the question has never left me.

So, I ask you “what have you done for your company lately?”

We, you and I, are in the Asset Protection/Loss Prevention side of the company but does that restrict what we’re doing for the company? If we just stick to our ‘internal and external fraud’ then our companies are missing a great deal from our expertise.

As I walk the stores trying to evaluate issues to help me present what my company does for our retail clients I notice a significant opportunity in almost every store in the area of product availability and presentation. In supermarkets it’s the effectiveness of reviewing/culling fresh, date coding, percentage of trim in meat, use of misters and icing in appropriate departments, maintenance of shelf tags and signage, staff presence and effectiveness, etc.

In specialty and fashion there are similarities, how is the product presented, signed, what does the associate know about the products, is there ample selection and is the selection effectively arranged and presented; is there damaged product on the sales racks, tables, displays. How attentive is the associate to my needs and the sales process.

I walk out of stores that have cluttered shelves and displays, obvious poor product management and availability, lacking freshness maintenance, and of course, missing and staff who don’t know their job or products.

What does that have to do with our side of the business?

Simple, I sell ‘profit’ to retailers and yet I see people on our side (AP/LP) that will walk past poor and unacceptable conditions in the areas above which caused YOUR COMPANY to LOSE SALES, LOSE CUSTOMERS. Isn’t that LOSS PREVENTION’S CONCERN as much as fraud?

As a customer (perhaps an unusual type of customer) I care that my local retailers are performing as well as they can. I talk to them, point out conditions, reference areas of opportunity and my question to you is ‘where do you draw the line on LOSS’?