LPRC - CrimeScience – The Weekly Review – Episode 224 Ft. Mark Stinde (Casey’s)

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

In this episode of the LPRC CrimeScience Podcast, Cory Lowe, PhD, speaks with Mark Stinde, Vice President of Asset Protection at Casey’s, about his career journey and the evolution of retail loss prevention strategy. Mark shares insights from his decades in the field and discusses how the Total Retail Loss framework guides modern asset protection by aligning safety, operations, and profitability. They explore how operational efficiencies, cross-department collaboration, and data-driven decision-making are helping Casey’s strengthen both performance and protection. Tune in for a thoughtful conversation on leadership, innovation, and the business of preventing loss in today’s retail landscape.

Hi, everyone, and welcome to crime science. In this podcast, we explore the science of crime and the practical application of this science for loss prevention and asset protection practitioners as well as other professionals. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, everyone. My name is Corey Lowe. I'm the director of research here at the Loss Prevention Research Council, and welcome to Crime Science podcast. Today I'm joined by Mark Stendi, VP over at Casey's.

Mark, welcome to the podcast. I'm sorry, thanks. I'm excited to chat with you today. So am I. I've been following your work for a little while now, and I've always appreciated a lot of what you're doing. So for those who are not familiar with you, and those should be few and far between, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background in the industry? Absolutely. So look, like many of our, my colleagues or folks that are in the industry, I started in a store actually as a retail employee working in the shoe department and a company called Mervins, which used to be owned by the Target Corporation no longer around, worked in the shoe department. And often I was either calling the loss prevention back then, calling the loss prevention team or being asked to assist in. apprehensions. And, you know, the door that I was at was real close to the bus stop. And we had a lot of folks coming in and taking shoes and other stuff. And so I, that, you know, really that was my introduction into asset protection or loss prevention in the, in the retail space. Later, I was

asked to join the team and joined as a store detective back in 1988. And it was very short. Shortly after I got into the role, I discovered that this was what I wanted to do in my career. And, of course, at first it was catching shoplifters and then transitioned into internal theft. And, you know, eventually, you know, into the thing we're going to talk about today or talk a lot about today, which is operational loss within the business as well. I've held lots of senior roles in the asset protection space throughout my career. I led the AP program at Circuit City at J.C. Penny at Kroger and at Casey's. And prior to that, my first role in convenience was with 7-Eleven. I spent nine years there.

Most of my career has been in asset protection. However, I led safety for a division of the Home Depot back in the early. 2000s, where I was solely focused on the environmental health and safety function in the organization. And then also spent a couple of years in operations as a district manager. I ran stores down in the St. Louis Market. And then beyond that, you know, I believe in giving back to the industry. I've spent a good bit of time doing that in my career with an editorial board with LP magazine. I serve on the board at the Loss Prevention Foundation and actually chair that board. And throughout the years, of course, I've been involved with both RELA and the National

Retail Federation as well. Fantastic. You have a very long and varied career across many different areas, which is why I'm excited to talk to you about total retail laws today. at NRF Protect 2025, you led the session Eating the Elephant Tackling Total Retail Loss one by the time. Can you tell the listeners a little bit more about the total retail loss methodology and how it can help develop that strategy, a comprehensive strategy that touches on all those things you just mentioned, right? You were doing externals and then you were doing internals and then did more on safety and the operational side of things. how does the total retail loss model help think about that and build that strategy? Sure. Yeah. So as we talked about, I think at the NRF session, we talked afterwards, you know, operational inefficiencies, you know, they cause both operational loss, but also as we talked about, they create gaps in our mitigation efforts around theft and fraud as well.

So they come together. And, you know, I think I've always believed that you've got to fit strategy to situation. And so there are places that you're going to be in retail where you have a heavier external theft, internal theft, challenge. And that might be a larger part of the overall total loss bucket. And so you're going to spend more time there because that's what we do as leaders is we prioritize where the issues are. In my business, in many places that I've been, the total loss components that are operational tend to create a greater sense of urgency for me as I'm trying to drive the business. And so as you think about it, in our organization, what I would call the traditional asset protection places that folks spend time, which is the shrink cash loss in the convenience space,

it's lottery, in other places it might be, you know, money ordering or some of the other issues. Those traditional asset protection components only represent about a third of our problems within the business at Casey's. And so as I think about, you know, our business and what my team and I did, when I first came to the organization, is really evaluate how big the opportunity was in the business that we should focus on.

And should we, how much focus should be on those traditional areas of the business and how much of the focus should be more operational in nature? And as we did the work and we diagnosed the business, we identified really the need to focus on those operational components of the business. So can you tell me a little bit more about how, you approach that problem of diagnosing that and you know when you talk about operational losses you know perishables comes to mind and when you've had the the experience in the grocery business and then the C store business that that's a huge component of it right how do you actually do the

analysis and determine okay I need to focus on this here as opposed to this yeah so look I've been real fortunate most places I've worked either we invested in analytics or we are had an analytics function in place. When I got here, we already had an analytics function in place. The gentleman by the name of Joe Haley leads my total loss. And when I got here, it was shrink in inventory, and now he leads the total loss in inventory component of the business, including analytics. And so when I got here, Joe, of course, Joe had spent some time in internal audit, which is part of the financial and accounting arm of the organization. So he knew the business really well. We actually brought in a new analyst about the time that I arrived.

And then we started to work with all of our partners. And I think, and honestly, I think that's critical is making sure not only that you get the right people to help you assess the size of the opportunity, but along the way you're going to get buy-in. They're going to buy into the fact that you're going to focus in an area that maybe hasn't been focused. This focus hasn't been there previously. And so you're going to get there buying as you work through it. So we partnered with our accounting function, with our finance function, with internal audit, with treasury, and with all of our partners in the merchandising side of the business to make sure we gained alignment that not only could we quantify how big the opportunity was, that we could get

alignment from those teams that we should be a partner in addressing the gaps that are there. And so we could make the business better. And so that was the initial starting point, which was really quantifying and getting in alignment of all those stakeholders that these were actually, this was actually the value and this was actually the work

that we were going to do together to go and mitigate those issues. So some retailers have a greater problem with operational loss than internal or external. But in a lot of places, these things are intertwined, right? If I have poor operational controls, that can create criminals for criminals an opportunity to commit offenses. If you have high external and internal losses, that can create greater operational complexity. My point here is that all these things

are kind of tied in together. Why does that make the total retail loss model essential for any retailer? Well, first of all, I think you made the point partly in the question, and you said they're intertwined. If you, if you, I'll take, you know, we don't do buy online pickup and store and then in the traditional way that many folks do, but I've, I've experienced that. And I actually was with a large grocer where we, we had rolled that out. If you don't have the right process in place, checks and balances, good operating percentage. procedures, follow up by the leaders, right? Not only can you pick wrong and create issues around the picking process or the delivery process to the guests when they come in the store to pick up their goods. But because those processes are not in place, then the bad guy, either the internal

person who might get involved or the external person, is going to find those gaps in process and exploit those gaps. And so that's why they both, to your point, they both tie together. It's important that you have those things in place to where your inventory management is correct and you've got the right process and procedures there, but also that you minimize the potential,

you know, would be bad guy to make bad decisions that are going to impact your business on that front. Yeah, most definitely. I've always been kind of surprised, by how retailers will talk about these things as separate issues when they are highly intertwined. And if you're not thinking about those intersections between them, you probably aren't going to build a strategy that can address all of the complexity. Another thing that you and I talked about was, you know, during COVID, a lot of retailers brought on some very

operationally complex processes and channel offerings, whether that, that's buy-online pickup in store or curbside or return in store, you know, just a ton of new things that had several impacts on the business. How do you think all these have contributed to operational losses? And how do you think they're continuing to contribute to those losses? Yeah, so, I mean, we talked about, you know, the need, really, Buy online pickup and store became a critical thing that you had to do because you were trying to minimize, you know, interaction between the guests and the team member. And so curbside pickup and delivery and all those things just got like put on steroids as we went through the process. And with that, we found that, you know, some of our guests were like those changes in terms of how we were, we were doing business.

And so you can't go to a retailer today that you don't have some type of, you know, Bopus process or, you know, I was just at our grocer this weekend and saw folks coming in, you know, parking in their lane, waiting for their order to come out and be put in the trunk of their car. And so, you know, all those and just the delivery piece, you know, obviously adds a component of complexity and risk because you're, you know, depending on how you're delivering. You do that internally. There's some safety risk and security risk that comes with that. And so all those things, you know, those new ways of doing business, then create that intersection of process issues that we talked about earlier that could potentially

break down and create shrink or loss, but also the external theft components that can come along with that. So I think, you know, the way that we approach solving those things are very similar in terms of methodology, but to operationalize those things can be challenging at times, right? So I think that's where the value of an innovative asset protection and operations partnership to make sure you're doing the right things around those challenges, certainly are paramount. Yes. And I have benefited greatly. I have four kids. The last thing that I want to do is go into a grocery store with four kids in tow or have my wife leave me at home with the four kids while she goes in grocery shops, right? Or vice versa, right? So I appreciate it a lot.

But, you know, if you deal in perishables, that adds in a whole new layer of headache, right? Pineapples, for example, I can't get a good pineapple via delivery. Casey's, y'all deal with perishables in a little bit of a different way, but it's still absolutely critical to your program and controlling those losses. So I wanted to get more into perishables. What are the key drivers of loss with perishables? and how those relate to the total retail loss strategy. So perishables for us are a significant part of the total loss equation for us. If you think about almost a good bit of our merchandise mix has a code date on it, right?

So whether you're buying something from our kitchens, and I'll get to that in a minute, or you're buying something on the sales floor. So think about hostas products, the donets, the, you know, we have private label products just like that. Those come in frozen. They go to the shelf. They've got a certain amount of shelf life once they are thawed and they go to the shelf. And if you're not managing inventory, if you're putting too much out, if you've got too many

facings that don't match your rate of sales. sales. If you're merchandising throughout different parts of the store and you're not managing rotation and making sure that all those things are done correctly, then you will waste those items. And because you're going to always want to make sure you err on the side of making sure that the guest gets good quality product when they come in to shop the store and that it's available. So it's the balance between shelf on shelf availability, along with making sure that you're minimizing the waste risk that comes with those items. And so for us, I talked about the packaged bakery. You've got cookies, jerky, you know, all those things

have shelf life on them. So even though some shelf life might be a good bit longer, all of that has to be managed. And you've got to make sure you're rotating stock and getting the freshest product to the guests that you can, making sure that you're not wasting out items. So that's, That's really, think of that in the center store or the middle of our stores. And then think about our kitchen. For us at Casey's, we are the fifth largest pizza producer in the United States. We make a made-from-scratch pizza with handmade dough and all the stuff that goes along with that. And unlike some pizza producers who just make whole pies and deliver those whole pies to the,

of the guests or sell them in the store, we actually sell by the slice. And so your process around how you, how you're doing forecasting for what you're going to sell, making sure that your production process is really good and you're making sure that you're producing enough to not disappoint your guests, but also not producing so much that you're wasting too much. and throwing that stuff away. And so inventory management is critical as well. So for us, as those raw ingredients come into the store, that we've got those put into our coolers and freezers in a way that they can be rotated,

that we know we've got the fresh items are being served to our guests, or making sure that we're not putting stuff in the back. and then of course the potential for for waste or shrink or whatever comes along with that. And so those are those are some of the critical components that we manage within the stores. Most definitely. I developed a newfound respect for grocery asset protection, loss prevention when I was having a conversation with Chris Harris. So I know you know. and I sat with him and he was telling me about hunting down rotissory chickens and I was like oh my gosh so you've got all the same center store shrink issues right with all of those high theft products you've got the public facing issues with violence but then you have this horrendous issue associated with managing perishables I mean this hugely complex issue so I have tended to call

grocery AP on hard note. It sounds like the same thing is true of C stores as well. Now, employee training plays a critical role in controlling all these things, internals, externals, and operational losses. What have you found in terms of training strategies that have moved the needle on, you know, managing these issues and getting the training part right. Yeah, you know, we've talked about, we've got, you know, just like any, any other convenience store, QSR, there's the turnover issues that come, right? So you're, you're wanting to make sure you're, you're educating your team on the things that they, that they need to do. To number one, most important, keep themselves safe, keep their, keep the guests safe.

Those are, both of those are paramount, most important. And so then, you know you also got to make sure that you're you're providing the information that helps them operate efficiently um and effectively so you are we talk about it you'll hear me say it a lot today is we're not disappointing the guest we're getting them what they need but we're doing it in a way that's efficient and it mitigates loss right so those two things um which uh you know which could be complex but you got to educate the team members on what that looks like and so for us you know um you You know, if you think about the most important thing with that first part, I talked about turnover, is making sure that you create an environment that's engaging, that the team member feels good, that they want to come to work. They want to work for your company.

You've got a culture that everybody wants to come and be a part of. Our human resources team and operations teams have done just a magnificent job with that, making sure that our team members feel good about working for Casey's and this good place to work. and that we make it fun and we make it inviting for them to come and be part of the team. So the first part is minimize that turnover so you don't have to keep retraining brand new team members every week because you've got new folks coming in. But then you make the learning efficient and effective in a way that the learner of today is going to want to learn. And our learning and development team has done just an outstanding job partnering with us to make sure that we're delivering content that does, you know, the things I talked about, it keeps our team members and guests safe, but it also is helping us as we operationally manage the business to drive sales and delight our customers, but also minimize and mitigate waste. as a department we've engaged a third party to help us with our awareness programs as many of my partners in the industry have done we branded that program we call it the point and it's

really the idea is it's the point on our weather vein on our brand if you look at our our brand and then it's what's the point of asset protection and the point of asset protection is the things I've mentioned keeping folks safe making sure that we're we're driving the business and helping the business and enabling the business while mitigating loss and risk in the business as well. And so we deliver that through a couple of different ways. We deliver that through content that goes out and goes into our information centers and our stores and our distribution centers. We also deliver the content through animation videos that are relevant to the topic of the month. And we have had really great participation by our team members.

I think just last month we were well over half the team. It's a voluntary program for them to participate in and well over half of our team members participate and get in and understand what's going on within the business. Along with that, we have really tried to make sure that it's seamless from what our awareness materials are to what our learning materials are that our internal learning and developed team is delivering. And we've done a nice job of really mirroring the two to where it looks the same. That's absolutely critical. Just from an educational standpoint, reinforcing the message and making sure that's consistent, that follows all the best practices in education. So absolutely critical. You know, we say that you can't have a program without

people processes and technology. So the next question I have for you is really focused on that technology. What tools or advances or technologies do you see out there that y'all have been leveraging that have really provided that ROI on reducing or managing, you know, internal, external and operational losses? Sure. Yeah. So one of the first things we did here at Casey's is we We rolled an exception reporting program out, exception reporting and incident management and combination. And that, of course, helped us with not only operational loss, because there are certainly things that we found with that tool that has enabled us to go and attack operational loss,

but also both internal and external theft issues. And so we deployed that solution in the fall of 23 and have had a very good return on investment for that rollout. Along with that, we, you know, I talked about analytics. I'm real proud of our team. We really don't have an Excel file in the business anymore. I would say it doesn't mean we don't ever touch an Excel file because, you know, of course, today there's some really practical uses but but our reporting suite is all in a in a power BI dashboard we manage every piece of the business there we deliver that content out to our

stores all the way down to the store level and it's you that reporting is unique to the individual store we're able to get that to operators at each level with drill in information and really helping them diagnose where the issues are within their business. And, you know, I would tell you that to me, that's probably, even though folks are reporting, this has been the most innovative dashboarding that I've been a part of. And I've got an outstanding analytics team. I mentioned Joe Haley earlier. I've got a gentleman on the team named Craig Haupt.

And another member on our team, Margo, who have just killed it, is it really? relates to going out and delivering great content for our stores. And so that's been a really good tool for us. And look, I don't have some of the external, you know, priorities that some of my counterparts have because we operate in a lot of small towns in America. But where we do, we've been testing out some different, you know, mitigation tools. You know, overnight burglaries.

We've got some tools that are interactive video tools that we've put out there that have served us nicely. We've done some, you know, where we've got liquor, we've done some locking cabinets that's helped us as well. And right now we're exploring a bunch of different alternatives and options for AI, not only with some AI vendors in the space, but also leveraging current AI tools that already exist in some of our current software. we've got deployed. And so, you know, all of those, you know, again, it's never one tool that's going to win the day, but it's thinking through all the different things that are out there and how do those things work together? I know you guys have done a good bit of work on the, on the security or asset protection ecosystem. And so I'm a big believer in that and early adopter of that methodology. And I think as you think about our business, that's the way we've got to be

looking at it. And balancing out, it can't just be a operational focus. We've also got to balance out some of the safety concerns that are in some of our tough locations as well. But it also can't just be that internal, external focus. And I think that's where a lot have missed the ball. Some have the worst, like you said earlier than others, but I think that the operational doesn't get the attention that it needs sometimes. And that, is an important piece of an ecosystem. If your ecosystem is completely built around managing and controlling internals and externals, well, what are you doing with the operational piece? I love the fact that you start with the data analytics and the data. You can't manage a mystery. I think the

thing is the leadership and management saying. So I think that's absolutely fundamental and it has to be key to every single program out there. Now, you've been doing this total retail loss thing for a little while now. You've got experience in managing all the different aspects of a truly comprehensive LPA program. For those who might be considering moving toward total retail loss model or adopting more of the principles of total retail loss of the total retail loss framework, how would you suggest they get started down that road or how can they make that shift? Yeah, look, first I'll tell you that if you're If you're not doing that today, you are operating with a very short-term strategy.

I will tell you, I mentioned earlier the idea that you got to quantify how big the size of the prize is. I think it would surprise people that have not yet adopted or have not spent a lot of time looking at the business with that lens. I think it surprised a lot of people if you actually put that lens on. the business how big that's the size of that prize is. And so I would, you know, as I think about the business, every day, I know we're part of the overall business model here because we've embedded ourselves into the pieces of the business that matter to the operations team, right? So not that shrink doesn't because it does, but it's only one component. But for us, it's shrink. It's cash loss, it's lottery loss, it's GNGM or grocery and general merchandise waste,

it's supplies, both store supplies and then prepared food and dispense beverage supplies. And it's like we're involved broadly in the business. And so I would say, you know, finding a way to number one quantify, understand how big it is, get partners bought in because you've got to do that. If you don't get your partners bought in that you can operate that space, then you're going to probably be hamstrung a little bit and trying to get it done. And then really understanding the effort and time it's going to take you to really build out the program to go after it. I think those are your starting points. I will tell you that when I first shared with the broader team, our findings on our assessment, I think they were

astounded as to how big it was and how important it is to the business. And And then the other thing I'd say is, you don't have to, so if you go back, total retail loss was really, you know, came out of the University of Lester, Adrian Beck, and others, I think Walter Palmer was involved. And I know they did a partnership with RELA and did some really cool stuff early on. This was a good number of years ago. And there's this. And then they went to Typology 2.0. They came out, I don't know, a few years later. And if you look today at all those buckets, you might go, oh, geez, that's a lot to do.

And what I would say is start somewhere. We started with five buckets. That's where we started. We expanded this year to our six bucket. And we've got additional plans to expand the program as we move forward. And I would say start somewhere. Start where you think you've got the tools and capability to manage it and to lead it. And then, you know, by starting somewhere, it gives you a starting point.

And the other thing, you know, and I could go on because this has been a big passion of mine. But I would say, market it. So it's as important for you to build programs, to get partnerships, to quantify the problem, all those things. But once you've done it, you've got to find a way to market it within your team. tell the story. You know, I've heard people say, well, we do total loss, but don't really call it total loss. I would tell you explicitly call it total loss or some version of that. If you want to throw it in chat, GPT and come up with some other naming convention, that's good.

But I would just tell you that total loss has been embraced by this organization all the way down to the unit level, to the individuals, our team members working in the store, into our supply chain, into our merchant. group. So I would say it's as important to build the program and build the ideas on how you're going to go approach it, but also market what you're doing and keep score. And keeping score helps you tell yourselves. Are you making the market? It also tells your partners how you're contributing to the organization. So those are some critical pieces that I would encourage you to look at. That's a masterclass and strategy there. Throughout this conversation, I've been, I've really been struck by some of the things that you do as a leader, from your focus on, you know,

building out a culture that excites people to work there, to calling out your team members like Craig and Margo and Joe and others. You know, there's a role saying great leaders give other credit, give others credit. So I wanted to end this with another. You've taught a few lessons on leadership already today, but I wanted to ask you, what other leadership lessons have stuck with you over your long career? What do you believe what leadership principles have made the most difference in your career? Look, building partnerships and relationships in the business is critical. I feel like, you know, I've got, there's a good number of us at the, at the VP level,

director level in the business. And I've worked really hard at building relationships. And honestly, that doesn't, relationships doesn't mean you just, you give in because it's easy. And sometimes it means having tough conversations and, but doing it with good intent,

right? You know, your plan is to improve the business and showing people that you're, you know, as passionate as I might be, I got to make sure I get them to understand my intent is good. and it's pure and it's not you know it's nothing less than that or nothing more than that and i and i would say also um you know finding ways where because because along the way you're going to make mistakes right in the

in that you know partnership sounds pretty or relationships sound pretty but sometimes it's messy right because you have a difference of opinion or you're you're moving someone's cheese and they don't like it and so you got to go back and figure out how to you know build that relationship and apologize when you've made mistakes because we all make mistakes and and show that person that you're you know you truly care about them and you truly care about the business so partnerships and relationships are are critical and also say like always be curious about the business like what you know whether it be your your you're your you're you're you're you're you're you know some folks might think they figured it out they've cracked the code on this thing called asset

protection or operations or whatever your role is but i would tell you i learned something new every time i go to a conference every time i talk to someone in the business or i watch a uh a webinar like whatever i've done um where i'm hearing from others and how they're approaching the business even though that might not apply exactly to my business i say look how could i make that relevant in my business and how could i go maybe maybe i don't even think that's a thing or problem for us, but let's go investigate it and try to understand. And so, number one, being curious makes you a great investigator and you got to be a good investigator if you're an AP, but it also allows you to go and dig into places that, you know, you might not dig into if you

hadn't been challenged. And you said it, like, look, I have a great team. You know, it doesn't matter how much, you know, you've got an idea or a thought or whatever. I pressure test, that with my team all the time. We, we, um, you know, my, my, my entire team and, and I don't have a huge team. So my entire asset protection team meets every Monday on a call. The team comes with what their challenges are, what they're facing in the business. And their, the field team is coming with their challenges and asking the store support center team, because that's our role, to help them solve those issues, right? And it's an open, everyone's got a seat at the table. Everyone's got a voice, doesn't matter what your function or role is in the organization, you can add in

or ask a question or give a thought. That's the way this thing is built. And I think that has helped build engagement with my team. We then meet, you know, on usually alternating Fridays to say, how well did the week go? Did we get you guys what you needed? Are you, you know, where the gaps still continue. And so finding ways to engage the team. We have fun when we're together. We always try to find ways to engage in a way that

makes people feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves. And I'll tell you that that's, I think that's critical in the business. Yeah, that cultures matter. That culture matters. I'm glad that we came back to that point because that was one of the first things that you really called out when we're talking

a turnover earlier. But thank you very much, Mark. This has been a fantastic conversation. I've learned a lot. I look forward to learning a lot more from you in the coming years. So thank you for joining us. Lori, thank you. Thanks for all you guys are doing at LPRC. We're happy to be a part. We're going to see you in a couple of weeks. So I'm looking forward to seeing there. Thanks for listening to the Crime Science podcast presented by the Lost Prevention Research Council. you can find more crime science episodes and valuable information at lprosearch.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 Loss Prevention Research Council.