The State of Shoplifting

Why “boosting” is a problem for ECPs today—and what you can do about it

By Erinn Morgan

The crime of shoplifting is as old as, well, shopping. “As long as there are retail stores, there will be shoplifting,” says Edward Beiner, owner of the 11-store, high-end eyewear boutique Edward Beiner. “Anyone who wants to start a retail store today will need to account for some degree of theft,” he adds, “along with the costs of counter measures that are needed to be taken in order to prevent both internal and external theft.”

The cost of shoplifting is the crux of the problem with this criminal act. In fact, retailers report that shoplifting cost them $10.94 billion in 2011, according to the 2011 National Retail Security Survey from the University of Florida (which included survey respondents in optical as well as other markets).

Why is shoplifting such a problem for retailers today?

“The economy plays a part in this,” says Rich Mellor, the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) vice president of loss prevention. “In a bad economy, people start to do things like this and find out how lucrative it is. And, they band together and form groups—birds of a feather.”

Some believe shoplifting’s impact at retail may be even greater, as retail shrinkage experts simply estimate the crime’s effect as a part of their overall shrinkage rates (which also include things like employee theft as well as administrative errors).

In addition, there’s a relatively new kid in the shoplifting town whose effect hasn’t fully been measured—yet.

ORGANIZED RETAIL CRIME

A full 94 percent of retailers say they have been a victim of organized retail crime (ORC) in the past year, according to the NRF 2013 ORC Survey. What is ORC? It typically involves a criminal enterprise that organizes large-scale thefts from a number of retail stores and employs a fencing operation to sell the illegally obtained goods for financial gain.

“Organized retail crime involves sophisticated retail criminals who take multiple items at a time—like 100 pairs of designer jeans,” says Mellor. “Teams of three to four people walk out of the store with 30 to 50 items. This is a growing trend—and an extremely lucrative business for the thieves.”

The worse news: 81.3 percent of retailers surveyed for the NRF 2013 ORC Survey said that, in general, ORC activity is increasing in the U.S. And, the eyewear retail market is not immune to this trend.

“We’ve seen some professional theft rings in our area, but we’ve been successful in helping to break them up,” says Brad Childs, vice president of the six-store Eyetique group based in Pittsburgh.

With the top-ranking cities for ORC activity including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Miami, the Miami-based Edward Beiner is well-versed in shoplifting as well as other types of retail fraud. “Yes, we’ve seen our fair share of shoplifting,” he says. “And, something that we’ve seen a large increase in over the past few years is counterfeit bills and credit card fraud.”

While ORC is growing, it has fewer effects on optical retail at the moment. The most commonly sought-after retail items by ORC gangs include cigarettes, energy drinks, allergy medicine, teeth whitening strips, denim pants, GPS devices, and laptops/tablets. Today, many eyewear-related shoplifting incidents are one-off events conducted by thieves looking for highly salable items that can garner them quick money.

Stop That Thief?

The idea of a thief stealing your goods can be infuriating—just ask Brad Childs, vice president of Pittsburgh-based Eyetique. “We go after shoplifters hard core,” he says. “We’ve chased people in cars, been in scuffles in parking lots—there are no ifs ands or buts about it, we will use the news and social media and we will find you.” While Childs admits this philosophy makes his family a bit uneasy. He says he catches about 90 percent of thieves, often getting his store’s stolen product back. Should a store worker really address a theft they see in action? “This is a gray area,” says Edward Beiner, owner of Edward Beiner boutiques. “Unless the customer has walked out of the store without purchasing the product, it has not been stolen. I would encourage all of my staff members to be 100 percent sure before approaching someone they think might be stealing. This is to minimize any possible confrontations and decrease liability...on the off chance that the employee was mistaken.” According to the NRF 2013 ORC Survey, this is sage advice. Retailers report that nearly two in five (18.3 percent) apprehensions lead to some level of violence, such as verbal or physical assault. This is a marked increase over the 13 percent who reported the same problem in the NRF 2012 ORC Survey. Thus, it’s apparent that criminals are showing an increasing amount of aggression and resorting to violence when apprehended—a fact that can endanger both staff and customers. “Don’t get in the way of somebody trying to do that kind of theft in your store,” says Rich Mellor, the NRF vice president of loss prevention and a former loss prevention director at major department stores. “Stand back, but then report it and tell what you saw. If you can, get the make and model of their vehicle to report to the police.”

LIFTING EYEWEAR

Experts agree that the most coveted eyewear items are designer sunglasses and high-end, luxury frames. “The shoplifting we see is, usually, sunglasses from brands that are in high demand,” says Beiner.

How can ECPs keep these items safe and sound? A few ideas:

■ Lock it Up. Many optical shops keep covet-worthy frames under lock and key. “We have a one-in-one-out policy for brands like Cartier and Chrome Hearts,” says Childs.

At Grand Central Optical, which sees hundreds of customers pass through its doors each day in its location in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal, owner Scott Stein keeps almost everything locked away. “Nothing is available for anybody to take without a salesperson,” he says.

Some wonder, if these theft controls can actually hinder sales. “I think it all depends on your business model,” says Beiner. “Our boutiques are located in high-traffic malls and we carry a variety of luxury and premium products. Most of our product—if not all of it—is displayed in cases with a few exceptions. For us, this helps create more opportunities for our eyewear specialists to provide exceptional service and work one-on-one with guests, which is a core value of what we do.”

■ Train the Staff. Staff training will also go a long way to help thwart shoplifters’ efforts. “Our staff is very well trained to target shoplifters,” says Childs. “They’re well versed on giveaway signs like baggy clothing and multiple people coming into the store at one time.”

According to the 2011 National Retail Security Survey, commonly used loss prevention awareness programs incorporated by retailers include discussions about shrinkage with new employees during orientation (76 percent), the dissemination of an employee “code of conduct” (74 percent), bulletin board notices or posters (73 percent), and training videotapes (48 percent).

Top 10 Cities for Organized Retail Crime Activity

Los Angeles
New York
Chicago
Miami
Atlanta
Dallas
Northern New Jersey
Houston
San Francisco/Oakland
Baltimore

Source: National Retail Federation (NRF) 2013 Organized Retail Crime Survey

■ Staff the Optical Well. Beiner suggests that while he employs controls like showcases with doors and locks, sensors, internal frame count sheet, inventory, and frequent reviews of financials, the most important thing is great customer service. “We also increase sales floor coverage,” he says. A well-trained staff that is on the alert for problems in the store can thwart shoplifters before they take action.

“I think we stop more of it than actually happens because my staff is all hands on deck,” says Childs.

■ Keep Frame Boards Full. At Eyeworks in Keene, NH, Vince McMahon, OD, says the staff tries to keep every slot on the frame boards and display cases filled. “That way, we know immediately if something is missing,” he says. “Glass shelves also make it easy to tell if something’s been taken.”

Savvy thieves can get around this measure, so staff still needs to remain on the alert.

“We recently had a scenario at one of our boutiques in which someone was replacing full-price aviators with similar generic aviators that you can buy at a kiosk in the center of the mall,” says Beiner. “Because the person was replacing the stolen frames with other frames, it was not immediately noticeable by our store’s staff.”

■ Employ Security Cameras. Today, security camera systems are relatively inexpensive and will pay for themselves as they are an excellent deterrent for shoplifters.

“Most jewelry stores have cameras, and it would be a worthwhile investment for optical stores,” says Mellor. “You can typically get the whole package with a few cameras and the recording device for a thousand dollars at an electronics store—and they’re not hard to set up.”

In addition, today’s security camera systems also enable store owners to view their stores remotely over the Internet via their computer or smartphone.

“We have high-level video surveillance in all our retail locations tied into our cell phones,” says Childs. “It’s the key to everything to have that video to capture the thief’s face or license plate.” EB