www.beveragedynamics.com
March/April 2014 • Beverage Dynamics 59
R
etailers are a gregarious bunch. They want to attract
people to their stores, show them cool, desir-
able things, provide them with an enjoyable
shopping experience and, as much as possible, give
them what they want.
"We know our own business," said Craig Maske, general
manager of Sherlock's, a fi ve-store operation headquar-
tered in Marietta, GA. "When I see a ten-foot-tall display, I'm think-
ing that's great, it's so eye-catching, it will really sell the product."
But, he continued, "When Bill sees it, the
fi rst thing he'll say is, 'People are going
to steal you blind because they can hide
behind it.'"
Bill is Bill Bregar, president of Loss Pre-
vention Systems (retaillosspreventionstore.
com), the Atlanta-based loss-prevention con-
sulting fi rm that Sherlock's uses.
The kind of perspective Bregar has is a valu-
able one for a retail operation to consider. Retail
crime can be a big problem. According to the
Global Retail Theft Barometer, an annual study done by Euro-
monitor International, funded by Checkpoint Systems,
American retailers lose, on average, 1.5% of their sales
to theft. The two main sources of loss: employee theft
and shoplifting.
"I cease to be amazed at what people will steal;
they'll steal everything, but they are not reinventing the
wheel. What they do is look for gaps in your system," said Sher-
lock's Maske.
AN INSIDE JOB
For retailers in general, employee theft is the
bigger problem. Employees tend to steal more
than shoplifters do. According to a survey done
by Jack L. Hayes International, a loss-prevention
fi rm, the average loss per case for employee theft
is $715.24, which is fi ve and a half times more
than the average for shoplifting cases, $129.12.
And employees tend to steal continuously,
over time. "If you try to ignore employee theft, it
BY CHERYL
URSIN
R
h shopping shopping
Deterring and detecting retail crime is a serious game of cat and mouse.
Playing Defense
The model VSX-2MP-MVD4 camera
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