Loss prevention experts say the best solution for retail crime would be to have a police officer stationed at every shelf in every convenience store in every city in every state. So what’s the next-best solution? Well, that too is complicated, but not impractical.
Shoplifting is up around the country. Some of the biggest stores and companies are citing retail theft as a massive threat to their profits. The c-store industry is hardly immune.
“Over the last 15 years, safety and security had become a secondary issue,” said industry consultant Rollie Trayte, who spent 14 years as the director of security and loss prevention for Circle K. “For the most part, convenience stores were relying on one- or two-decade-old technology and information.”
Despite the growing threats, c-stores can immediately address security and crime concerns in a number of ways. Companies are also investing in national research on preventative and combative measures that could lead to better protection in the coming months and years.
“You have to use the resources that you can afford—or that you’re willing to afford,” Trayte said. “So I guess my attitude these days is, ‘Let’s get back to basics.’”
Easy Steps You Can Take—Now
The Federal Bureau of Investigation tracks crime in its Uniform Crime Report (UCR). The latest UCR reported that robbery increased 1.3% across the U.S. in 2022, with convenience stores and gas stations combined experiencing 13.8% of all robberies.
Making sure your store is not a target starts with Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, a multidisciplinary approach to crime prevention. Here is preventative guidance for convenience stores:
• Effective lighting inside and outside.
• Replacing broken lights immediately.
• Keeping the store windows as clear as possible. The view from the register to the street should be open.
• Keeping window signs to a minimum and placing them below three feet and above six feet. Visibility inside the store should be clear as well. You should have a wide-open view from the register.
• Greeting your customers and letting them know you are aware of their presence in your store.
• Staying active and alert. Even when customers are not in your store, it is important for you to get out from behind the counter and stay busy. This helps discourage a potential robber.
Spreading the Word
Babir Sultan, CEO of Fav Trip, is not shy about calling out shoplifters at his stores. He began posting videos of shoplifters to the FavTrip YouTube page that show the perpetrators in action. See the Ideas 2 Go video.
Kelly Harrington, the director of asset protection at RaceTrac, said c-stores may not experience as much of the organized retail crime that some big-box stores are seeing, since a lot of c-store merchandise isn’t particularly resalable. While shoplifting in c-stores is occasionally perpetrated by organized individuals, it is more common among opportunists who plan to consume or use what they stole.
“Everyday shoplifting is the cost of doing business,” he said. “It’s not something that’s very controllable.”
Harrington added, though, that properly trained c-stores employees can make the opportunity-driven type of thief aware that someone is watching.
“The best thing that you can do to control shoplifting is to make eye contact and let guests know that you see them, that you know what their intentions are,” Harrington said.
That means following the five-foot rule—a three-foot rule at some c-stores—where a store associate acknowledges any customer who is within that distance of the employee.
“I train people to think of every interaction they have as an interview,” he said. “And obviously you’re doing it with positivity, enthusiasm, and empathy and a smile. … And it is that connection point where you lock eyes and they know you acknowledge them. …The professional thief, they don’t care. They’re going to steal, but the opportunists might take that and say, ‘Hey, because this person is really paying attention to me, I’m going to move on and go somewhere else.’”
Somebody’s Watching You
Some convenience retailers are also seeing success with body cameras.
During an education session at the 2023 NACS Show titled “Securing the Retail Landscape: A Roundtable on Crime Prevention and Loss Mitigation,” Byron Coleman, who leads asset protection and security for Wawa, said the company executed a pilot program with body cams that has been “very successful” in reducing crime and increasing safety.
“Most people were glad to see that we were trying something,” Coleman said. “I think your customers realize that you’re dealing with a difficult situation, so they were appreciative that we would do something, whether that would be with technology or any of the other techniques that we have.”
Body cameras can be either overt or covert. Wawa made sure cameras were easily identifiable and worn over employees’ yellow shirts.
Harrington agreed that noticeable is better.
“With body cams, not only is it an evidence-documentation tool, but the bigger effective component of a body camera is the physical deterrent presence of it,” Harrington said. “Having that camera on you is what’s going to change someone’s mind about how they act and how they behave in your stores.”
Read Hayes, the director of the Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC) and the co-director of the Loss Prevention Research Team at the University of Florida, said having employees wear headsets can help, too.
“If you’ve got a two-way radio, we’ve found through research that offenders will pick up on that, especially if you have a mic in front of your mouth,” Hayes said. A potential shoplifter will think, “OK, wait a minute, I’m not just dealing with this person, I’m dealing with everybody.’”
Both Hayes and Trayte said obvious cameras in and around the store are—and always will be—key.
A large, high-resolution color camera at the point of entry signals a clear impression of control. That tells someone their face has been recorded—and in high-definition.
You have to use the resources that you can afford—or that you’re willing to afford.”
The LPRC often asks if potential offenders will “see, get and fear” a store’s security measures in a way that makes it clear shoplifting at that store is a bad idea.
Hayes said the cameras should not be looking in different directions or pointed at the ground. Cameras are especially important in dark nooks and crannies that can’t be seen by a clerk at the register. He added that a “clear perception and impression of control” is crucial. That means at every phase of a customer’s visit, the store is seen as competent and aware.
Harrington noted that RaceTrac focuses on simple things like making sure there is a high level of overall store cleanliness and that shelves are kept stocked and organized. He said “appearance and conditions” is a c-store’s second line of defense against shoplifters. If the center store aisles are tidy with products front facing, it might be easier to spot when merchandise is missing.
“Psychologically speaking, shoplifters and criminals tend to do bad activity where there’s disarray and disorder, because it feels like they’re more likely to get away with the crime they’re about to commit,” he said.
Get Law Enforcement Working With You
Collaborating with local law enforcement is vital, according to the loss prevention experts interviewed for this story.
Harrington said establishing a good relationship with law enforcement is one of the first things that should happen with a c-store. RaceTrac often fulfills video evidence requests for local police; the video is often of activity caught in a store’s parking lot, in cases where helping the police doesn’t directly benefit the c-store. Harrington explained, “The long-term impact of that was we had detectives on speed dial when something goes haywire.”
He added, “When you have law enforcement frequenting your store, there’s a lot of good side effects that come along with that.”
At the retail crime roundtable at the NACS Show, Britt Davidson, director of risk at Maverik, said it’s also important to reach out to community organizations that can help with mental health crises and who have resources to help the transient community so that the company can mitigate loss without hurting individuals who need help.
“The one thing that’s very difficult with this is there’s no silver bullet. There’s no one thing that’s going to work in every single place,” Davidson said.
AI’s Potential
Numerous research projects are searching for longer-term solutions to the complex crime issue.
The LPRC has a high-tech lab inside the University of Florida’s Innovate Hub full of sensor platforms. The LPRC uses virtual reality, augmented reality and extended reality technology to simulate different environments, including c-stores.
There are potential applications for artificial intelligence (AI), like analyzing video data to look for patterns of behavior that point to theft. AI can analyze the license plates of people coming into the store and note who has previous shoplifting charges or instances of violent behavior. It can also learn to detect suspicious body language and behavior and flag it in real time.
“What AI is doing is finding things that we might not,” Hayes said, because watching hours of footage can be “dull, dangerous, disgusting, whatever” for a person.
He acknowledged the myriad privacy concerns that arise with the use of AI, but Hayes said that “it’s not Big Brother, it’s Big Protection.”
While studies show AI can have implicit biases, Hayes said most of what’s being analyzed is happening in public. In essence, people are exchanging a very small amount of their privacy for safety.
To protect privacy and avoid the biases that have occurred with facial recognition, Standard AI’s solution turns everyone who walks into the store into a stick figure with a specific color signature that lets the figure be monitored as the person moves through the store. If the company’s AI spots a problem, it notifies a team member.
Tag, You’re It
Companies are experimenting with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags that can be attached to items in an undetectable way and that are only deactivated at checkout. Someone trying to walk out the door with an item that hasn’t been paid for will trigger an alarm.
There are still some kinks to work out. While the RFID chips keep getting smaller and cheaper, it would be cost prohibitive to put one on every piece of bubblegum. There have also been issues with putting the chips on metal and having them next to liquid in freezers.
But Read Hayes, the director of the Loss Prevention Research Council, said that as the technology spreads costs will drop and RFID chips will be more accessible.
Alex Plant, vice president of marketing at Standard AI, said he expected to hear about privacy concerns but hasn’t. “[People are] much more amenable to using technology to improve the way that we shop or live or drive,” he said.
While its AI currently focuses on the cigarette and alcohol zones, Plant said Standard AI will be working to extend its capabilities to cover the whole store. “I think there’s a tangible benefit of less shrink, but also maybe more a psychological one here where people will know that there are technologies that are tracking them, that are watching their movements,” he said.
Harrington said RaceTrac is looking to embrace more technology such as AI, but he’s not sure whether the technology is there yet to be 100% effective because of how dynamic a c-store environment is.
Loss Prevention, Not Sales Prevention
AI and other security measures do have one crucial constraint: They can’t turn the customer off your store.
If your store’s security measures are too extreme, you could be suggesting to a customer that your store isn’t safe. And that might make them not want to shop there.
If a customer has to wait by a locked cabinet for an employee’s help, that isn’t convenient, and security cameras everywhere can seem dystopian. And loss prevention and security officers can convey a certain message.
“You never want to be called the sales prevention team, right?” Harrington said. “So with every merchandise protection strategy, there has to be tremendous cost-benefit analysis. Are you suppressing sales more than you are preventing loss?”
He said it might not be worth it to put a number of items behind locked plexiglass.
“When you think about the price points of convenience store items, there is not much in a store that you want to lock up because it’s going to cause more of a guest experience detriment than it’s going to save you,” Harrington said.
Trayte said customers are becoming more accustomed to security measures in a store. Someone checking receipts has become more normal, as are cameras that say “Recording in Process.” Stores can help create a positive environment by posting signs with messaging like “We care about keeping you safe” or “If you see something, report it” to make it clear shoppers’ safety is paramount.
A Long Road Ahead
Harrington said he thinks the c-store industry is making strides—but still has a distance to go.
“Until you remove the physical accessibility of the product, shoplifting will always happen,” he said. “So it’s a balance of finding the right tech and experience-driven solution process, but I think we’re still a ways out from figuring that out.”
Regardless, Trayte said c-stores should have and implement a strategy.
“Companies have to get back on the safety and security bandwagon,” Trayte said. “Hope is not a strategy.”