LPM DIGITAL

The Excellent Life of Bob MacLea

Kelsey Seidler

Seidler is managing editor, digital. She manages the magazine’s digital channels that includes multiple daily e-newsletters featuring original content and breaking news as well as pushing content to various social media platforms. Seidler recently earned her master’s degree in technology and communications through the University of North Carolina’s School of Media and Journalism. She can be reached at KelseyS@LPportal.com.

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Long-Time Industry Icon Bob MacLea Passes at Age Seventy-Five

By Jack Trlica

Bob MacLea, one of the retail industry’s longest tenured and most respected loss prevention executives, lost his battle with cancer March 1. Beginning his career as a security officer in 1975 with Marshalls Department Stores, MacLea steadily rose through the TJX corporation ultimately retiring as senior vice president of loss prevention in October 2016 after forty-one years. Asked why he worked as long as he did, MacLea reportedly said, “I’ve always been told that when you retire, you should do something you love. I love my job and can’t think of anything I’d rather do. So why should I even think about leaving?”

News of MacLea’s passing prompted a chorus of emails, text messages, and phone calls between the many men and women touched by MacLea, who was known as much for his compassion for people as his competency as a retail security practitioner. One of his direct reports at TJX explained that he coined the phrase “relationships before tasks” to describe his philosophy for building the loss prevention mindset both inside the LP organization and throughout the TJX culture.

His focus on people was recognized in LP Magazine’s first Magpie excellence awards in the January–February 2017 print edition when he was the first Excellence in Community Service recipient. The article noted, “He has always believed you must be involved with both your community and your profession, and he has lived up to that belief. Over the years MacLea has also given of himself to philanthropy, supporting many charitable initiatives such as the Youth Business Institute, Minority Suppliers, the NAACP, Lazarus House, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.”

MacLea was also an active proponent of advancing the loss prevention profession as he served in various organizations across the industry, including the board of directors, executive committee, and audit committee for the Loss Prevention Foundation; the loss prevention advisory council for the National Retail Federation; the editorial board of LP Magazine; and the Loss Prevention Research Council, of which he was a founding member.

Many individuals throughout the loss prevention profession have expressed their heartbreak at MacLea’s passing. Perhaps his close friend and former colleague Jim Lee, LPC, executive editor of LP Magazine, summed up the feelings best when he wrote, “Bob felt very fortunate in what he had achieved in business and family, and he wanted to share and give back. I feel very fortunate that I knew this exceptional man. He enriched my life and was an example to follow for everyone he touched.…Much has been chronicled about his accomplishments in work and family. I am so happy I did not miss the chance to tell him how much I loved him and how much he meant to others and me. Eternal thanks to you, Bob.” (See page 74.) Bob MacLea

Now Amazon Doesn’t Care if You “Accidentally” Shoplift

By Bill Turner, LPC

Got your attention, right? After five years of development and fourteen months of testing, Amazon opened a new, cashierless Amazon Go grocery/convenience store in downtown Seattle on January 22. There is no waiting in checkout lines because there are no lines—and no cashiers.

In order to shop, customers must download the Amazon Go app on their cell phones, connect it to their Amazon accounts, and choose a payment method. A QR code is generated, and the customer scans it at a station located at the front of the store. Once the customer is scanned in, multiple sensors and cameras throughout the store track items that the customer takes off the shelf. All prices are posted on the shelf. Items selected are automatically charged to the customer when they leave the store.

Amazon has described the technologies in the store as “computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning.” The system not only tracks people in the store but also associates the customer with what they buy. Accuracy is critical to be sure the system identifies the right customer selecting the right product. It could be tough to do in a very crowded environment, but so far, it seems to be working.

All the data collected allows Amazon to figure out what products are bought at what time and what is the optimum location of the product in the store. There is much speculation as to whether or not Amazon will migrate this system to Whole Foods. And Amazon may be first, but they are not alone. Walmart is rumored to be working on a similar concept. The industry is abuzz.