Grocery stores and super markets have to protect against theft. Here's how.
Retailers have to bust a move, and it’s not just TikTok’s Grocery Shopping Cart Dance Challenge. While shoppers may step to the beat in the cereal aisle, asset protection leaders are stepping up their security measures—to keep prices low, ensure customers’ and employees’ safety, and combat rising criminal activities.
For many retailers, advanced technology is the solution, and in response, they are beefing up IT budgets to address rising incidents of theft, vandalism, and, in extreme cases, violence.
Overall shrink, from supply chain issues and misplaced inventory to human error and fraud, as well as theft, tops the list of security concerns for grocery store management. According to a recent report from Avery Dennison, a digital identification solutions company, two-thirds (64%) of food retailers in the United Kingdom and the United States believe theft has reached a crisis point. Additionally, 42% say the issue concerns them more today than it did a year ago.
Executives from Jacksons Food Stores and The Kroger Co. told attendees at the National Retail Federation's annual show in January 2024 that it is imperative that retailers take a data-led approach to security and leverage the newest technologies to fight theft.
“In the absence of technology and advancement of AI, I would suggest we would be in a far worse place,” Kroger's Mike Lamb said.
Many retailers are battling significant losses from brazen shoplifters, who are, in some cases, backed by organized crime syndicates. In response, many asset protection leaders deployed physical in-store security measures, placing high-value or often-stolen items behind locked cabinets, ultimately frustrating shoppers. According to a recent report from Numerator, a data and tech company, 31% of grocery store customers find these displays while shopping.
What happens next isn’t great for grocers—or any other retailer.
While 62% of shoppers are patient and say they typically wait for assistance when they encounter locked-up merchandise, and 9% are loyal to the store and say they order the item online from them. However, 17% say they have no problem finding the item elsewhere and will switch shops (10% to online sellers, 7% to other physical stores), and a further frustrated 10% say “forget it” and will abandon buying the item altogether.
That’s not a shopping habit grocers want customers to build.
That’s why grocery store leaders want innovative solutions to bolster security measures and reduce friction for their customers. Here are a few advanced security system solutions, as well as low-tech tactics that work:
A store’s paved perimeter is one of the only areas where high-impact, low-friction solutions do not impede the customer experience. Rather than relying heavily on older technologies like EAS or employing more security guards, deploying top-notch parking lot security measures should serve as the foundation of a grocery store overt versus covert security and asset protection strategy.
Relying on staff to catch shoplifters’ suspicious activities puts people in danger, so retailers should explore measures that will deter bad actors from entering the store.
One proven proactive defense? Setting up “shop” in the parking lot with layers of security, including mobile surveillance cameras from LiveView Technologies. Our innovative, cutting-edge, compact, and completely mobile units not only fit in a single parking spot but they can also be relocated as required. They are proven to shut down criminals’ ability to steal goods and force them to look for easier entry elsewhere.
Deploying a network of comprehensive security cameras proves that surveillance is worth the investment as LVT retail customers have experienced a substantial decrease in crime, including:
Body cameras aren’t just for law enforcement anymore. Retail leaders, as well as asset protection experts, are implementing this layer of security as part of their company’s comprehensive security camera network.
This cutting-edge solution not only enhances safety, transparency, and situational awareness for employees but also provides flexible and reliable monitoring options. LVT partners with Axon, a global leader in public safety technologies, to increase security intelligence and coverage for its proprietary AI platform, and retailers enlist the company to outfit employees with body cameras, a proven deterrence-based security solution.
Many stores find thwarting thieves easier when they adopt a “VIP-like” experience by managing who can enter specific areas of the store. Rather than managing a physical key system, which can be breached by lost, stolen, or copied keys, many retailers define access with a fob. This seemingly simple tool has more range than a key, as it can:
Engaging with customers throughout their shopping trips helps employees identify potential problems before they happen. Training employees to greet customers, offer shopping assistance, and help streamline the self-check-out process not only elevates shopper satisfaction, but this attention to superior customer service also aggravates bad actors, causing them to look elsewhere.
Asset protection leaders and security staff can’t be everywhere, but integrated security measures provide a comprehensive view of the entire store. Retailers are embedding:
Many retailers realize their stores need a security facelift. These measures not only address aesthetics with well-organized shelves and wider aisles, but they also work to provide employees with clear sightlines to shoppers, high-value merchandise, cash registers, and entrances.
Store renovations also include better—and brighter— lighting inside and out, and security plans increasingly detail how it’s every employee’s responsibility to change a lightbulb to make it harder for criminals to hide their activities.
Asset protection leaders believe it’s imperative to spell out exactly what security measures are in place. While customers won’t care, would-be thieves take notice and often move to easier targets when they read that:
Retailers who implement a wide range of high-tech theft prevention security measures, like mobile surveillance units and body cameras, become strategic partners with the police. This proactive community policing approach to retail security allows stores to:
Our customers trust LVT to deter would-be criminals, defend their stores against would-be thieves and ORC, and help law enforcement investigate and prosecute crimes. Ready to learn more? Contact our team today for a demo.
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