Retail Archive
Report Says Security Boosts Payment Cards Market
Apart from replacing the cumbersome and often risky paper-based transaction system, electronic payments have boosted business prospects of organizations worldwide according to the report titled "Payment Cards: A Global Outlook," published by Global Industry Analysts Inc....
Combining Luxury and Security
By Stephanie Silk
Shoppers go there to spend. Residents go there to sleep. Kids go there to play. Tourists go there to ogle. The Americana at Brand is a new mixed-use development...
Driving Up Security
A dramatic rise in theft and vandalism is costing car dealerships worldwide huge amounts in damages and increased insurance premiums. The Nick Whale BMW...
Acousto-Magnetic Anti-Theft Technology Tests Higher Than RF
Research has shown Sensormatic acousto-magnetic (AM) technology from ADT offers retailers better anti-theft alarm detection rates compared to radio frequency (RF) technology....
European Retail Rolling Out More Security Pilot Programs
Retailers in Europe are beginning to warm to the idea of network video surveillance and video content analysis, with a number highlighting 2008 as the year that they will begin rolling out new installations and pilot programs. ...
System Lockdown
Burlington Coat Factory has deployed technology from Savant Protection Inc., Nashua, N.H., on its chain-wide network of point-of-sale systems in an effort...
Food Terrorism Risks Studied In Arizona
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, awareness has heightened to the idea that the nation's food supply could be at risk of possible attack....
Mall Shooting Suggests Second Look At 2006 Survey
The shootings last month at Westroads Mall in Omaha, Neb., when a disturbed teen killed eight people and wounded five others before turning the gun on himself, once again raised calls for mall security standards to be reevaluated....
Mall Shooting Sparks Security Debate
Following last week's shooting rampage at an Omaha, Neb., mall in which nine people were killed including the 19-year-old gunman, new questions about security measures are being raised at shopping centers....
Survey Estimates Shoplifting Costs Retailers Billions
As the holidays approach and more people are out shopping, they may notice some of the new high-tech security that retailers are using to battle theft and shoplifting. According to an annual survey conducted by the University of Florida with a funding grant from ADT Security Services, U.S. retailers lost $40.5 billion to theft last year. The survey measures retail shrinkage defined as a combination of employee theft, shoplifting, vendor fraud and administrative error and found that employee and internal theft account for the largest portions of retail theft followed by losses from shoplifting.
"The dollar loss to retailers from theft is staggering," says Jeffrey Bean, vice president ADT retail sales and operations. "Retailers are looking for more sophisticated and integrated security technology solutions to help limit losses, lower costs and keep prices down."...
Retailers Victims Of Wireless Networks Hacking, Study Finds
After monitoring more than 3,000 stores at major shopping areas in the U.S. and Europe, a wireless security company says that half of the surveyed stores use wireless data systems vulnerable to hacking, according to The Associated Press.
The data that stores routinely transmit on wireless networks include credit card and Social Security numbers and other sensitive customer information.
AirDefense Inc., an Atlanta-based maker of security products for wireless data systems, found that about 25 percent of the stores' 4,748 wireless access points were exchanging data with no encryption at all to foil electronic eavesdroppers....
FBI Says To Stay Aware Of Possible Holiday Terrorist Attacks
In what one FBI spokesman described as "almost an annual ritual," the bureau has obtained uncorroborated intelligence indicating al Qaeda would like to strike shopping malls during the holiday shopping season, two law enforcement sources told CNN.
Holiday threats against shopping malls have become "almost an annual ritual," one FBI spokesman says.
Those sources confirmed there is intelligence dating back to August that al Qaeda would like to attack malls in Los Angeles and Chicago....
A View of the Future
By Stephanie Silk
The Surveillance Studies Network, a group of British academics, have come out with a study entitled A Report on the Surveillance Society a look ahead...
Ringing It Up | Combatting employee theft at point-of-sale registers
By Patrick Sobalvarro
It's not widely known to outside retailers, but employee theft comprises the highest percentage of retail shrink more than that from traditional shoplifters...
Spotting And Stopping Today's Thieves
By Steven May
Retail loss prevention (LP) experts have bad news for retailers when it comes to stopping today's thieves: there's no shortcut. Because today's thieves...
A Regimen For Security
While the retail industry has a unique set of security problems, the loss prevention and operations challenges retailers face and the solutions they use...
Biometric Software Secures Credit Card Purchases
Trying to remember dozens of Personal Identification Numbers (PINs), passwords and credit card numbers could soon become a thing of the past, thanks to...
Biometric Software Secures Credit Card Purchases
Trying to remember dozens of Personal Identification Numbers (PINs), passwords and credit card numbers could soon become a thing of the past, thanks to a unique face recognition software developed by a University of Houston (UG) research team, reports the Hindustan Times.
The software uses a 3-D dimensional snapshot of a person's face to create a unique identifier or biometric.
The software development team, led by Eckhard Pfeiffer Professor Ioannis Kakadiaris at the Computational Biomedicine Lab (CBL), says URxD could be used for everything from gaining access to secure facilities to authorizing credit card purchases. ...
Interior Design Important For Retail Security
New research from the United States suggests that retail businesses underestimate the value of interior design, and retailers in Australia are taking note.
According to Mark Norton, general manager for ADT Security, retail businesses that take a one-or-two-dimensional view of security are failing to effectively combat shrinkage in Australia.
"Undoubtedly the biggest security issue all retailers have in common is preventing shrinkage, but many retail businesses aren't making best use of their existing systems to detect and deter thieves," Norton says....
Prescribed Security
By Ashley Roe
Twenty-three years ago security provisions at St. Mary's Hospital in Decatur, Ill., seemed anything but high-tech. Doors were secured by old-fashioned...
Proposal Standardizes Video Analytics For Loss Prevention
In order to boost the effectiveness of retail loss prevention and to improve the in-store customer experience, Cisco submitted a proposal to standardize how computers describe surveillance video for image analysis to the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), a division of the National Retail Federation. A group of retailers asked Cisco to work with them to develop a consistent way to access video analytic metadata from various vendors.
Video surveillance has traditionally been used in retail for loss prevention. With the aid of computer processing and analysis of video, retailers can further enhance loss prevention efforts and better understand customer behaviors, as well as improve the customer experience.
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Fired Wal-Mart Security Technician Tells Of Spying Operation
Wal-Mart's security efforts were thrust into the spotlight when a fired technician alleged he had been part of a large surveillance operation that spied on company workers, critics, vendors and consultants, reports the Associated Press.
The company has defended its security practices.
Wal-Mart has declined to comment on specific allegations made by 19-year veteran Bruce Gabbard to a Wall Street Journal article published April 4. The company reiterated that it had fired Gabbard, 44, and his supervisor in March for violating company policy by recording phone calls and intercepting pager messages....
Shopping Centers Present Intractable Security Challenges
Shopping centers remain among the most readily accessible targets for both terrorists and garden-variety criminals, recent industry studies confirm.
Since 1998, more than 60 attacks have taken place at shopping centers around the world, according to "Reducing Terrorism Risk at Shopping Centers," a report produced by the RAND Corp., a non-profit think tank headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif.
Last December, the FBI arrested a man for allegedly planning to set off grenades at the 783,167-square-foot CherryVale Mall in Rockford, Ill....
Stop Playing Games With Returns
Every year, retailers and manufacturers lose billions of dollars due to product returns, fraud and shrinkage. Gaming giant Nintendo of America Inc. decided...
Biometric Readers Are Slam-Dunkin'
Alliance Management, Avanel, N.J., a Dunkin' Donuts franchisee with 30 stores in Middlesex, Mercer and Cherry Hill counties in New Jersey, is using HandPunch...
