SI Editor’s View: The retail security reckoning

Retail and security – forever entwined in a marriage of convenience.

Stores need security more than ever in this recession as increasing numbers of “customers” are tempted to steal what they can’t afford to buy.

And the security industry needs those High Street names and retail sheds to stay in business to buy security kit.

Understandable then, that the security industry is holding its breath – as much as the stores themselves – that the hordes turn out to spend, spend, spend in this month’s sales. (There’s now even a satellite navigation tool to help shoppers find the bargains.)

If you’re a bargain-hunting security person, good luck in the scrum. You’re also doing your bit to keep our stores from going to the Woolworths.

It’s estimated that one in ten high street shops will be closed by the end of the month, so for the sake of security, it’s up to us all to leave our good sense and better judgement behind and go out and snap up those “80 per cent off” bargains. (You’ll have noticed how those “unbelievable bargains” posters can be taken literally. They are left pinned up in the window long after the stock has sold out.)

But it’s a damning indictment of how our economy has been manipulated long term that the only way to kickstart it is for people to recklessly buy a load of tat they don’t need with money they haven’t got.

Isn’t that how we got to this credit-crumbling state in the first place?

We never close

If any member of your family works in retail, you’ll know that there are increasing similarities in working in the two industries.

With stores now open all hours, being in retail is like being an installer on 24 hour call out or a guard on night shift, ie, not a bundle of laughs, particularly at this fraught time.

Whenever life up a ladder or dragging wires through a filthy loft seems too much, remember it could be worse. You could be working in retail over the festive season – worse than ever this time round.

So much for the season of goodwill. Store workers had to deal with people whose miserable, stressed-out features were as far removed from the sentiments expressed in the incessant Christmas songs over the speakers as is humanly possible.

Every store the same music (if you’ve seen one shop, you’ve seen a mall).

If you find those once-loved seasonal classics now extremely irritating, just think where you’d want to shove Phil Spector’s sleigh bells if you had to listen to them non-stop every day from mid November until Christmas Eve.

Open to abuse

Along these lines, I was interested to read the latest survey from G4S, which says that we’ve become a nation of abusive shoppers.

One in twenty people believe it’s morally acceptable to verbally abuse a store worker who they believe has offered poor customer service and “150,000 Britons” believe they would be justified in physically abusing an employee.

“Worryingly,” says the survey, “many Britons do not perceive that there is anything wrong in this behaviour”.

While I’m always a little sceptical about over-arching conclusions drawn from a limited number of interviews (this time, 1002 conducted online), I can well believe this one.

We live in an increasingly aggressive society with ever weakening boundaries between what is, and is not, acceptable. Violence is never far from the surface so it’s inevitable that this sad failure to civilise will spill out at the shops.

Many regard retail crime as victimless. That’s never true, especially when a shop worker – often earning not much more than they could get on benefits – is on the other end of some lout’s aggression.

I did see in the notes with this survey that it was carried out with “1002 GB adults aged 16-64”.

Since when was a 16 year old an adult in this country?

I’m not trying to excuse the feral aged who can be alarmingly rude to the poor shop worker, but I’d like to have seen whether or not younger interviewees were more prone to this propensity for violence.

The increasing police call outs to schools – which are meant to exert authority but too often don’t – might suggest that’s the case.

It also suggests that – sad though it is – as long as our stores stay trading there will be an increasing need for both electronic security technology and trained officers.

Spirit of realism

On the subject of recession, I think with the New Year we might get a new spirit of realism as this industry faces the national downturn.

I would recommend anyone who wants a searching, state-of-the-nation assessment to read the comments from Alun John, CEO of Norbain SD, who pulls no punches about security prospects and changes we may expect.

Surprisingly, given the national business mood, this is not necessarily a gloomy read, rather a refreshingly realistic one on how security will be delivered and what types of changes there are likely to be in demand – which, fortunately, is a given.

His comments have already struck a chord – one independent US-based website describes it as “the best security executive interview I have ever seen”.

Says the website: “I strongly encourage you to read the extensive interview as it is an excellent and thorough examination of the state of the security industry.”

Nasty line-up

Forget the honours – who are the New Year Nasties?

Even discounting weasley Westminster, there’s no shortage of contenders here.

How about the greedy power companies determined to bleed their customers dry even though their wholesale costs have tumbled?

Or there’s the money-grubbing train operators upping fares way above current inflation when many passengers are either not getting an annual pay rise or taking a pay cut.

Then there are the banks. Despite the bail out with GB pound 37bn of our money they’re still sitting on it, keeping interest charges high and not lending to UK businesses.

But maybe we shouldn’t be too harsh on them. They are facing increasing security problems from the inside.

In my last newsletter I mentioned the increasing dangers of company information going missing at the hands of employees (see “Devils in our Midst” at the bottom of this article).

Now, according to this report the turbulent economy is making banks much more prone to fraud by their own staff.

“Downsizing” of their staff means they’re employing more transient workers who have access to customers’ sensitive bank details on a daily basis.

I’m among the majority of people who feel uneasy about answering a personal details or history question over the phone, according to the survey.

A customer’s voice biometrics is said to be the answer. Biometrics has gained public acceptance and is making great strides into other areas of security so I don’t see why it couldn’t succeed here.

But I can see a whole new danger from unemployed Rory Bremner/Alistair McGowan-style impressionists trying to get at the accounts of the rich and famous, especially those easy targets.

“Yes of course this is Sir Bob Geldof and I want my ******* money.”