Employee safety requires a strong training program and commitment from everyone in the company. Store security is an issue that we all take extremely seriously. There must be procedures in place for all employees and managers to follow, and they must be followed to the letter. No exceptions. A couple of stories illustrate and reinforce…

Maximizing time spent right in your own stores is an investment that always pays off. By Jim Callahan. One of the common traits among top quartile chains is that we all invest a lot of hours in our businesses. For all of us, there is a finite number of hours that we can work and…

Report shows a $2.6 billion decrease when compared to the $37.1 billion loss recorded in the previous report. Retail theft, including shoplifting, employee theft, administrative error and vendor fraud is down, according to an annual survey recently conducted by the University of Florida with a funding grant from ADT Commercial Security, soon to be Tyco…

Internet-based surveillance systems are combating shrink and protecting employees. By Howard Riell, Associate Editor. Increasingly in society, it seems security equals surveillance, especially at retail. Internet-based security systems are part of that trend, helping operators by tracking and recording every transaction and thereby decreasing the amount of thefts by both customers and employees. Even better,…

Handling cash is the bread and butter of convenience store operations, and the latest systems developed to make that process faster and safer do just that. But not all quarters of the industry have been quick to embrace them by any means. For many operators, changes still lie in the future, and time-honored standard practices…

Mac’s Convenience Stores has added social media to its crime prevention tactics in its Canadian convenience stores. Mac’s Stores inCentral Canadahave developed an innovative approach to augment its formidable crime prevention measures by using social media to help identify criminals through Facebook and Twitter. According to The Chronicle-Journal, Mac’s will use these social media outlets…

“It’s going to be a burden on businesses at the worst possible economic time,” says director of the Mississippi Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores Association. A new ordinance in Jackson, Miss., is requiring local convenience stores to file a security plan with the city and hire security personnel to guard their premises from midnight to…

“For the first time in over 10 years, total shoplifter and dishonest employee apprehensions, and the dollars recovered from those apprehensions all declined from the previous year,” says president of Jack L. Hayes International. Shoplifters and dishonest employees stole over $7.0 billion in 2010 from just 23 major retailers, according to the 23rd Annual Retail…