30 minute read
ACADEMIC VIEWPOINT
The final report of the 2010 National Retail Security Survey (NRSS) recently has been released in its nineteenth edition and has been posted on the web. This column is an executive summary of the major findings of this report.
This year, despite the fact that we are still mired in sluggish economic times, we can proudly report that 140 retail corporations sent in questionnaires. Not all surveys were fully completed, which caused some missing data problems. However, this response level includes 40 more firms than participated last year. This study would not be in
its nineteenth year of reporting retail loss prevention statistics if it were not for the many loss prevention executives, directors, and managers who believe in the importance of this research effort and support it annually. For this we are quite appreciative.
While the data are reported anonymously, we can assure the reader that the 140 corporations that have responded to our survey represent the vast majority of the top 100 major retailers in the country. We believe that a good deal of this 40-company increase over last year’s response is due in part to the decision to convert the questionnaire from paper-and-pencil survey to an online format.
If you are a regular reader of our report, you already know that there are always more similarities in the NRSS findings from year to year than differences. This is to be expected in a stable, mature industry that does not fluctuate dramatically in its loss prevention practices and asset protection procedures. However, there are some notable differences in this survey from the previous year’s results.
Overall Shrink Rate. This year the overall inventory shrinkage rate of 1.49 percent was somewhat higher than reported in last year’s survey. Despite this slight increase, the reader should note that over the past few years, inventory shrinkage continues to remain at the very lowest levels observed in the nearly two-decade history of this survey. We believe that this is remarkably good news and demonstrates clear and consistent progress in the war on reducing retail losses in spite of the present economic slump and the threat of organized retail crime (ORC).
The news is not all good, however. Although the shrinkage percentages are at significantly lower levels than observed during the very early years of the survey, the dollar value that this loss represents continues to remain at record levels due largely to an increase in U.S. gross retail sales. In other words, this huge $35-billion dollar loss is largely the result of moderate growth in the retail economy, not significant increases in inventory shrinkage percentages.
High-Shrink Segments. Supermarket/grocery stores, off-price/outlet stores, furniture, specialty accessories, men’s and women’s apparel, and discount stores all reported significantly higher than average shrinkage levels. This is largely due to the especially high desirability of merchandise sold in these particular chains, which makes theft much more attractive to organized retail gangs, amateur shoplifters, and employees.
Low-Shrink Categories. Alternatively, the lowest shrinkage stores—auto parts, tires, and accessories; women’s apparel; drug store/pharmacy; books, magazines, and music; department stores; sporting goods and recreational products; home center, hardware, lumber, and garden; household furnishings and housewares;
by Richard C. Hollinger, Ph.D.
Dr. Hollinger is a professor in the Department of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of Florida, Gainesville. He is also director of the Security Research Project, which annually conducts the National Retail Security Survey (www.crim.ufl.edu/srp/srp.htm). Dr. Hollinger can be reached at rhollin@ufl.edu or 352-392-0265 x230. © 2011 Richard C. Hollinger
continued from page 24 entertainment/media/games/music; shoes; children’s apparel; convenience store/truck stop; office supplies and stationary; men’s apparel; jewelry and watches; and electronics, computers, and appliances—generally have the most sophisticated security systems and additionally require customers to pay for merchandise before they are allowed to physically acquire their purchases.
Store Location. Stores that are typically located in strip centers reported a below average shrink rate at 1.39 percent, while stand-alone stores and those located in enclosed malls reported slightly above average shrink rates (1.50 and 1.52 percent respectively).
Shrink Source. Stability was seen once again in the respondent’s assessment where they attributed the source of their retail inventory losses. In fact, both employee theft (45 percent) and shoplifting (31 percent) remained at virtually the same proportions as reported in last year’s survey. Employee theft was the highest in places like household furnishings/housewares, shoes, and office supplies stores. Shoplifting was the highest in off-price/outlet stores; accessories; children’s apparel; books, magazines, and music; men’s and women’s apparel; jewelry and watches; and women’s apparel stores where the number of sales associates available to deter this crime is often the lowest.
LP Budgets. Fortunately, this year we finally can report a slight increase in LP budgets as a percent of total sales. Specifically, we found that 0.46 percent of retail sales were earmarked to fight the battle against loss, with most of this money going to fixed payroll expenses. With limited LP budgets and even less money for high-tech countermeasures, more of the day-to-day responsibility for loss prevention is being shifted to overworked store managers, untrained sales associates, and inexperienced LP personnel.
Diversity. Unfortunately, the diversity of LP personnel this year appears to be decreasing, most notably among women and African-Americans. However, diversity among Latinos and Asian-Pacific managers is increasing. The percentages of women, racial, and ethnic minorities are still well below national averages across the entire retail LP industry.
Prevention Tactics. Efforts are still being committed to pre-employment screening of applicants. During the coming year, the “hottest” screening countermeasure is expected to be criminal-history checks, followed by honesty testing, and computer-assisted interviews.
Employee loss prevention awareness is also receiving increased attention using the latest media and technology. Use of training videos as a loss prevention awareness strategy is expected to be the “hottest” awareness program this year.
Asset control measures remain the integral part of all loss prevention programs.
POS exception reporting, along with refund controls, are the hottest two new techniques planned for increased use in the coming year. As was the case last year, the newest technique against loss in this category of countermeasures is the implementation of sophisticated computerized exception-reporting software systems, many linked to high-speed broadband IP monitored CCTV cameras.
Among the various LP technologies available, the switch to digital CCTV cameras and recorders is all but complete. The “hottest” new LP technology is remote IP CCTV video and POS exception-based closed-circuit TV interfaced systems.
Internal Theft. When we looked at the most likely causes of inventory shrinkage, both sales associate turnover and heavy reliance on a part-time workforce are again the two most obvious correlates. As in past years’ research, the NRSS examined the formal response to those detected for internal dishonesty and external crime. Apprehension and termination are the most common responses to employee theft. While prosecutions are threatened in most every firm, this year actual criminal prosecutions nearly doubled. More rapid detection of dishonest employees seems to be keeping the reported dollar loss totals down from last year.
And as for shoplifting, apprehensions and civil recovery are the most common responses reported.
Gift Cards. This year, we tried again to collect baseline data on gift card losses with marginal success. Missing and incomplete information continues to be a serious problem in studying this phenomenon. Although the dollar losses were higher than in 2009, we will have to wait for future years to get more stable comparison numbers before we can suggest any trends.
Burglary and Robbery. Lest we forget, burglary and robbery are still major and very dangerous sources of financial loss in the retail store. Burglary cases result in more average dollar loss to retailers each year and outnumber burglary cases (3.56 burglaries versus 0.52 robberies per $100 million in sales).
Financial Losses. Every year retailers incur staggering monetary losses as a result of employee theft, shoplifting, administrative error, vendor fraud, and cash, check, and credit card charge-backs. These statistics show that last year was no exception, with a $35.28 billion of lost profits forfeited to inventory shrinkage alone. The two largest problems continue to remain employee theft ($15.9 billion) and shoplifting ($10.94 billion).
The financial losses inflicted on the retail industry remain even more significant in their size and scope. One only can speculate how much more profitable this industry could be if these many sources of inventory shrinkage and other forms of financial loss could be significantly reduced.
Given the declining percentages of annual retail sales being dedicated by senior management to fighting this war on retail crime, the professionals in loss prevention and asset protection have been assigned a daunting task as they continually try to “leverage technology” and deal with reduced staffing. Clearly this report demonstrates conclusively that those companies that commit more resources to pre-employment screening, staff awareness programs, asset controls, and finally, loss prevention systems will be those that have the best chance to win the growing war against retail crime.
a conversation with bobby templet of rent-a-center
MANAGING LOSS IN THE RENT-TO-OWN INDUSTRY
The term “shrink”is not even in our vocabulary. We look at a series of different items called “rental loss lines” on the P&L. An example of that is a product that has gone through its life cycle and is no longer rentable. If we can no longer rent it to a customer, we may choose to try to cash sell it. But in some cases we still have value associated with that product, and it has to be written off to what we call “junk.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Bobby Templet (pronounced tom-play) is vice president of loss prevention for Rent-A-Center. He has thirty-plus years of loss prevention experience with Footstar, Blockbuster Video, and Kmart.
EDITOR: Tell us how it happened that you became the head of loss prevention at Rent-A-Center. TEMPLET: When the previous company I worked for sold off their retail divisions as part of their bankruptcy proceedings, the entire LP department was eliminated. As I began looking for my next opportunity, one of my vendors told me that he knew that Rent-A-Center had just lost their head of LP. The job wasn’t posted anywhere, so I did my research, found out that the hiring manager was the VP of HR, and got my information in front of her.
I didn’t hear anything back immediately, which didn’t surprise me, but out of the blue, received a phone call from someone I had previously worked with who was now with Rent-A-Center. That person told me, “The vice president of HR here asked if I knew you. I told her you had done great work with our previous company, and we should really talk to him.” That was fortunate for me and goes to your networking and the relationships you’ve built during your career.
I was asked to come in for an interview with the HR executive on a Friday, which I did, but unfortunately something came up, so I was asked to come back on Monday. After a two-hour interview, she asked me to come back on Wednesday to meet with the president of the company. She called me Thursday and offered me the job, which at the time was senior director of loss prevention. So, in less than a week, I went from looking to landing a new position.
EDITOR: You mentioned something very important, which is the relationships we develop within the industry. Not just with other LP practitioners, but relationships with vendors and other retail operators are also very important. TEMPLET: That’s absolutely correct. In my case, it was a combination of a vendor who gave me the lead and a woman I interacted with in the benefits department of my previous company. In both cases apparently I created enough of a positive impression that one was willing to pass information along to me and the other would vouch for my work.
EDITOR: When you started with Rent-A-Center, did you inherit a large organization with programs and strategies already in place? TEMPLET: The answer to that is an emphatic “No.” When I got here in September of 2005, we had roughly 2,700 locations located in all fifty states, Puerto Rico, and a few stores in Canada. The entire department was comprised of three LP managers and two administrative people who all worked out of our field support center in Plano, Texas.
EDITOR: And what is it today, some six years later? TEMPLET: Rent-A-Center by its nature has grown through acquisitions. We since have acquired the third largest rent-to-own company at that time, which brought our total count to about 3,400 locations. After combining overlapping stores, we are now at about 3,000 traditional store locations, with some additional expansion into Canada.
EDITOR: Do you have any other international locations? TEMPLET: We opened five stores in Mexico in the fourth quarter of last year, and we’re on target to open about 40 more stores this year. We should have approximately 100 stores open by the end of 2012 and believe Mexico could be a 1,000-store opportunity for us. We looked at several other countries at the same time, but felt that Mexico gave us our best opportunity because of the name recognition we had due to the proximity to our stores along the border. That got us started, but now we’re moving much further south of the border to Monterey, San Luis Potosi, Tampico, and elsewhere in Mexico.
EDITOR: If you believe what you hear in the media, the challenges you have in Mexico must be significant, or at least different than what you have in the states. TEMPLET: Everyone in the business world has heard about the different challenges associated with doing business in Mexico. To address those challenges we have had to evaluate every aspect of our business to ensure we meet the needs of our customers. As you might imagine, it has kept us on our toes.
EDITOR: Before coming to Rent-A-Center, you held jobs that took a traditional view of shrinkage and the objectives for loss prevention. My understanding
is that loss at Rent-A-Center is a completely different animal. TEMPLET: You are exactly right. In fact, the term “shrink” is not even in our vocabulary. We look at a series of different items called “rental loss lines” on the P&L. An example of that is a product that has gone through its life cycle and is no longer rentable. If we can no longer rent it to a customer, we may choose to try to cash sell it. But in some cases we still have value associated with that product, and it has to be written off to what we call “junk.”
The biggest category of loss for us is what we call “skip.” That’s where we rent something to a customer who chooses to stop making payments. If we cannot find the customer and exhaust all of our efforts to recover it, we have to write that product off as skip.
Another example of loss is when product is in need of repair. Because we have ownership of it until the rent-to-own period ends, we provide free service on those products. In some instances the cost to repair exceeds the remaining value or revenue potential on a product, so we remove it from inventory in a category called “service estimate refused.”
So, from our perspective, loss prevention is more about how to maximize profit based on controlling these categories by working with our stores to do the things that are in the best interest of the company relative to product life cycle and managing both our on-rent and idle inventory.
EDITOR: Do you have internal investigators who do the skip tracing, or do you use outside services? TEMPLET: Actually, the stores have the responsibility to manage the accounts associated with that store. From the time they rent a product, they are responsible for collection of weekly or monthly rental payments as well as contacting the customer to recover product if payments aren’t made. The stores will go through a series of activities to try to get that collection or get the product returned. Based on local laws, stores can even initiate criminal or civil actions related to lost product. When they get to a point where they’ve done everything they can at the store, then we write it off of our inventory because we don’t anticipate it being recovered. At that point there is a small group of collection specialists here in our field support center that looks at those accounts to consider additional collection efforts, but the vast majority of effort is done at our store level.
EDITOR: It sounds as if loss prevention is more about managing operational issues that lead to protecting profit and reducing loss more than traditional retail LP strategies. TEMPLET: That’s pretty accurate because we know that development of the relationship with the customer at the front end is extremely critical and sets up everything that comes downwind. If you think about our business, a customer walks into our store and walks out with a product that may be worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars, on the condition that they give us the first week’s payment, which may be only $29 or $39. We have to have a lot of confidence that we’ll be able to work with this customer
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The biggest challenge for us is burglary. We average more than one burglary a night every night throughout the country. Being in a strip-center environment and having product that people want, makes us a target. At the same time, shoplifting is not a big problem for us.
to collect those rental payments or get the product back. So from an LP standpoint, we spend a lot of time teaching, training, and working with the stores to ensure that accounts are set up properly.
EDITOR: How then do you define your department’s objectives? TEMPLET: We have four cornerstones of what we do for the company. The first cornerstone is physical security. That means how to set up the stores from alarms, CCTV, safes, and product-protection strategies to protect our people, products, and property.
The second cornerstone is data analysis and risk exposure, where we look for trends and patterns that may indicate potential loss.
The third is training. What did we learn? How do we make certain that those things are being applied? When we see the gaps, how do we address them? How do we get in front of issues?
Finally, our fourth cornerstone is investigations. We still have the traditional role of investigating both internal and external issues. Both LP and our business partners here understand that the more time we spend on the first three, the less disruption we create in the business by having to do the fourth one—investigations.
EDITOR: With 3,000-plus stores and a relatively small staff, how do you accomplish those objectives? TEMPLET: I’ve talked primarily about our traditional rent-to-own business where we have about 3,000 stores, but we have several other business models. At this point we have almost 3,900 total touch points where we’re doing business with customers. My average field LP person right now is responsible for about 300 of those touch points, so their span of control is fairly large.
Because of that, we had to develop a way to stay front and center with our people to give us the opportunity to communicate different types of messages. In October of last year we rolled out a new awareness campaign branded “TheLINE on Loss Prevention,” where we educate and train our coworkers about how loss impacts our top and bottom lines. The program is extremely comprehensive including education on safety, internal audit, fleet maintenance/ safety, and store operations best practices. The brand is also perfect for tackling the subject of ethics and what it means to “cross theLINE” for the company and employees. We definitely felt it was vital to have an in-store presence that reminds all employees about the importance of considering the impact of loss in their everyday activities. With the introduction of TheLINE on Loss Prevention, we’re accomplishing that goal, and we’ve seen significant participation numbers that reflects its acceptance in the stores.
EDITOR: What communications vehicles do you use? TEMPLET: First, we worked with our awareness solution provider to create a strategic communication plan since we were rolling out a brand new program to our entire store base. We felt it was important to not produce poster pollution, but to essentially create a new communication vehicle through our store managers each month about loss prevention.
With this goal in mind, we crafted a program with three key components. One, a monthly leader’s guide for store managers that guides them through the monthly topic and how to discuss it with their coworkers. Two, an in-store awareness center that emphasizes our brand and houses monthly printed pieces. And, three, an online portal where employees will eventually receive their training and answer quiz questions each month.
We also use video within the program to keep employees engaged and interacting with the print and electronic components. Considering this is a new program for us, we wanted to strategically roll out each phase so it was easily digested and didn’t interrupt store operations. We’ve implemented the store-level discussion about our educational messages each month, videos supporting the monthly topics, and the in-store awareness centers.
We just started the electronic phase by testing our online portal in four of our sixty-two regions. This feature, branded “onLINE,” is more interactive and ensures we obtain an accurate measurement of those stores that are actively involved in the program and those that need some extra attention. January 1st we will roll out the electronic portion to all 3,000 store managers, and by mid-next year we will engage each of our 19,000 coworkers with the monthly quiz topic. This final phase will produce actionable data so we can retarget, repackage, or reemphasize different training points or messages in a flexible way.
We’re proud of our planning to methodically roll out the program in sections to ensure positive feedback from everyone involved, and we look forward to this final phase of reaching each coworker, every month about an important topic to not only loss prevention, but the company as a whole.
EDITOR: You currently report to the CFO, correct? How is it
different reporting to the chief financial officer as opposed to a senior-level operations person as you did in the past? TEMPLET: The differences are very interesting. As I said earlier, when I first started here, the person who hired me was the vice president of HR, but that relationship lasted only a few weeks when she chose to leave the company to pursue another opportunity.
So, I was suddenly thrust into a new relationship with the executive vice president of operational services. That particular position had a lot of tactical-type departments reporting to him—risk management, product services, real estate/construction, fleet, and others. A lot of our conversations centered on the tactical aspects of what needed to be done and how were we going to do things. It was great because it taught me how to get things accomplished in a very diverse company.
When that person retired recently, I was assigned to report to the CFO. Now the discussions are much more strategic. Why are we doing it? What are we getting out of it? Much more a return-on-investment mentality. Although I was thinking and discussing some of those things under my former boss, the nature of the discussions was very much different. Now with the CFO, I have learned a considerable amount in a very short period of time on a totally different perspective and direction of our business.
EDITOR: Given you are not using a traditional shrink calculation, how do you know when loss prevention is winning? TEMPLET: We still monitor, track, and work against our total loss line, which is a very important key indicator in our company. However, if you look at our financial results over the last couple of periods, we are running historically low total loss lines. Although many things factor into those results, our LP efforts over the last few years have had an impact. So, from a scorecard standpoint, we can see we’re getting payback for the investments that we’re making.
EDITOR: One of the added challenges that you have are the exposures that come with having stores in strip centers or free-standing stores in challenging neighborhoods. Talk about the problems associated with that. TEMPLET: The biggest challenge for us is burglary. We average more than one burglary a night every night throughout the country. And yet, that rate is significantly down over the last couple of years. Being in a strip-center environment and having product that people want, makes us a target. At the same time, shoplifting is not a big problem for us. But burglary remains a significant challenge that a lot of strip-center retailers have to deal with.
EDITOR: As a matter of fact, you participate in a group of retailers that shares information about
the challenges of retailing in a strip-center environment. Talk about the nature and value of that group. TEMPLET: A couple of years ago I began participating in a group called the Strip Center Loss Prevention Information Exchange. As the name implies, the basis for our group is information sharing. If someone has a problem or something has happened in a particular area, members know that they can put a question to the group and get multiple responses from senior LP executives in less than 24 hours. Even though our business models are very different—from electronics to clothing, general merchandise to footwear—the challenges of protecting our stores are similar. In fact, the different business models provide a very broad perspective of what others are doing. The information and support I get from this group is undoubtedly very important to my decision-making and how I present ideas to my senior leadership team. Conversely, I get a reality check from the same group of people if I suggest a concept that maybe needs to be rethought or repackaged before going forward. [See sidebar at right for more information about this group.]
EDITOR: In interviews like this, it’s always interesting to hear how LP executives got their start in the industry. Tell us your story. TEMPLET: Funny you should ask. I started my career with Kmart many years ago when the world of loss prevention was really a different place. I was your typical high school check-out operator, stock clerk, pretty much anything that needed to be done, I did. We had a loss prevention manager that I got to know who was in his mid-to-late 40s. As we got to know each other, he started using me to chase down shoplifters because I was younger and a lot faster than him. He would put me out in the parking lot, and if the shoplifting apprehension didn’t go as intended, my responsibility was to chase them. Remember this was in the old days of loss prevention. That would never be allowed today and is unacceptable under any conditions, but we’re talking twenty-five years ago when I was young and dumb. When that fellow was promoted to district manager, he asked me if I was interested in getting into loss prevention as a career. I took him up on the offer and haven’t stopped since.
EDITOR: I think it is important that you emphasized how inappropriate that is today because we still hear about LP and store personnel chasing shoplifters and sometimes getting hurt or even killed. TEMPLET: Unfortunately, that’s true. But I think it goes beyond just being young and dumb. It requires really communicating expectations and the right and wrong ways to meet those expectations. When you have people who are young, aggressive, who want to be successful and please their boss, sometimes they will make bad decisions if we haven’t educated them appropriately. They think they are doing the right thing, but it gets out of control. As an industry, we need to do a better job of educating our store personnel on the very serious repercussions this can have on them and the business.
EDITOR: No doubt about it. Finally, let me ask you about any mentors or people who influenced you during your career. TEMPLET: Two people come to mind. The first person is someone who probably doesn’t even know how much influence he has had on my career. When I was a district manager at Kmart, the company launched the Super Kmart division. I made a choice to take a step back from core Kmart to get into the Super Kmart division as a store-level manager in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. That’s when I had the opportunity to work with Dan Faketty, who is now vice president of LP at Winn-Dixie. I saw the way he carried himself, the way he handled the people who worked for him, and even the people like myself who didn’t report to him. He
this organization was originally conceived at an informal gathering at the 2002 national retail Federation loss prevention conference of LP executives with common store demographics. endorsed by the corporate leadership of each member company, the LP executives hold regular conference calls and annual meetings to exchange information pertinent to issues of property protection and employee safety in a strip-center retail environment. an early by-product of the original group of ten companies representing 25,000 stores was a program and policy paper entitled “the Strip center benchmark Survey” that is the centerpiece of each member’s commitment to progress and professionalism within the group.
Prospective members must meet the following criteria: - their company must be a multiunit specialty retailer with locations in national strip centers. - they are the head of the loss prevention or asset protection department in their company. - they must have permission from their company to participate in miscellaneous surveys from time to time, including the Strip center benchmarking Survey. current members representing over 26,500 stores include ashley Stewart, cato, citi trends, Dollar tree, dressbarn, DtLr, gameStop, Payless Shoesource, rainbow Shops, rent-acenter, Sally beauty Holding, Stage Stores, variety Wholesalers, and the associated brands for these companies.
For information about membership, contact the organization’s chairperson, John Feretich of rainbow, at jferetich@rainbox-mail.com.
Everyone in the business world has heard about the different challenges associated with doing business in Mexico. To address those challenges we have had to evaluate every aspect of our business to ensure we meet the needs of our customers. As you might imagine, it has kept us on our toes.
was really interested in our development and what we needed to do to be successful. Even though we went different ways, I’ve always followed his career and never miss his presentations at conferences. Over the years I’ve sent him questions, and he’s always provided me with feedback.
Another thing. He wrote a series of articles for LP Magazine a number of years back on the six steps to creating a loss prevention program. I still have those articles and referred to them as I was developing the LP department at my previous company and here. The things he talked about in those articles were thought-provoking and helped me consider what I needed to do and how I could apply different strategies in my situation. [The articles “Six Steps to a Successful Loss Prevention Program” are available in the magazine archives at LPportal.com.]
EDITOR: Who was the second person? TEMPLET: Right after I started with Rent-A-Center, I attended my first annual leadership meeting where all of our district managers, regional directors, and divisional vice presidents were brought together. At that meeting, I remember listening to our CEO, Mark Speese, use an analogy that I’ve adopted and have used over and over again. Even though he wasn’t talking about loss prevention at the time, I think it’s a perfect analogy for us. Here’s how I adapted it. “Loss prevention is like medicine. If you use the right amount, it can help you. If you use too much, it can kill you.” Our best intentions are to protect the business and do all the right things. But if we go overboard with it, specifically in our business model, we can strangle our business and really negatively impact our ability to drive the top line and the bottom line of the company.
EDITOR: That’s a great analogy, Bobby. Thank you for sharing that and sharing your story with our readers.
30.5"
Sandy Chandler, LPC, CPP
Regional Director, Loss Prevention Rite Aid Corporation
With the evolution of our profession, it is imperative that retail LP professionals become true business partners. Whether you are a seasoned LP professional or just starting out, the Foundation certification courses have valuable content to meet that goal.
These courses contain a wide range of subject matter that validates our ever-changing roles, showing how valuable our position is to our retail organizations. The LPC allowed me to become more proficient on some subjects not previously utilized. For example,
“I have a job. Why do I need certification?”
Certification not only prepares you for the future, it helps you when you need it most—in your current job. Certification refreshes and validates your knowledge base while teaching you critical business expertise to round-out your skill set. It not only covers key components of loss prevention, it teaches you solid business skills to prepare you for your next promotion.
“It costs a lot.” Certification is very affordable and can even be paid for in installments. It is one of the best investments you can make for yourself and will pay for itself over again as you advance in your career. “I don’t have the time.” Certification was designed by seasoned professionals who understand the demands on your time. The coursework allows you to work at your own pace and at your convenience. Everyone is busy, but those who are committed to advancement will find the time to invest in learning.
“I’ve never taken an online course.”
The certification coursework is designed with the adult learner in mind. The online courses are built in easy-to-use presentation style enhanced with video illustrations to elevate comprehension and heighten retention. “What if I fail?” Both the LPQ and LPC certifications have been accepted for college credit at highly respected universities, and as such, passing the exam demands commitment and study. However, the coursework includes highly effective study and review tools to fully prepare you for the exam. In the event you fail the exam, you can review the coursework and retest after 30 days.
“Okay, how do I get started?”
It’s easy to get started. Go online to sign up at www.LossPreventionFoundation.org. If you need help or want more information, contact Gene Smith at Gene.Smith@LossPreventionFoundation.org or call 866-433-5545.
the compliance module enhanced my expertise, giving me an edge in our highly regulated retail environment.
In order to promote career knowledge and advancement, the Rite Aid LP department endorses both the LPC and LPQ courses, and selects key personnel every year to receive scholarships. Why? Because these certifications provide the business skills necessary to maximize our contributions, not only within our department, but to impact the company on multiple levels, substantiating a higher return on investment and further advancing our industry through continued professional development.
