Canadian Retailer - Holiday 2015 - 30

GROCERY SECTOR

"Employee engagement with the customer can be a
huge deterrent. It shows that people are alert. If you
go to other businesses, you'll find people walking
the floor, just being there for customer service. You
don't see that routinely in the grocery setting."

require little assistance. It's also not a setting
where you have sales associates who are upselling. People can make their way through the store
without being talked to or even acknowledged.
That's exactly what Tarasoff counted on when
he successfully "stole" from Co-op. "Employee
engagement with the customer can be a huge
- FRED TARASOFF, Retail Loss Prevention Consultant
deterrent. It shows that people are alert. If you
go to other businesses, you'll find people walkHowever, the move towards self-checkout ing the floor, just being there for customer service. You don't see
adds another area of concern. "That's heavily that routinely in the grocery setting."
monitored with cameras," says Kozak. "There's
also an employee strategically placed in be- Perishables add a dimension to loss
tween them all, so that's a physical deterrent."
While various strategies can help prevent theft, grocers face yet
Tarasoff recommends different layers of pro- another area of LP that's unique in retail-the best-before nature
tection, but cautions "the problem with some of a high percentage of merchandise. Fashions eventually go out
retailers when they engage high tech security of style, and newer models of products can replace old ones, but
is that they rely on it exclusively."
groceries have a shelf life that can expire in a matter of days.
There are often ways to outsmart technology,
Kozak says this area of LP involves everything from logistics
from using detachers to cut off security tags, to to health and safety. When fresh goods are transported, for infinding dead spots in the range of cameras. One stance, "every hour counts", he says.
of the most effective LP strategies is the low
That means careful scheduling and tracking of shipments,
tech solution of interacting with the consumer.
quality control in the warehouse (are the goods in a condition to
At Nature's Emporium, staff is encouraged to sell, and how much life is left in them?), and processes to get perproactively offer assistance to anyone. If people ishables onto the floor as quickly as possible. There, the goods
are putting merchandise into reusable bags, store have to be routinely monitored for temperature and spoilage.
staff offer them a cart. In fact, the store has signs
Charleson says for dry products, one strategy is to buy bulk
that promote carts and not bags for shopping.
near their end dates and then blow them out in a power aisle.
Grocers can be at risk because interactions
His store is also 25 per cent fresh, so on that side they look to
with the public simply happen less often in this re-use if a product may not sell in time. "We have a large kitchen
space than in many other types of retailers. Gro- and a counter with ready-to-eat items. So we can cook and sell, or
cery is more of a self-serve retail environment. turn fruit into smoothies. It's definitely still fresh, but that's also
Consumers generally know what they want and a way of reducing your loss."
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CANADIAN RETAILER | HOLIDAY 2015

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