Fred Tarasoff once challenged a friend who managed a grocery store to an experiment: Over three days, Mr. Tarasoff and an accomplice would try to rob him blind. "We ended up shoplifting about $2,000 worth of merchandise," he recalls, "and I was by no means an experienced shoplifter." A Nelson, B.C.-based who trains retailers on theft prevention, Mr. Tarasoff first realized the price that shoplifting exacts when a small record shop he ran went belly up in large part because a fifth of the stock was walking out the door. That's not an uncommon scenario, he discovered. External theft accounts for more than a third of retail shrinkage, and most stolen goods are gone for good: For every dollar recovered, $30 is lost.
While trained staff are the best defence against thieves, a floor plan that limits hidden areas and provides an open view of the store is not far behind. "The whole idea is to have potential shoplifters think twice," says Mr. Tarasoff, who interviewed many shoplifters in developing his training program. "You want to make them uncertain if and when they may be under surveillance." If a shoplifting gang identifies your store as an easy target, your losses will climb quickly, because the pros can get around most anti-theft devices, he says.
