INDUSTRY NEWS by Robert L. DiLonardo DiLonardo is a well-known authority on the electronic article surveillance business, the cost justification of security products and services, and retail accounting. He is the principal of Retail Consulting Partners, LLC (www.retailconsultingllc.com), a firm that provides strategic and tactical guidance in retail security equipment procurement. DiLonardo can be reached at 727-709-6961 or by email at rdilonar@tampabay.rr.com.
Old Navy Promotes Child Safety in Retail Stores
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ld Navy partnered with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection for a child-safety event from September 13 – 16 with the goal of helping families make their children safer in retail stores and at home. More than 600,000 free kids safety kits were distributed to Old Navy families containing child IDs, safety tips for children of all ages, and ideas for how to talk to children about safety. Additionally, the event allowed customers to receive a 10 percent discount by donating $5 or more, which raised more than $380,000 for child safety. “We were all thrilled to host an event that focused on enhancing child safety in the communities we serve,” said Chris Nelson, vice president of loss prevention at Old Navy. “NCMEC was a perfect partner for Old Navy. We all feel so fortunate to work with NCMEC again and to work for a company that is so invested in those around us. Our founder, Don Fisher, always told us, ‘We should do more than just sell clothes,’ and this gave us a chance to make those words come alive.” John Walsh, host of America’s Most Wanted and co-founder of NCMEC, was a partner in promoting the event. “I am so grateful to Old Navy for partnering with the National Center for Missing
Old Navy stores throughout the U.S. and Canada hosted a child-safety event in September where local law enforcement personnel handed out educational information to help prevent child abduction and exploitation.
& Exploited Children to make this event a huge success,” he said. “Child safety is incredibly important to me, and it means so much to find others who are doing their part to help keep kids safe.” By engaging every store in the Old Navy fleet, the event allowed the organizations to reach families nationwide and in Canada with potentially life-saving information. Customers even had opportunities to learn about safety in their communities
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from local law enforcement, military, and other local heroes who were invited to attend the event’s in-store safety fair. “Educating children about what to do when they find themselves in risky situations is a critical part of our efforts to prevent child abduction and exploitation,” said John Ryan, CEO of NCMEC.
Best Buy Tests Benefit-Denial Technology Best Buy is conducting an initial trial of a new anti-theft technology designed to deter shoplifters and dishonest employees by utilizing the concept of “benefit denial.” The test, which has been conducted over the past couple of months, was announced at the Loss Prevention Research Council’s (LPRC) Impact Workshop held in mid-October in Gainesville, Florida. The initial merchandise target is newly released video games—a high-loss item. A specially designed locking device is affixed to the hub of the game package, locking the optical disc to its case. At the point of sale, the package is placed on a deactivation device that first authenticates the sale, and then decouples the lock from the case by transmitting a wireless signal. Best Buy’s customer simply removes and discards the lock when the case is opened for the first time. The lock is built to withstand tampering, so the disc will likely be damaged or broken in an unauthorized removal, thus denying any benefit to a thief by rendering the video game unusable or unsalable. To date, the new technology has been used on four new videogame titles supplied by multiple video game producers. The objectives of this single-store evaluation are to ensure that the technology operates properly and suitably in the Best Buy environment, and to assess the consumers’ and the store associates’ experiences with the product. Tim Fisher, Best Buy’s director of asset protection operations, noted that the initial experience was positive, and that inventory shrinkage for the tagged titles had fallen. Best Buy is considering expanding more broadly by adding more new releases to the tagged list, and then by adding more stores. The technology is designed and manufactured by ProTeqt Technologies of Massachusetts.
Larry Nicholason Succumbs to Lengthy Illness Long-time loss prevention executive Larry Nicholason, CPP passed away November 8th after a long illness.
NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2012
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