“Shrinkage
is the single greatest threat
to profitability in our industry.”
Alasdiar McKichan
President, Retail Council of Canada
“Shortage
can be licked if people
make up their minds to lick it.”
William Proudfoot, President
John Wanamaker’s
“In a business where we only make a penny on every dollar that comes in, it is especially important that we control our shrinkage.”
Fred Klein, VP Loss Prevention
Big V Supermarkets
“Sales volume is not the only way to make money in this business… For every dollar we save in shrinkage we add a dollar to our bottom-line profit.”
Lionel M. Levey, Chairman
The Felsway Corporation
“Shrinkage is not just another cost of doing business. It is a cost that can be controlled.”
James L. Goss, VP & Treasurer
Sprouse Reitz Stores
“Many retailers actually sponsor stealing by choosing to believe that the cost to prevent it exceeds the cost of allowing it to exist.”
James L. Hayes, President/CEO
American Management Association
“98% of the shortage is generated in the stores and that’s where the battle should be fought.”
Steven Loomis, VP Loss Prevention
Thalhimer’s
“Not controlling shrinkage is
taking a shortcut to bankruptcy."
John L. Pagliaro, President
Dana Associates
"Shrinkage Control…there is no more important problem to address which will help contribute to profits.”
Bill Andeerson, Vice President
Bill Crook’s Food Store
“If you ask me, what is the one most important thing that top management can do to reduce shrinkage, I would have to say, “Take an interest.”
Peter Berlin, President
The Peter Berlin Retail Consulting Group
“Shortage will always rise to
the level acceptable to management.”
Saul Astor, President
Management Safeguards Inc.
“Inventory shortage is a measure
of how well we run our business.”
Sidney Solomon, Chairman
Abraham & Straus
“We find that shrinkage is like a piece of rope. The more ways you can find to give it a twist, the more it reduces in size.”
Keith Campbell, Director Operations & Personnel
Grace Bros. Department Store, Australia
“People who rationalize that shrinkage falls into the same category as death and taxes are avoiding their responsibility – and aggravating the problem.”
James L. Gross, VP & Treasurer
Sprouse Reitz Stores
“Shrinkage is caused by two factors: theft and ESP (Error Some Place).”
Lewis S. Waller, Former Divisional VP Internal Audit
D. H. Holmes Company
“The biggest single weakness in all management is not doing what we said we would do…talk without commitment cannot win.”
Stanley J. Goodman, President/CEO
May Department Stores
“In retailing today, current changes we see are often not trends but rather steps in a changing process.”
Richard B. Fisher, Chairman
Morgan Stanley Group, Inc.
“There are no corporate secrets
when it comes to crime prevention.”
Tina Kunaiega, President
Florida Crime Prevention Association
“Employees don’t think losses are important unless the boss thinks they’re important.”
Shelly Connors, Loss Prevention Director
Best Products
“Almost everything you do that is considered good management is also good security.”
Lawrence Connor, Former President
Shoplifters Anonymous, Inc.
“Remember that Opportunities often come to us disguised as problems.”
James R. Williams, President
National Retail Merchants Association
“The key to shrinkage prevention is the consistent application of store rules…and follow up.”
Store Manager
F. W. Woolworth Co.
“When times get tough, it’s time
to get back to basics.”
Jerome Stengel, VP & Treasurer
Genovese Drug Stores, Inc.
“Our approach to shortage control is to be the best we can regardless of industry averages.”
Richard L. Dawley, Retail Group Controller
W. R. Grace & Co.
“Our basic policy is deterrence – we don’t want to apprehend people after the crime, we want to make them think twice before committing a crime in our store in the first place.”
John Stile, Vice President, Operations
Willoughby’s, New York
“The toughest challenge of the Loss Prevention Director today is to integrate the security needs with the merchandising of the business and make them user- friendly.”
James P. Noble, Manager Retail Loss Prevention
Monarch Marking Systems
“Regardless of how much you invest in hardware and software programs, design of controls and training of staff, if your management group does not comprehend the importance of their role in systems checking, questioning and follow-up in the training and developing of their people, you will never realize a return on investment in this area.”
Brian A. Evans, Loss Prevention Manager
The Hudson’s Bay Co., Ltd.
“In reality, many retail managers do not manage shrink, what they manage is the crisis created from not managing shrink.”
Jack Bogasky, Executive VP
Sensormatic Security Corp.
“Working in Loss Prevention today is like being in an Iraqi bunker during Desert Storm. You’re being bombarded constantly and not getting much support from headquarters.”
Armand Rumayer, Former Vice President Loss Prevention
Saks Fifth Avenue, New York
“I am convinced that good shortage performance is not possible without the involvement of all employees.”
Steven Loomis, Director Loss Prevention
McRae’s Department Stores
“The most important thing you can give your employees is ATTENTION…you touch them and let them touch you.”
Dr. Thomas McGrath
Department of Psychology, Fairfield University, CT
“To rely solely on security for shrinkage control is to fall prey to an illusion.”
Toby Horowitz, Senior VP
The Peter Berlin Retail Consulting Group, Inc.
“Caring employees are your
first line of defense against theft.”
Brian A. Evans
Intercom Security Ltd.
“Customer eye contact is one of the most important security measures you can use to safeguard your store.”
Jim Van Norman, Former Security Supervisor
J. C. Penney
“Be as attentive to the shoplifter as he is to you and your shoplifting problems will be cut by 80%.”
James Cleary, Jr.
Retail Attorney & Consultant
“To keep the proper balance between sales and security, we teach our associates to treat every shoplifter like a customer, not every customer like a shoplifter.”
Sandy Katz, VP, Control
Talbots
“When I started locking people up, I got rid of the regulars and got more participation from employees…because everyone knew the company was serious.”
Store Manager
Lamonts – Family Clothing Store
“Shoplifters who only receive a civil fine from a retailer avoid the important lessions learned from being taken away in a police car, possibly spending a night in jail, having to hire a lawyer, losing time from work, having to face the judge, paying added fines and court costs, completing an education program, having a criminal record and generally being treated like a common criminal.”
Caroline Kochman, Deputy Executive Director
National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (NASP)
“Shoplifters are just like any other satisfied customer, if they get what they came for, they’ll be back.”
Peter Berlin
International Consultant on Retail Theft
“Retailers have to take a degree of responsibility and be very serious about making sure that those people who are caught (shoplifting) go through the system. There’s no point catching somebody stealing from your shop and then saying ‘it’s all too hard, I’ll let it go away’, because it will come back to you.”
John Albertson, Chief Executive
New Zealand Retailers’ Association
“Keeping your eye on customers is not only good security, its good salesmanship.”
Lawrence Conner, Former President
Shoplifters Anonymous, Inc.
“Want to increase your sales? Reduce shoplifting. Customers can’t buy merchandise that isn’t there.”
Toby M. Horowitz, Manager
Shortage Reduction Consulting Group, Price Waterhouse
“I never got caught shoplifting and I never knew anyone who got caught. We spend as much time perfecting our trade as you do yours – and we don’t take days off.”
W. R. (Dick) Deal
Former Professional Shoplifter Turned Consultant
“The criminal will abort his attempt if anything is wrong – that is, if the risk is in any way greater than expected.”
F. Lee Bailey
Attorney
“Loss Prevention cannot function in a vacuum. Loss Prevention executives must constantly strive to integrate their goals into the overall goals of the organization and to exercise ingenuity in capturing the interest and cooperation of other employees.”
Roger Griffin, CPP
Commercial Service Systems
“Those retail executives who think they can’t learn anything from others about controlling inventory shortage, in a sense, are probably right.”
Joseph H. Wheeler, Jr., VP Internal Audit
Belk Stores Services, Inc.
“We need to re-evaluate the amount of money that we are spending on selling-floor security and compare it with the results that we could get from increased sales coverage. As selling coverage has decreased, protection costs have dramatically increased yet shortage has continued to increase. Several of the most effective programs to reduce shortage that I have ever seen have contained maximum productivity standards as a keystone. Don’t you think that’s worth thinking about?”
Lasker M. Meyer, Former Chairman
Foley’s, Houston
“Deleting security measures doesn’t increase the bottom line because you can’t expense yourself to profit.”
Bruce Kozozenski, VP Loss Prevention
Venture Stores
“If you think that training employees is expensive, consider the price of ignorance.”
Wendy Barnes, VP Management Training & Development
The Glemby Co. Inc.
“Ensuring compliance to policy through regular audits is as important as determining the policy itself.”
George Mrkonic, VP & CFO
Herman’s Sporting Goods, Inc.
“Is loss prevention another job for the store manager to do?” … “No! loss prevention is not ‘another job’ for the store manager to do, but is rather a part of every job a manager does.”
Peter Berlin
International Consultant on Retail Theft
“When deciding whether to prosecute a shoplifter for a $10 item, remember that the issue is not about the item but about the act”.
Caroline Kochman, Deputy Executive Director
National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (NASP)
“When auditing shrinkage controls, remember that just because you didn’t find a problem doesn’t mean you didn’t prevent it.”
Marc Becker, Internal Audit Director
Herman’s Sporting Goods, Inc.
“We’d rather prevent five than catch one.”
John Hegan, VP Security
Macys
“The biggest weapon against employee theft is good morale.”
Jerry Shier, Executive VP
Martin Paint Stores
“Employee theft is not a random event but a response to the environmental factors present within the work setting.”
Roger Griffin, Vice President
Commercial Service Systems, Inc.
“As employee morale goes down, shrinkage goes up”.
Julian Taub, Vice President
Bloomingdale’s
“A typical theft prone retail environment is characterized by friction and mistrust among various levels of management, discontent among full-time and casual employees culminating in a factious employee population with a prevailing negative and non-caring mental attitude…”
Barry Solomon Security Executive
Coles New World Supermarkets, New South Wales
“Most employees are honest —
provided we help them stay that way.”
John DeWitt, President
Farr View Limited
“To help promote ethics in the workplace, retailers should replace management by objective with management by example.”
Gary Edwards, Executive Director
Ethics Resource Center, Washington, DC
“Example is not the main thing
influencing others, it is the only thing.”
Albert Einstein
“Our objective is not to throw them (dishonest employees) in jail but to deter them from temptation.”
Paul Cogswell, Director Loss Prevention
Marshall Fields
“We don’t hire people to be taught to
be honest, we hire honest people.”
Anonymous
“Seniority is not synonymous with honesty.”
Anonymous Retailer
“Saying you don’t want employees to bend the rules isn’t enough if our system of goals and rewards encourages them to do so.”
Corporate Security Magazine
“It was just so easy.”
Most Frequent Reason For Theft By Dishonest Employees
“Most breaches of a loss control system result not from people going around the system but rather from exploring weaknesses in the system.”
Joseph H. Wheeler, VP Internal Audit
Belk Store Services, Inc.
“If you ask where supermarket operators are most vulnerable…it has to be the front-end cashiers.”
Sheldon Levine, Store Manager
Waldbaums Inc., New York
“On the sales floor we are competitive, but when it comes to crime, we cannot afford to be competitors – we must cooperate.”
Andy Romineck, Credit Security Manager
Sears
“Although only a few employees are part of the problem, all employees must be part of the solution.”
Toby Horowitz, Manager
Shortage Reduction Group, Price Waterhouse
“Treat employees like crooks and they will measure up to your expectations.”
John DeWitt, Executive Vice President
Hop-In Food Stores
“Many corporate executives believe that good ethics is simply good business.”
Daryll Ward, Training Consultant
Ethics Resource Center, Washington, DC
“In a company where employees feel a close identification with and loyalty to the company, where people and property are treated with respect, and where employees have a vested interest in the company’s success, theft is likely to be significantly lower.”
Jack Retterer, President
Retterer & Associates, Chicago
“A successful manager works with his associates and for his associates. He lets them know he believes in them and he looks for opportunities to praise their work. He wants them to feel good about the customers and the company. He makes them understand that they can talk to him about any problem, and he lets them know he wants to help them with family problems or scheduling or merchandising problems or whatever.”
Sam Walton, Chairman & CEO
Wal-Mart Stores
