1515 112TH ST SE BASE FILE 2018-01-02 MF Import

The Secure Store: A Clean, Well -Lighted Place BY T I MOTH Y D. CROWE 0 NE TO SHOW AND ONE TO 00" Is a maxim of merchandising. Materials management experts have developed the an of knowing just how much inventory to order to meet merchandising needs while holding down carrying costs. Merchandising and security are often thought to be contradictory. But is it good business to have a dirty, cluttered store with poor visibility and dim light- ing? Do high gondolas and shelves ac- tually increase sales, or are they more for employee convenience? After all, constantly replenishing inventory is boring and tedious, and you have to store the inventory somewhere, so why not on the Wet floor? Unfortunately, many fundamentals of business and merchandising go un. challenged. No one wants customers to be frisked every time they come in to buy a gallon of milk --or a fur cost. Many retailers worry that armed guards and extensive security measures will turn customers away, and they are probably right. Fortunately, people -environment m. lotions is giving conventional ap- proaches to merchandising and security a challengz. The concept of crime pm- vention through environmental design CPTED) is grabbing attention, espe- cially where businesspeople an con- cemned—in their wallets. One Texas -based convenience store compury has introduced a multiple -side store design. The design separsw dif- ferent customer groups and increases visibility into the store. Interior layouts are open, aisles are spacious, and shelves am kept low to increase convenience and natural surveillance. These stores reportedly have in- creased Sala by as much as 30 percent and reduced losses by as much as 30 percent. Employees became more in- volved in stocking and in-s'.om manage. ment; that involvements Hcre sed their proprietary regard for the space. CPTED is based on the theory that the proper design and effective use of the built environment can lead to a mduc- tion in the incidence and fear of crime and an improvement in the quality of life. Years of experimenu and field ap- plications have demonstrated that CPTED works in all envuonnxnts--that is, it applies to commercial, residential, transportation, rerGtional, and institu- tional environments. It has worked on scales as small as a single room and as large as an entire community. Its commercial and indus- trial uses have repeatedly supported the notion that the better one manages human and physical resources, the greater the profit and lesser the losses. In other words, a store that does its prims- ry job well generally has fewer secunry problems. A store that. t settee Live, well lighted, and open is appealing to cus- tomers, especially in the convenience industry, which thrives an impulse thopping and buying. A come that is profitable for a long dme depends on the enthusiastic support of its staff. Pride in one's work Aid! environment stimu- law extended territorial Ll concern. Honest cut- tomers and employees feel Safer and re movisible in, to quote Hemingway, a "clean, well -lighted place." They also feel the presence anti controlling behav- iors of others. Conversely, a dirty, poorly managed store engenders little pride on the pat of the honest employe, thus reducing ter- ritorial or proprietary concern, and Pro - moms avoidance behaviors. Such a store also introduces the possi- bility of civil negligence. Proprietors' failure to establish reasonable measures to protect their products, employees. and customers can be used against them in court as well as in out -of -court settle. menu. Poor inventory control and ac. counting may even suggest liability in cases of product tampering. A clean. well -lighted store whose proprietor and customers actively exhibit controlling behaviors tells others that only accepted behaviors will be tolerated. CFM IS ONLY A SMALL PART OF LOSS prevention, but it's important because it integrates security concepts into what has to be done anyway, before Addition. a) funds are spent on security officers or security devices. CPfED planners classify security strategies into dire camlories: a organized—labor- �� intensive security pro- gram whose cost is outside the normal functions and require. menu of human space ,for example, security officers) a mrrhanicaL—cap- ilal- or hardware-inten. sive security whose J cost is. again, outside the normal functions and requirements of the space (for example. fences, alarms, and cameras) a natural --the integration of security and behavior -control concepts into the monition of how human and physical resources am used (for example, spatial definition. placement of workstations, and the location or windows) The CPTED planner merely tees to maximize natural strategies before using the more cosily organized and mechani- cal onet, which may actually impede profitable operation. The conventional secunty concepts of 22A MARCH 1992 a„aru,o• inn Man sac^c