March 2017

Tackling that shrinking feeling
Shrinkage is a given in the retail game, but by taking a proactive
approach to minimising theft, businesses can reduce both their
stress levels and financial losses. By Caitlin Sykes
It’s a crime estimated to cost the country
more than a billion dollars annually, and is
increasingly perpetrated by criminal groups
that are well organised and intimidating in their
methods. But it’s not headline-grabbing offences
such as methamphetamine dealing or cybercrime,
it’s shoplifting.
While it may have once been the domain of
bored, opportunistic teenagers up for a lark,
shoplifting today is often a more organised and
menacing business.
Chris Wilkinson, managing director of Wellingtonbased
retail strategy firm First Retail Group,
has spied a number of growing trends among
shoplifters, including increased incidences of
shoplifters travelling to several similar stores to fulfil
specific orders.
“There’s also an increasing incidence of threats
made against staff and this is something that’s a
major concern to businesses,” he says. “We’ve got
people coming into stores and saying things like,
‘you’re all going to stand in the corner while I take
this, and none of you are going to call the police’...
it’s very scary.”
Phil Thomson
heads up Auror, a
crime-intelligence
and prevention
software
platform that
helps retailers
and police work
together to fight
crime. Thomson
says businesses
in the eyecare
and ophthalmic
industries are
facing similar
issues to many
other retailers
Chris Wilkinson
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18 NEW ZEALAND OPTICS March 2017
with respect to shop theft and shrinkage - a
progression toward more organised offending with
groups that are selectively targeting goods, based on
instructions from others, that can be easily on-sold.
“In particular, sunglasses are a known item
targeted by thieves as they are readily convertible,”
he says. “Just last year, one specialty sunglass retailer
in Dunedin had $30,000 worth of stock stolen
overnight from a kiosk in a shopping mall. That’s
not the type of theft conducted out of opportunity
because someone liked a pair of sunnies; it’s because
sunglasses can be easily sold through markets,
online or in person for money or drugs.”
To put this in an international context, according
to the Global Retail Theft Barometer survey last
year, sunglasses were the number four loss category
within apparel and fashion accessories, says
Thomson.
The cost of shoplifting
Greg Harford, general manager of public affairs
at retail trade association Retail NZ, notes these
trends impact businesses in a number of ways.
“We’re seeing an increasing perception among
some in the community – and it’s an incorrect
perception – that shoplifting is a victimless crime
and there are no consequences. Whereas actually
there are very real victims of it.”
Ultimately, as consumers, we’re all victims as losses
wrought by shrinkage impact the price we pay for
goods, he says. “Retail crime is a big issue. There is
some analysis that suggests it costs the economy
about $1.2 billion a year nationally, so that’s a driver
for every retailer to take it pretty seriously.”
At a firm level, the material cost associated with
shrinkage is more keenly felt. Professional retail
businesses such as optometrists are often small,
privately-owned firms that are particularly impacted
by the financial cost of theft, says Harford, and the
violence and intimidation that are increasingly
being associated with theft can be traumatic
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for staff and
members of
the public, and
present a health
and safety risk.
The emotional
impact of theft
on staff may
be even greater
in healthcarerelated
businesses such
as optometrists,
where
relationships with
clients tend to be
Greg Harford
closer than those
in purely transactional retail environments, notes
Wilkinson. “With that intimacy comes an implicit
trust, so it can be very unexpected when you see
that trust violated.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by therapeutic optometrist
Hadyn Treanor, who is co-owner of Auckland-based
Frith & Laird Optometrists.
“We see ourselves more as a community
optometrist, and that people are coming in because
they’re genuinely seeking help and not wanting
to be ‘sold’ to. So to then find out that that person
wasn’t looking for your help and they were actually
after something to take from you, I think that hurts
more than if it was in a purely retail environment.”
Tackling the shoplifting problem
Frith & Laird’s Manurewa-based premises are
located on the first floor of a medical centre, which
Treanor says makes the practice less vulnerable to
shoplifting, although he says the business is still
not exempt. Prior to joining Frith & Laird seven
years ago, however, Treanor worked in a number of
different practice environments, including in a city
centre location with a large sunglass offering where
shoplifters were very much on the radar of staff.
“One of the little things we always did was ensure
the frame and sunglass racks were kept full, so
if something
was taken it
was obvious,”
he says. “But
sometimes the
more organised
[shoplifters]
would have a
dummy frame
they would swap.
So they’d take
the designer
sunglasses down
and the cheap
service station
sunglasses would
Hadyn Treanor
go into the rack
in their place. So you do need to be very vigilant
because when they’re good, they’re very good.”
Dispensing optician and optometry practice
designer Elaine Silk agrees keeping displays tidy
and fully stocked – affording a quick visual check
that nothing’s missing – is one tactic to help fight
shrinkage.
Silk says thinking about preventing shrinkage
when planning a practice layout ultimately
benefits the overall experience for both clients and
employees. She prefers practice designs that are as
open plan as possible, and says a well-considered
layout can eliminate blind spots that staff can’t
manage or watch.
“Stand at your reception and survey your practice.
Then do the same at your dispensing desks. Are
there areas you cannot see? Consider moving any
freestanding frame displays that impede your line-ofsight
through the practice, and create a clear view for
your employees and clients. The potential shoplifter
will know they are far more likely to be seen.”
Mirrors are also a great theft deterrent, she says.
“One bonus when it comes to optometry practice
design is the ability to use lots of mirrors – both for
your clients to appreciate the great eyewear you have
and for the added perk that when consumers can see
A right mess
A good Samaritan who came to investigate a
disturbance at optometrist Peter O’Hagan’s
Paeroa practice late one night got hit in the head
with a brick for his trouble by a burglar fleeing
the scene.
While the incident made news headlines when
it happened in April 2015, thankfully O’Hagan
says the man who was struck made a quick
recovery. But other annoyances linger.
“There’s a bit of evidence that they’d cased
the joint a few days before. They’d come in,
wandered around, made an excuse and left,” he
recalls.
“The stupid thing was they broke in to steal the
$20 that was in the charity box on the counter –
that’s all they took. For all that, we had glass all
through the front [of the practice], and I was up
in the middle of the night taping it up.”
Despite the experience, O’Hagan – who with
his wife, optometrist Heather O’Hagan, also has
practices in Whangamata, Waihi and Te Aroha
– feels his businesses are not an obvious target
for thieves and their security measures have
remained unchanged.
“It was just our turn. We’ve had three robberies
in 34 years, and for us the cost has been in the
mess, not in what they take.”