Loss Prevention Research Council Weekly Series - Episode 116 - UK Crime, NRF views on Recession, and Cloud Computing
With Dr. Read Hayes, Tony D'Onofrio, and Tom Meehan
Retail Leaders Call on Police to Prioritize Crime
https://www.retailsector.co.uk/631790-retail-leaders-call-on-police-to-prioritise-retail-crime/
From Retailsector.co.uk let me start this week by speaking to the challenges the UK is facing with retail crime. On multiple levels, they are similar to what I shared last week from the United States.
Some 106 of the UK’s leading retail voices have reportedly written to Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales, calling on them to commit to “making retail crime a priority” in local policing strategies.
The letters are said to express the retailers’ increasing concerns about the rising levels of violence, abuse, and anti-social behaviour across their operations, as well as the “emotional” impact it can have on victims and their colleagues.
The rise in retail crime, the letter notes, “is partly linked to tackling shoplifting, which pushes up the cost of operating and results in higher prices for everyone”.
In addition, the letter also notes that retailers have set out the steps they are taking to protect retail workers, having spent £715m on crime prevention in 2020/21, according to the latest crime survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
Retailers have reported hiring in-store security teams, training teams on de-escalation, as well as investing in CCTV and body worn cameras for staff, but say local police support is still vital to protecting retail workers.
The letter also outlines ways in which the Police and Crime Commissioners could help the most such as work with local businesses to help give police an accurate picture of the problem, push their local force to investigate all reports of violence and abuse against retail workers, and monitor how the new sentencing guidelines are used and the impact on violence and abuse against retail workers.
Again, all this sounds familiar to USA retailers to points to increased global risk of crime in multiple countries. Probably a good time to think about continuing the efforts to start LPRC Europe.
NRF: Economy Strength Keeping Recession at Bay
https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/news/nrf-economy-strength-keeping-recession-at-bay/
From Retailcustomerexperience.com, published an interesting article this week past week titled NRF: Economy Strength Keeping Recession at Bay.
As they stated, The U.S. economy isn't in a recession and there likely won't be one this year, according to the National Retail Federation.
The news comes as the economy has seen two consecutive quarters of decline.
"Back-to-back contractions have heightened fear of a recession, but while the economy has lost momentum heading into the second half of the year, economic data is not yet consistent with a typical recession," National Retail Federation Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz stated in the organizatinon's August Monthly Economic Review issue. "Our view is that while the economy is functioning at a slower pace it is likely to avoid a recession this year. Despite ongoing uncertainties, we believe the underlying strength of the economy is strong enough to deal with inflation and keep a recession at bay — or short lived even if we are wrong."
One factor signaling an oncoming recession would be a huge downturn in employment, according to Kleinhenz. The June unemployment rate was 3.6%, just a half percentage point lower than the start of the year, according to an NRF press release which noted payrolls grew at an average monthly rate of 539,000 in the first quarter and 375,000 in the second quarter.
Retail sales, which does not include auto sellers, gas station and restaurants, were up 7% in the first six months of the year, according to NRF.
Where Americans Plan to Cut Back in the Face of Inflation
https://www.statista.com/chart/27971/where-americans-plan-to-cut-back-in-face-of-inflation/
Going back to inflation, according to Statista, while Wall Street celebrated the slight cooling of inflation in July, the latest reading won’t be enough to ease the financial pressure on millions of households in the United States in face of rising costs of living. After all, prices were still 8.5 percent higher in July compared to the previous year, even if things didn’t worsen further compared to June price levels. The cooling of inflation in July was mainly caused by a significant drop in energy prices, offsetting further price increases for food and shelter.
Regardless of the move in the right direction, prices remain elevated with energy prices 33 percent above last year’s levels and food prices 11 percent higher than in July 2021. As millions of families face financial hardship in the face of inflation, many are forced to cut back on some expenses to make ends meet.
Here are the top five areas where do Americans plan to cut back to save money in times of high inflation.
- Contracts and subscriptions - 66%
- Clothes – 42%
- Bar, café, restaurants visits – 39%
- Traveling / vacations – 38%
- Food or households goods – 35%
Amazon Leads $200 Billion Market
https://www.statista.com/chart/18819/worldwide-market-share-of-leading-cloud-infrastructure-service-providers/
Finally, this week, again for Statista, who has the largest market share in the cloud computing market?
In Q2 2022, global cloud infrastructure service spending climbed to $55 billion, bringing the industry total for the trailing twelve months to more than $200 billion.
The top 3 leading solutions providers in Q2/2022 and their market share were:
- Amazon – 34%
- Microsoft Azure – 21%
- Google Cloud – 10%
Cloud computing is one of my favorite technologies and even in loss prevention I believe it is critical to accelerate deployment of new technologies.
Summarizing this week, UK faces similar retail crime challenges as USA, NRF is not yet predicting a recession, but consumers are cutting back because of inflation. Cloud computing will keep growing and LP needs to more aggressively embrace it.
