When it comes to store efforts to stop shoplifting has it ever crossed your mind that store associates can be biased? How frequently do we look at someone and assume they will NOT steal from the store? The kind of bias I am talking about is making a snap judgement about people who may have a physical disability or a child with them when they enter a store. We may look at the way they dress, wearing a suit or dress or we may see a couple carrying a baby and decide there is no way someone with an infant would ever shoplift. I came across a news article about a pair of shoplifters who had shoplifted hundreds of dollars in merchandise from a cosmetics store. Nothing is different about this case from any other shoplifting incident except in this case one of the women has only one leg and is pushed in her wheelchair by her partner. The women were in a store that specializes in cosmetics, fragrances and skincare products. Somehow they were able to steal hundreds of dollars in merchandise and leave. The report even says the pair and a man had stolen from the same store a couple of months prior to this. How do I know that biases can influence associate interactions with potential shoplifters? I know because I have allowed it in my own career.
It was not intentional but I recall a shoplifting incident in which a person in a wheelchair was rolling around a high theft area of my store. This person had a bag on the back of the chair and I intentionally talked myself out of watching this shopper. I was uncomfortable with the idea of watching someone bound to a wheelchair. Instead of watching this person as I would anyone else in a high theft department I began looking for other suspicious people. For some reason I eventually decided I was not watching the customer simply because they were in a wheelchair. I went back to my observation of this person and wouldn’t you know it they did start placing merchandise in the bag! I nearly failed to stop shoplifting because I chose to focus on the person and not the area they were in. When I did stop the suspect I also had the benefit of Sensormatic labels setting off the electronic article pedestals. The alarm gave me confirmation a theft took place when I was still in somewhat of a state of disbelief.
As I read through the article and watched the attached video clip I was interested to see that the store had electronic article surveillance pedestals at the doors. As the two exited I did not see any lights flashing from the towers or note any signals that alarms were sounding that would have indicated merchandise with Sensormatic labels or any security tags was being taken (krqe.com, “Shoplifting suspects grab hundreds of dollars in merchandise from Ulta”, Jackie Kent, Sep. 23, 2018). I can only take an educated guess based off of my own experiences but assuming the electronic article surveillance equipment is working there are three possibilities. The merchandise the suspects took was not tagged, the merchandise was removed from the packaging or the suspects were using booster bags to steal. Booster bags are foil lined bags that are intended to defeat some security systems. It is important to point out that acousto-magnetic Sensormatic labels are not affected by foil lined bags and are an outstanding deterrent to professional shoplifters. I do not know this retailer’s security procedures and what they do or don’t tag. I do know that many major retailers will not tag every item in the store focusing only on high shrink merchandise. To stop shoplifting a comprehensive tagging program must be in place and as many items as possible should be protected.
While store employees and yes, even Loss Prevention Associates may slip and make unintentional, biased judgements electronic article surveillance labels don’t judge. People may assume someone “looks” honest, or wouldn’t steal because of a perceived disability it happens. It could be the shopper reminds the associate of their grandfather and grandfathers would never steal. I even once briefly stopped watching a young lady who was pregnant because I was sure a pregnant woman wouldn’t take anything. After a few moments I watched again when she entered a high shrinkage clothing department. You guessed it, she was shoplifting. Put Sensormatic labels on all of your merchandise and shoplifters who choose to try to steal from your store will set off your security system regardless of age, height, disability or if they have a child with them.
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