Battling shrink is top of mind for food retailers across the board — and across borders.
Retailers around the world are identifying self-checkout as a culprit for shrink while simultaneously dealing with a rise in aggressive shoplifting behaviors. From new camera systems to gated exits to collaboration with competitors, retailers are working overtime to curate a streamlined shopping experience as well as a safe in-store environment.
Here’s a look at how grocers abroad are handling shrink with technology and even teamwork.
Smile, you’re on camera
What will Lidl’s Great Britain employees and police soon have in common? Both will wear body-worn cameras.
Lidl GB announced this past November it was rolling out the technology as an increased security measure and claimed it was the first supermarket to make this equipment standard chainwide.
The grocer, which has more than 960 locations across Great Britain, invested more than 2 million pounds (approximately $2.5 million) into the cameras to bolster its security efforts against theft, specifically organized retail crime. Lidl GB expects all stores to be supplied with body-worn cameras by this spring.
“Our investment into ensuring all our stores have body-worn cameras is just one of the ways we’re taking action to protect and provide reassurance to our colleagues and customers,” Lidl GB CEO Ryan McDonnell said in a statement.
A month before announcing the adoption of body-worn cameras, Lidl GB became a founding member of the U.K.’s Project Pegasus, a business and policing partnership that aims to utilize both law enforcement and industry knowledge to target organized retail crime and other serious retail crime.
Lidl GB body-worn camera
Loblaws lays down the law
The Canadian grocery chain last month began piloting a new security measure that requires customers to scan their receipts before exiting the store to prove that they have paid for all their items, as reported by CityNews Vancouver.
The scanners — first introduced to a handful of stores in Ontario — are set up at security gates at the stores’ self-checkout areas. Once a customer scans the barcode on their receipt, the gates swing open allowing them to leave. If a shopper tries to push through the gate without scanning, a loud alarm starts beeping.
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“Organized retail crime across the entire industry is a serious issue, and has only gotten worse,” a spokesperson for the grocer said in an emailed statement to CityNews. “We are working hard to balance a need for enhanced security while at the same time preserving a welcoming and convenient customer experience.”
However, numerous Ontario news outlets have reported Loblaws shoppers are frustrated with the grocer’s new security measure.
Woolworths deploys anti-theft software
Woolworths NZ, a New Zealand grocery company and one of the country’s largest retailers, partnered with loss prevention company Auror in 2020 to help with increasing incidents of conflict and aggression in stores as the grocer saw a 600% increase in aggressive events.
Auror’s Retail Crime Intelligence Platform works alongside stores’ security teams and law enforcement and shares intel in real-time that zeroes in on suspected thieves to help minimize crime.
For Woolworths, the platform enabled it to reduce shrink, stop repeat offenders, spot organized retail crime groups, improve reporting productivity and allow for greater involvement from store teams. “This resulted in 60% of high-profile offenders who stopped offending in stores and reducing loss by 20%,” the report added.
Japan’s collaborative effort
The country’s use of self-checkout at grocery stores has grown each year since first being introduced in 2003, The Mainichi media outlet reported, citing the National Supermarket Association of Japan. This increase accelerated rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, retailers in Japan have seen that as self-checkout’s presence increased, so did shoplifting — a pattern also seen by U.S. retailers. And, like many U.S. retailers, companies in Japan have started bolstering their store procedures and practices.
For example, Japan-based discount chain Trail Company enhanced its employee training and created an educational video that covers shoplifting techniques and countermeasures, according to The Mainichi. The discount retailer also installed monitors above select self-checkout stations to catch shoplifters as well as remind customers they’re being watched.
Trail Company also joined forces with other retailers to fight ongoing theft, by sharing information and anti-theft strategies to prevent shoplifting across an entire region.
The Mainichi highlighted grocery chain Nishitetsu Store and retailer Aeon Kyushu Co. as having joined an association where general managers discuss “disaster countermeasures” and aim to help each other spot theft group behaviors.