LPRC - CrimeScience Episode 47 – LPRC IMPACT Conference, Retailers’ Response & Lessons Learned from COVID-19 ft. Fred Becker (Bloomingdale’s)

Episode Date: May 5, 2020

In this conversation with Fred Becker, Director of Asset Protection at Bloomingdale’s, we discuss the history of IMPACT, what’s to come for our annual conference, and retailers’ response, planning, and execution during the COVID-19 pandemic. The post CrimeScience Episode 47 – LPRC IMPACT Conference, Retailers’ Response & Lessons Learned from COVID-19 ft. Fred Becker (Bloomingdale’s) appeared first on Loss Prevention Research Council.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Crime Science. In this podcast, we aim to explore the science of crime and the practical application of the science for loss prevention and asset protection practitioners, as well as other professionals. Co-host Dr. Reid Hayes of the Loss Prevention Research Council and Tom Meehan of ControlTech discuss a wide range of topics with industry experts, thought leaders, solution providers, and many more. We would like to thank Bosch for making this episode possible. Take advantage of the advanced video capabilities offered by Bosch to help reduce your shrink risk. Integrate video recordings with point of sale data for visual verification of transactions and exception reporting. Use video analytics for immediate notification of important AP related events and leverage analytics metadata for fast forensic searches for evidence and to improve merchandising and operations. Learn more about extending your video system beyond simple surveillance in zones one through four of LPRC's zones of influence by visiting Bosch online at boschsecurity.com.

Welcome everybody to another episode of Crime Science, the podcast. Today I'm joined by Fred Becker, longtime AP executive also at Macy's, at Saks, at Toys R Us. But Fred's been heavily involved with the LPRC for several years now, involved in working groups on product protection and looking at other issues, but most notably helping us drive and organize and make LPRC impact what I believe it is today. And that is, it's an elite conference for asset protection decision makers, practitioners, as well as the solution partners and others, law enforcement.

So, Fred, if I could, welcome to Crime Science, the podcast. Thank you. Thank you, Reid. All right, so here we are. We're at an interesting time, and Fred and I are going to talk about two disparate or separate things today. One, we're going to talk about LPRC impact. Why, where, how, when. And we're going to talk a little bit about Fred's experience right now preparing for crises and what he knows and does there, and then how that's paid off. But even more critically, what Fred and his team have learned and are continuing to learn as they adjust and adapt to protecting Fred a few weeks ago. That oriented me, focused me, and helped me plan all the subsequent cluster calls and other things we've done. So I really appreciate that, Fred. further ado, let's go to, and let's talk about impact. How did you start getting involved in impact? What did that look like? What were you doing? How were you trying to change the conference? Sure. Thanks, Reid. So I think I've been involved with impact for the past 13 years or so.

Started with, when I was at Toys R Us and then continued on through. So I started attending Impact Learning about what LPRC does and the research and how applying science to our industry problems and helping educate the industry is really the most beneficial aspect that I've been able to get out of it. So I started as a member and participating in different studies, et cetera. And then after, I don't know, a couple of years, I ended up leading one of the working groups and participating in some others. And I think at the time it was a video technology working group, video analytics. And then, and then from there, got more involved in, in, in intimately knowing different aspects of it. And as I was going to

impact conferences, you know, back then it was about 60, 70 folks attending. We decided to volunteer and joined Chris Gillen as the leaderPRC team and decide, okay, how can we change the aspect of the impact conference and make it more beneficial to our members? And really, we just took an outside-the-box approach in looking at it. How do we utilize all the research and the projects and kind of make more headway there with our full team, full membership every year and talk through that. And also, let's focus on some of the other industry challenges out there and bringing some guest speakers, et cetera. So we kind of changed the format over

the years and it grew. And, uh, I think what we did was very successful, uh, cause we started driving more membership, um, uh, more, um, proactive, uh, leaders joining, uh, and, and we saw our, our, uh, uh, attendance, uh, increasing dramatically. So Chris kind of led that group. I helped. I was part of that. And then I ended up becoming the leader. Chris went off to do other things, and I took on the role as the planning leader of the planning committee leader.

planning leader of the planning committee leader. So again, you know, continually challenging ourselves to make it bigger and better, a more learning experience for our membership, which I think we've been, based on feedback, very successful. You know, at last conference, I think we were approaching 500 participants at impact. So that's kind of like a history of how we've changed things from just talking about from an educational perspective to let's drive into the projects to these learning labs, et cetera. We set some parameters that everything needs to be something for everyone, and everyone needs to – it's a collaboration of retail, manufacturing, and solution providers to work on these projects and then talk about the learnings. And everyone – one of the requirements is everyone had to walk away from the conference learning something new. So that's kind of helped drive our success over the years. That's a great update. And for those that don't recall, you know, Impact, the first iteration was actually what we called Brainstorm. And that was before LPRC was

conceived, much less established in 1995. We had Brainstorm 95, Brainstorm 96 and 97. We had Brainstorm 95, Brainstorm 96, and 97. Walt Disney World hosted those three brainstorms. We probably had about 150 executives come in for each of those conferences. They were, we believe, pretty successful, very successful. The format was much different. We had a large open diamond shape that had the VPs of LP. There were a couple AP back then, but it was LP primarily. And they would each bring a number one.

Who was their most promotable person? So they would each come in and we had multiple chains, multiple chains come in. King Rogers was a big leader at that time. He was the VP at Target, of course. And we also had solution partners. Now, we went from the name vendors to solution partners or solution providers because of Brainstorm 95, 6, and 7. And that's really the genesis of moving from vendor to solution provider was that conference.

Well, they went away. And then when LPRC was reestablished in 2000, probably around, and this is ridiculous, we can't remember, but around 2003 or 2004, we started, look, let's have a meeting, an annual conference where we go through our research. We're starting to generate more. That's when we decided, well, let's call it impact. And we had probably 50-ish. We got to 100 at one point, and then it went kind of back down until what Fred's talking about. When he and Chris and some others came in, they really helped us rebuild, refocus, and create a much more dynamic format. So thank you, Fred, for all the contributions.

And Fred and his band get back together every year. How many years now have you been the leader fred of impact planning committee oh i want to say about five reed yeah they really have been the best five impacts out of what we think are what 16 or 17 and then that even includes the three brainstorms so let's kind of talk about here and now and going forward. Conference. What are we looking at as far as content? And then we'll talk about logistics a little bit. What are we looking at maybe as content? Sure. Well, as we've evolved Impact and LPRC as a whole over the years, our content has become very exciting.

I mean, it's just best in class what we talk about at our conference. So you think about throughout the year, instead of retailers the way doing it, the old-fashioned way, right? Each retailer did their own analysis and testing and trying to find solutions, etc. Now we're doing this as a collaboration along with the LPRC group and the data scientists and leveraging the university, which has been tremendous. We're coming up with some really great projects every year that, again, looks at some of the industry, the most important challenges of our industry.

Obviously, this year, you know, one of the key topics will be the current pandemic, right? How do we, how did retail plan for it, put protocols in place, execute, and what are our learnings from that? So that'll, you know, that'll be a big part of what impact this year. I know there's a big, OPRC is heading up the study on that currently. So that'll be a piece. And then traditionally what we've done is we have, again, the bigger main stage type presentations for everyone. Some of our key informative type sessions that usually includes a guest speaker talking about something extremely relevant to today. And it may or may not necessarily be associated with data analysis or a project or whatnot. It could be just what's important for the industry today. So we'll have some of those sessions. And like I said, one of the things that we include in that would be the pandemic and COVID-19 and what that means to retail. And then also looking at how retail offenders use social media. That's something that is of grave concern today and looking at how do we go after that challenge as

an APLP industry. We go through all the research. Again, everyone should walk out of our impact conference, contributing and getting involved, et cetera, because that's what makes us successful. So certainly we go through all of those as a group. And those are all the bigger main stage presentations, if you will. And then what we've done in the past is we've had learning labs. So that's probably been the most popular piece of it. Because as you imagine, retail, there's lots of different segments within retail, big box specialty, all the way down from, you know, department store to supply chain to pharmacy. So, you know, Learning Labs really helps our leaders go and help tackle something that maybe, or something they're interested in that's specific to their segment. So, Learning Labs, you know, again, we go through

some of our best projects that I think would be applicable to and provide learning towards most of our membership. Some of those we're looking at this year is, you know, parking lot safety, examining the effects of fear of crime on a consumer. So a lot of it recently has been focused on customers and their feeling most comfortable coming into the locations, et cetera. In-store impact of active deterrence technology. So there's always pilots being completed on different and new technology. So what are we piloting this year and testing and objectively coming to a conclusion on what worked and what didn't? detecting deviance, results of using video analytics to heighten store security,

homelessness and impact on retail, AP, LP, obviously, and like I said before, probably even more additional studies on COVID-19. And then how does that impact our theft mitigation strategies? impact our theft mitigation strategies. So there's the whole safety piece, planning piece that is what we're in now and most important, but what happens after. So those are some of the key topics that we're looking at for this year's impact. Obviously we're in April and we're still fine tuning what that agenda will look like, but those are some of the key projects that are under development now. Fred. And, you know, when we established LPRC or when the retailers did 20 years ago, there was one project expected per year. And it was radical when Bill Titus, the then chair of the board advisors said, you know, guys, I think we can accomplish one per quarter. And so then it grew to where we've gotten as many as 38, I think, completed in a year.

And we're on pace to complete that many or more this year. Some of them have been slowed clearly because we don't have the store access that we need right this minute. So like you said, Fred, we go through those, or you all particularly go through and look at all the projects. What's going to have the broadest appeal, what solution that's come up with or been improved or enhanced would apply to most retailers. And in a group like the LPRC, where you've got 65 to 70 major retail chains, you're talking about from a Dollar General family dollar style or an AutoZone advanced auto parts type store to Jared's to

Bloomingdale's and everywhere in between. And so when you look at all the types of retail formats and merchandise mixes and trading environments and all the things that go into it, it's a challenge to do the research that's more broadly applicable, but yet definitive enough that most of the people walk away with one or more key learnings. And I know that's what you guys do a super job of, and that is looking at, all right, what do we have? What's coming up? What would be the most impactful to present on main stage or in the learning lab breakout sessions, or sometimes we put posters out like we do at academic conferences. So those are important research projects, but may not have as much broad appeal. And so we're going to have posters with a QR code

or whatever, so people can get more information. What are some other unique aspects, Fred? I mean, you've been to NRF, NRF Protect, as I have since I've been since it was NRMA back in the day. Not to compare and contrast to the negative, but what are some of the differences in the style, the feel, how impact flows? Sure. So I think the number one thing is, you know, I say two. Two things is the difference would be the application of science and analytics to the content. You know, we get lots of great sessions at NRF and RILA and some of the other industry conferences. That comes more from experience of a few individuals or what a

company learned, et cetera, versus this is, you know, again, utilizing the resources of all the solution providers, manufacturers, and retailers, collaborating together on some of these challenges, and then utilizing the data scientists in the university to come up with a scientifically vetted solution, facts and data. So I think that's a big part of it is the, you know, the information, uh, the, the collaboration, et cetera, coming up with great conclusions. And then I think the other piece is, is the feel, the feel is different in that it's a, a, um, more collaborative effort, a more participatory effort. So, you know, we work hard to try and make sure the sessions are every, you know, we review the results, et cetera, but then we encourage the participation. So,

you know, it's everyone's involved. Our learning labs end up being obviously smaller groups because you can pick and choose which ones are most important you can go to attend. But, you know, it's interactive. I think it's a lot more interactive than you'll see in other conferences. And that's, you know, by design. So, you know, we get the most out of it. Yeah, that's good because I really get a lot out of NRF Protect. Always have the same with RILAs.

I've been to some excellent FMI conferences in the past, even Retail Council of Canada and the British Retail Consortium and NACS and others. But like you said, we're not designing impact to compete, but rather to engage the membership. And as you said, wherever possible, we try and use a scientific method where we incorporate anecdote and experience and expertise, but we're going to use best available research methods to get to the heart of this. How are we going to understand what's causing this? What are the mechanisms that are causing this problem, this issue, or in this place or across different types of retailers? All right, now let's drill down. Now we have a better understanding.

And that could be the research in itself. Now, what are some options to reduce the problem, you know, to make us less vulnerable, to reduce the risk exposure and things like that to mitigate? So that's been the tradition in history. And like you said, we're blessed in that it's a smaller group. I think in a way, you know, we've been topping out around 400 or so executives. And so we don't have to have quite as large a venue. And having it at the University of Florida does a couple things. And the board board you all on

the board and elsewhere keep voting to have it there because it's not a normal uh conference venue or a hotel environment that and so they like that you guys seem to like that change that you're in this academic environment on this beautiful you know whatever division one research one campus and you're you're the students are there wearing their lab coats and directing people, you know, where to go. And we have that sort of academic university feel there and play on the collegial part. have co-locate the different learning labs and the main stage and the, of course, the experience center that we have where the solution partners get in there and display and talk about some of their solutions, but tied into the framework of five zones of influence and so on.

So that's what we've tried to do. But what we're trying to do is just basically engage everybody and leverage the, help them leverage all the research that's going on with and for them together. So what else does the listener need to know, Fred, about 2020 impact? How to learn more, get engaged, and participate? What's impact 2020 going to look like? 2020 going to look like? Well, so I'll answer that by saying, you know, we're working through what we think that will be, right? So I don't know that anybody yet knows quite what the environment will be in June or August or September, October this year. So, you know, we're certainly planning for

different contingencies of what we think impact will look like. I think one of the most important things to communicate is that we will have impact, right? Whether we're all together in Gainesville later this year, which will be dependent upon the environment, which will be dependent upon what our membership preferences are in terms of travel, that type of thing, or whether a virtual perspective. We are planning on having the ability to have a virtual conference this year where, you know, we're still, we're determined to get the content out to our membership. And those things I talked about earlier, you know, we're going to make sure that that happens, right?

So, you know, maybe a virtual component of it where we have live sessions that walk through all of these pieces and provide it in a fun, innovative type of format. The team has been looking forward to figuring that piece out and how our impact conference this year flows. Fantastic. So it sounds like the way you were describing, Fred, the 2020 impact could range. It could be totally digital. It could be partially digital and partially physical. Regardless, all of the 12 sessions will be digital. And then I guess it sounds like, as you said, nobody knows what's going to happen next week, much less that first week in October when Impact 2020 is. And nobody knows how the condition of budgets and travel

and all those things that are happening. But regardless, we're going to have a fantastic 2020 impact. Anything else we need to know about impact, Fred? No, I would just say, you know, stay tuned, you know, we'll be communicating and marketing, you know, what our plans are. But, you know, you know, as we continue throughout the year, we want our membership to continue to participate in the working groups, and we want to prepare for a top-notch conference, regardless of the format. So, looking forward to IMPACT 2020. 20. Excellent. I don't let you know, and the listeners know too, Fred, by the way, that the research science team here that are facilitating in Diego, the working group calls are running at record high numbers. So, you know, and I think we all can relate and hear a lot

about, well, I've never been busier, but I've never had more free time and more ability to learn and grow myself, my capabilities. And so it is interesting how rapidly and how much involvement we've seen that grow with each of the working groups. And I know that they're all planning something for Impact, all of the seven working groups. Let's switch gears if we could. We're all excited about 2020 impact in Gainesville the first week in October. That information will all be coming out. It'll be on our website. You'll see, of course, a lot of social media play on LinkedIn, and you'll see it on Facebook, and you'll see it on Twitter, and so forth. And then all the members out there, of course, beginning seeing the LPRC

eConnect newsletter and elsewhere. So we'd love to get any and everybody involved. This is a way to get the LPRC research and results community at large together and grow and go together using systematic research. So switching gears, Fred, if we could, let's talk a little bit about, I started off the podcast saying that you and I talked for a while and you were sharing the challenges and you were just getting into what in the world was going on. You were dealing with the effects on NYPD and the effects on your team and the effects on everything else that was happening. So maybe we can go through and, you know, what are some of the things that you learned and how you prepared before for a threat and so on. Let's start at the beginning if we could.

Sure. So what I'll do is I'll talk a little bit about some of the things that, you know, we encountered here. And also, you know, I do consistently talk to some of my peers in the industry. So this won't be a Bloomingdale's focused discussion. This will be more of what I've learned through experience personally here in today's environment, as well as some of my peers and what they, some of the challenges they've seen, et cetera. So, you know, first it is a unique time, right? So, you know, so many retailers are right now in closure. Some of them have associates furloughed, stores, cities are quiet. There's no one on the streets. There's certainly a unique environment today.

So I don't know that a lot of planning was in place for this specific scenario, a pandemic hitting a city and closing down a full country. So there's a whole litany of issues that arose just from that, from a preparation standpoint. issues that arose just from that, that from a preparation standpoint, I don't know how many others, but the retailers I've spoken to were not prepared necessarily to close all stores for an extended period of time. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of challenges just associated with that, right? How do you communicate? And then you add onto that, you know, the furlough process and associates not working.

And how do you how do you work in that environment? Right. So there's there was a whole list of challenges with those from, you know, folks that don't normally know how to utilize an alarm system in a store that have to go and check on the store, have to go and, you know, go through alarm response training, you know, things like that, that when you look at it, it's not an isolated incident. This is across a nation. So lots of challenges from that perspective. And so lots of challenges from that perspective. When you look at it from a communication perspective, you know, all the plans that you had in place from an emergency response platform, emergency communication, all of those things, you know, there weren't necessarily always scenarios for this specific challenge we have out there. And then, again, you layer on individuals who aren't working or are out sick or are furloughed.

Then, all right, now you have to modify all those lists, right, because those folks aren't available. So that was some of the preparation and or first initial reactions to this status of the business. That's really interesting insight. Like you said, you could do all the thinking, reading, planning, tabletop exercise facilitation that you'd like, but the idea that something like this would shut everything down across the entire globe at one time or in a somewhat staggered way wasn't foreseen you know the handling yeah a sewer line breaks it's different you look at it you know a lot of plans are more regional you know if you have a a hurricane hits a certain part of the country, you react to those store closures and you have those preparation plans.

But just as an example, video review, usually you have a command center and you need to pull up those cameras and those stores in that part of the country, et cetera. Well, now if you have all your stores closed, you know, how do you handle that? Now you have the, you know, when you have more people working from home, your redundancy of your, your, your backup systems are changing, right? So you need to adapt to those types of things. You know, you mentioned law enforcement before we, you know, obviously we all rely heavily on law enforcement to assist us in emergency situations, but how are they being impacted? So I've had conversations, as an example, with the NYPD. So right now, 20% of their staff is out sick. They're not available.

And then they've also had some deaths and unfortunately in their ranks. And, you know, will we, will they be available if, if we need them? You know, certainly there's, it's a big organization, but how does that impact even a smaller jurisdiction in their ability to respond to a store or assist when necessary. So all things that, you know, I don't know that was always considered in terms of not having that resource available. So that's, you know, another example of how these times are different and we need to think differently. How about your team? How do you, you know, we don't want to get into anything too sensitive, obviously, but how do you reorg your team, given, you know, there's some other infrastructure closures or changes, subway, for example, Uber and cabs and things, but then how do you man and protect the assets while protecting your team. And if a team member goes down, you mentioned NYPD having several thousand, or we know several thousand are out sick and that they've even now had some fatalities in different ways, even sworn officers. What's that look like

for you, Fred, and what you all are doing and what you're hearing as you closely coordinate, as you said, with other New York-based retailers? Sure. I mean, there's absolutely a human resource aspect of this, you know, making sure, you know, what's your communication plan with your team? How are you keeping them informed? If they're working, if they're not working, if they're working, if they're not working, um, they, you know, everyone today becomes more generalist because, you know, you have a smaller group and, you know, you're taking on more responsibilities to, you know, maintain, um, the environment, whether it's, you know, physical or it's, um, you know, dealing with systems or, or. So managing that piece has become even greater in terms of training, et cetera. And then, you know, what if someone gets ill? What is the

process? When can they come back to work? So all those types of things in today's environment is new and important in terms of dealing with a pandemic. Another piece is, you know, if, if you have folks working in a store, cause there's some buildings like some of the big flagships that still need to be maintained because they're not meant to be shut down for extended periods. So you have people working in stores to keep the, you know, essential staff working. How do you keep them safe? You know, creating or enforcing social distancing, using PPE, you know, essential staff working, how do you keep them safe? You know, creating or enforcing social distancing, using PPE, you know, personal protective equipment, sanitizing, keeping the area sanitized. So those are all the new, new priorities that, you know, we're dealing with today in terms of, and probably will be a go forward

in what's, I guess, termed as the new normal, right? That's something that we will be continuously focusing on. Yeah, you mentioned, of course, PPE and looking forward, and we've heard this from many where PPE for the supply chain, but now PPE for stores. Are you all seeing the same shortages that others are in cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment, Fred, at this point? Yes. Yeah, we're no different than anyone else.

You know, we do go through and work through our suppliers to get what is needed, et cetera. I think, you know, we had a good plan. We had, um, some, some supply that we had in place beforehand, uh, as we were initially starting to plan for this, um, current environment. So, uh, yeah, it's definitely a topic uh that is uh important is ensuring that whatever you put out there whatever the guidelines or requirements are that you have you have the equipment you need so um certainly that is a you know continues to be a priority have you noted uh whether it be at your chain or others other colleagues you've got that you all are talking regularly with, any changes in theft, fraud, or violence types or intensity or locations? Anything significant there, Fred, that you're noting? Sure.

So I guess there's two ways to look at this, right? There's some retailers that are currently open for business, right? Grocery, pharmacy, et cetera, that are completely open and have customers going into locations. And then we have some retailers that are limited because of restrictions in terms of like a curbside pickup type scenario only. And then, you know, we have some that are completely shut for business, except for maybe a dot-com fulfillment type role. So the folks that I've spoken to that are open, what we're seeing is, or what they're seeing, I should say, is it's increased more in the fraud perspective or cash theft, those types of challenges from the feedback I've gotten. But I think the other piece is, too, for a retailer like mine that's currently closed, what do we expect when we do open?

What's the new environment going to be? Lots of discussion around that. We don't know, obviously, until we get there. But some of the extenuating factors out there was, was the jurisdiction you're in, did it have a rise in crime beforehand? What did the theft look like prior? So a jurisdiction like New York City with different law changes and whatnot, there was an uptick. So how does that apply when we open? What do the bad actors, what are they doing now and how do we expect them to react when retail is back open, when the country is back open for business?

You know, ORC groups who maybe have not had the ability to go out and make their money, if you will, stealing from retailers, etc. How are they going to react? Are they going to be more aggressive? The other piece, too, is our associates, right? Internal theft is always 50% or 60% of shortage as an industry, at least those are the numbers that are widely used. How is that impacted? Associates coming back, are they going to have financial opportunities? Are they going to be more desperate?

Are they going to be disgruntled because of any actions taken by their organization? And that could be a driver of increased internal theft. So we need to have a plan in place in terms of a focus on that. So those are all topics that are being discussed from a theft mitigation perspective. You know, as we become more customer centric in the new environment, which is the right thing to do, does that increase exposure? Does that increase more of a fraud exposure? Do the bad actors use this new environment, you know, as an opportunity to be more aggressive? environment, you know, as a, as an opportunity to be more aggressive, will retailers become more hands-off because someone they're stopping may potentially be COVID-19 positive? Or what if they

say they're COVID-19 positive? Do, do apprehensions become more hands-off? Do you, is there a new process where teams need to wear masks and gloves? And, you know, those are all topics of conversation that are real in terms of planning for the new environment. Yeah, it's phenomenal and almost mind-boggling, right? How are the dynamics going to be changing daily in all the different types of retail practices? And you mentioned earlier about business as usual versus we're only going to serve out of the front of the location or even via drive-through or drive-up,

buy online, pick up in store, return. How are all these things, the logistics going to flow and what is the tasking looking like? All issues that we're trying to tackle here and working with you all, as you know, and trying to simulate some of those environments right now and do what we can in that way. Fred, what else? Anything else we need to know, listeners need to know about impact conference coming up, about planning for and handling a pandemic?

planning for and handling a pandemic? You know, the only other thing that comes to mind is, you know, the safety aspect in the new world. You know, I talked about the theft mitigation, you know, what is the environment going to be and how do we plan for that? But also the safety piece of it. You know, we have the CDC recommendations in terms of, you know, You know, we have the CDC recommendations in terms of, you know, PPE, personal protective equipment, and social distancing, and sanitization, and cleaning, and all that. But how does that work in our retail environment, right? We have all these other challenges, and it won't be business as usual. So, you know, if you have an associate entrance and package checks and or people coming in and out, well, how do you socially distance there? Do you change, you know, issuing keys, all those types of checking IDs, all those types of things that, you know, happen to, you know, create a physical security environment in a location, how do you need to change those types of things? And, you know, how do we address fitting rooms and all those types of lines? Are we queuing lines at cash wraps? Are there other

things we need to put in place? So those types of safety challenges that we have and preparing for those are just as or probably even more important than, you know, how do we put together a theft mitigation plan? I should say theft and fraud mitigation plan for when we're back open for business in the new environment. So those are all real important things that I think, you know, as an industry, we need to make sure that we're working on and actually having a lot of collaboration around because, you know, as an industry, we need to make sure that we're working on and actually having a lot of collaboration around. Because, you know, if you take a mall environment, you know, is it confusing for the customer as they walk around and each retailer has their own different requirements and the mall has their requirements, you know, in terms of

do customers wear personal protective equipment? What is the standard practice for socially distancing? There almost needs to be more consistency so it's not as confusing for our customers in the new environment. So those are all things I think we as an industry need to think through and plan for. I think we as an industry need to think through and plan for. Great call out, especially, well, all of it, but especially at the end there, talking about that collective action, that coordination and consistency. And a key point, as you know, Peter is trying to lead a charge on how do we work collectively together? We can get more done. I've not actually thought about what you just brought up, Fred, though, about reducing the confusion for the customer, which is part of the customer experience.

If they have a consistent, understandable experience because everybody's pretty consistent, as you said, or similar on what they're trying to do to protect their people and everybody, the shopper as well. So good stuff. their people and everybody, the shopper as well. So good stuff. I just want to really thank you again today for all your hard work and all your insights around the 2020 LPRC Impact Conference, which by the way, will include, of course, the 2020 version of Strategy At for the top most senior experienced LPAP leaders, senior leaders. And then also, of course, all the great insights around how to plan, how to execute during a pandemic, how to coordinate with each other. So thank you very much, Fred, for your insights today. Well, thank you, Reid, and everyone have a great day.

Everybody stay safe. Thank you for listening to another episode of Crime Science. I want to thank our producer, Kevin Tran. Everybody stay safe. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Crime Science Podcast presented by the Loss Prevention Research Council and sponsored by Bosch Security. If you enjoyed today's episode, you can find more Crime Science episodes and valuable information at lpresearch.org. The content provided in the Crime Science Podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for legal, financial, or other advice. Views expressed by guests of the Crime Science Podcast are those of the authors and do not reflect the opinions or positions of the LF's Prevention Research Council.