SecurityInfoWatch.com Blogs

Clever nomenclature — all on-board — is just the crux of a new product to be rolled out July 11 by DMP in Springfield, Mo. It’s truly one panel with everything a dealer needs to close sales, including a two-way wireless receiver along with network, cellular and dialer communications in a single enclosure. The XT Series (see product announcement) is a burglary, fire, door access panel that can be customized to include any or all of those communications methods — depending on the customer’s needs. Since they are all “on board” no additional enclosures, cabling or connections are required.  There’s tons of cool features and expandability. I especially liked the Attrition Detection (TM) feature. which sends a message to the central monitoring station that the system hasn’t been in use (armed or disarmed).  With this feature the dealer can contact the user to see what’s up.

–Deborah L. O’Mara

The Ohio legislature is hearing testimony regarding a bill that would increase penalities for organized retail crime offenders. The current model of the bill would make it a first or second-degree felony to steal more than $500 in merchandise in a six-month period.

Proposed punishement includes, fines of up to $20,000 and up to 10 years in prision. This legislation also includes a provision allowing retailers to recoup losses up to and including three times the original amounts.

Security Director News editor, Rhianna Daniels wrote an article about this pending legislative effort. The article can found in their current print edition or on-line. To access the on-line version you will need to register (free)  to view.

Here’s additional reading material on Organized Retail Crime from the National Retail Federation (NRF)

Curtis Baillie - Security Consulting Strategies

Remember the Wendys commercials where Clara Peller asked, “Where’s the Beef?” I was suddenly reminded of the commercials last week when I was shopping at ShopRite grocery store and a WalMart.

First, I was in WalMart at about 11:30AM this past Saturday. When I entered the store the register lines were building across the main front aisle, deep into the interior of the store.  I took the time to count the number of customers waiting in line to check out (ok, I didn’t have anything better to do) and found that more that 150 customers were waiting at four registers. Mind you, this WalMart has twenty-two registers. 

I told my wife that the chaos would be cleared up by the time we were ready to check out. Forty-five minutes later I discovered I had misjudged WalMart’s level of customer service. The lines were just as bad and the same four registers were the only ones open.

I decided to wait, (again not much going on in my life on Saturday AM), and observe what WalMart was doing to aleve the problem. My findings? They were doing nothing. The Manager, when I asked his wherebouts, was somewhere in the back of the store and an employee offered, “They didn’t schedule enough help.” My comment, “No kidding.”

During my wait in line I observed countless customers walk out the door, leaving their selections behind. WalMart! Where’s the customer service?

My second stop was at my local ShopRite.  As in WalMart the store was busy, typical for Saturday. My problem was there weren’t any baggers (courtesy clerks) bagging the customer’s orders. In the grocery industry this is one of my pet peeves. As a long time employee in the grocery business I fully understand the “bagger” is the backbone of the store.

When it became my turn to checkout the cashier rang my order, took my payment and then stood looking at me. I asked if she was going to bag my purchase. She replied, I thought you would do that.” I just stared at her and she quickly bagged my purchase and thanked me for shopping.

Next stop - the Manager. When I described my shopping experience he stated that the Courtesy Clerk position is the hardest to fill. I responded that If I were shopping in a wholesale store I would expect to bag my purchase, but your store is a full service store. I ended with, “If you’re not going to provide the service to the customers - you need to lower your prices.” His response was, “Do you want a job?” That was enough for me, I quickly left the store with my tail between my legs.

Again, I ask the question. Where’s the Customer Service? Wake up retailers.

I heard on my car radio this AM about the likely prospects of the City of Vallejo, CA possibly filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. For those who are unfamiliar with this city, it’s just across the George Miller Bridge, North of San Francisco. This is some very pricey real estate.

What really caught my interest about this news story was the wages paid to members of their Police Department. According to the news a patrolman on their force makes $120,000 a year. A Sergeant makes $151,000 and the upper ranks make $220,000 a year and up.

Now, I’m pretty well in tune with what law enforcement types make around the Country, but this really seems excessive. Before someone tries to give me grief about the risks that police officers take and “their worth every penny” - I spent many years in law enforcement and had to feed my family on a whole lot less and that was after the dinosaurs roamed the earth.

The article says that 20 police and fireman are looking to retire as they are afraid they will not receive their benefits. City Council Member, Stephanie Gomes is quoted as saying, “We’ve been spending more than we been making for 20 years and now it’s time to pay the piper.” Ya think!

In earlier blogs we have talked about RFID technology. Here’s an article that appeared last week in “geekweekly”

Written by Michelle V. Rafter.

RFID Tags Are Tracking Your Every Move

By Michelle V. Rafter - Contributor to “geekweekly“

If you did some skiing last season, you might have used a lift ticket with a tiny RFID tag buried inside that activated the chair lift gates — and tallied how many runs you took.

 Look closely, and you’ll see tags that use radio frequency identification everywhere, from lift tickets to credit cards and passports to pets. Companies like Wal-Mart have used RFID for years to track pallets of merchandise from the warehouse to the store shelf. But as the technology shrinks and costs drop, RFID is showing up in all kinds of consumer settings, including applications such as dressing room mirrors and smartphones.

RFID tags are even being used to track people, a development that has security experts and privacy advocates more than a little concerned. “There are some ethical and moral responsibilities there,” says Curtis Baillie, a longtime retail security consultant in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “There is great potential for it to be misused if somebody wanted to.” Read the entire story.

- Curtis Baillie

 I’m aptly reminded of the saying: when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Here’s just one example of a company that is working the angles rather than just complaining that there’s nothing they can do and the economy is to blame. And it comes from John Menard, owner of home improvement giant Menards.

I have an inside scoop on this company (a family member works for them).  John Menard rewards employees with small tokens throughout the year and a bonus during the holidays that they can spend (in the store, smart). He is known for innovative ways to do business and it must be working because I haven’t heard any gloom and doom from his holdings, but have heard them from The Home Depot side of the big box aisle.

So don’t just sit there and use the state of the economy as a reason not to do business—find new ways to get it done. For example, Menards is creating a need for its drills, saws and toilet seats in a way that’s unique to their industry. The Eau Claire, Wis., based firm is developing homes in residential subdivisions. Homes have been built in Yorkville, Ill., and plans are in the works for similar construction projects in Indiana and another in Illinois as well. The company looks for new projects around its existing stories.  This approach has been called a “first” among home improvement retailers.

Are you creating a need? Are you visiting with community members and not just spitting out the corporate jargon about what your company does but instead targeting the message to the audience? For example, won’t members of the “Newcomers” club be interested in knowing that you offer a video service that allows them to look in on latchkey children when they are not at home; or that you have a way they can use their cellular phone to start the spa running minutes before they pull in the driveway; or better yet, arm and disarm the alarm system remotely?

Building sales takes an innovative approach, no matter what the state of the economy.

So “Verified Response” is back in the news. There was an article in the San Francisco Chronicle (and posted on SIW) which had the city of Fremont, Calif. estimating that it was saving $600,000 per year with its Verified Response policy. Here’s a passage from the article:

[Fremont Police Chief] Craig Steckler says the first three years of “verified response” have gone well, saving the city more than $600,000 a year. He says arrests are up across the board. Taxpayers without alarms, he says, no longer subsidize the 20 percent with alarms.

But of course, there are two sides to every story. Later in the article, it reports:

Alarm industry officials and some residents say criminals have taken advantage, pointing to a rising number of burglaries as a reason no other Bay Area cities have followed Fremont and the few dozen other cities around the country that have adopted verified response.

I have previously written about the issue of false alarms for SD&I here.

So what are your thoughts on the topic? What do you think is the “happy medium” solution?

-Greg

Video analytics has found a new home: Billboards. A company called Quividi has developed a camera/analytics system that can be used in billboards to determine whether people are looking at the billboard and which can supposedly determine basic audience properties (gender, height, sex, etc.). The technology is being used for street-level billboards, and although video is not stored, there has been some concern over public privacy.

 Read the full story from The New York Times (you may have to register; some of their content is for registered users only).

-Geoff