Traditional Approaches to Loss Prevention

As detailed earlier in this book, shrinkage is a problem that has an enormous impact upon the profitability of retail organisations and their suppliers, and also negatively affects the consumer through increased prices and reduced availability and selection. It is also a problem that has arguably been with retailers since the very earliest days of trading goods although the move to mass merchandising and open display of products, sometimes referred to as the emergence of the culture of consumption, undoubtedly added fuel to the shrinkage fire. The history of retail loss prevention stretches back over 140 years with accounts of the use of store detectives and security operatives readily available from the early years of the previous century (Abelson, 1989). At this time ‘protection departments’ as they were often called were cloaked in secrecy, partly to ensure that the retailer’s facade of a welcoming and open shopping environment was not sullied by awareness of their need to employ staff who viewed customers (and staff) as a threat. This culture of secrecy can still be seen to a certain extent today, with the publication of loss data continually viewed by many as undesirable and likely to undermine confidence in the business. Back in the early part of the 20th century the use of serving police officers in larger US departmental store retailers to act as investigators and store detectives began to become more common, with the likes of Macey’s establishing a protection department in 1902 (Abelson, 1989) employing such staff.