The Fight Against Shoplifters

While many merchants prefer not to discuss shoplifting, retailers in Washington take a different approach. Each year from September through Christmas, they support a public campaign aimed at curbing shoplifting. Organized by the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the $1.5-million campaign features ads on television, radio, billboards and in newspapers and magazines.

“Our premise is that people don’t connect shoplifting as an event with the consequences of a criminal record,” said Garry Curtis, manager of the Board of Trade’s retail bureau. “The basis of our campaign is to link shoplifting with more serious and long-lasting consequences.”

This year’s ad, which showed a uniformed arm grabbing hold of an arm in a leather jacket, read: “One thing a shoplifter never forgets: Getting caught.” During the past seven years, Curtis said, shoplifting in the Washington area has declined by about 7%. But the problem still costs area retailers an estimated $464 million a year--and customers an estimated $300 each in higher prices.

At Broadway department stores, 250 loss-prevention personnel recently got a new lesson in how to spot and apprehend shoplifters. They used a training video developed by IBM that features shoplifting scenarios and tests an employee’s judgment through an interactive, touch-screen process.

“We were looking for a technology to provide consistent training for store detectives (and) to emphasize professionalism,” said Edward A. Wolfe, vice president of loss prevention for Carter Hawley Hale Stores, the Los Angeles-based parent of Broadway.

Using a monitor, a loss-prevention employee goes through 10 simulated shoplifting situations, answering questions posed by a computerized program. In one scene, a shopper is seen stuffing several wallets into a paper bag. Store personnel briefly lose sight of him, then spot him in another department. What’s the proper response? If the test taker votes for apprehending the customer, he’s wrong. As Wolfe pointed out, any time guards lose sight of a suspected shoplifter, even for a moment, they lose out on a bust, since the customer has an opportunity to ditch the merchandise. And in this case, he did.

Having spent $100,000 to develop the software, Carter Hawley Hale plans to adapt the technique to train sales associates in customer service and eventually hopes to sell the idea to other retailers, Wolfe said.

In 1984, Marshall Field & Co., the venerable Chicago-based department store, launched a three-pronged attack on shoplifters, employee theft and bookkeeping error. Since then, it has reduced such “shrinkage” to 2% of sales--below the industry average of about 2.5%--from 3%.

First, the store began an education program telling how employees could help the store “attack this problem,” said Lewis Shealy, vice president of loss prevention. It next retrained security personnel. In addition to continuing the use of Sensormatic tags as deterrents, the store also instituted a reward program for employees who reported theft by customers or co-workers.

In 1986, Field’s also started using new fixtures to lock up fashion jewelry on countertops and to secure handbags to stands with loops. “You can feel it, look at it, smell it and touch it, but you can’t take it with you without paying,” Shealy said.

For furs, leather and suede items and other high-priced merchandise, the store added a lot of cables and locks. Although retailers acknowledge that such deterrents often make honest customers grumble, Field’s said sales have not suffered. “We had a few complaints, but it forces our employees to give customer service,” Shealy said.

For retailers, the threat isn’t only from without. Employees often account for half of a merchant’s annual losses, according to industry statistics.

And that provides golden opportunities for companies such as Reid Psychological Systems, a Chicago-based firm that offers “pencil-and-paper integrity tests” that help merchants and other employers judge the honesty of job applicants.

With some traditional screening methods under attack because they lead to discrimination or invasions of privacy, Reid is finding a bigger demand for its service, especially among retailers, financial services companies and high-tech manufacturers, President Ryan Kuhn said.

One key is to determine to what degree the job applicant believes that stealing is commonplace. “Dishonest people think dishonesty is normal behavior,” Kuhn said.

WHAT SHOPLIFTERS STEAL AT SUPERMARKETS

Percentages of cases in which one or more items within the indicated categories were recovered by retail security agents or employees. Based on reports of apprehensions at 673 supermarkets, mostly in Southern California, during 1986.

Fresh Deli & Health Other Meat Other Food Liquor Cigarettes & Beauty Non-Food* TOTAL 10.3 26.9 7.9 20.6 10.4 42.3 ADULTS Total 12.6 26.8 8.8 22.5 11.5 39.0 Males 12.5 22.9 11.5 25.6 9.7 31.1 Females 12.6 32.2 5.1 18.3 14.0 50.0 JUVENILES Total 3.6 27.0 5.0 15.0 7.2 51.9 Males 3.5 27.7 6.5 16.9 5.5 46.1 Females 3.6 26.0 2.8 12.0 9.7 60.1

* Includes vitamins and clothing.

Source: Commercial Service Systems Inc., Van Nuys