BAD GUYS BEWARE!

West Coast store attends crime awareness seminar

In an effort to keep involved in the community and better understand loss prevention issues faced by merchants in the city of Richmond, British Columbia, two members of the local Roots store recently attended a community crime awareness seminar at the local RCMP detachment.

Store manager Barry Rooke and full-time Keyholder Sean Wiens took part in the half-day seminar along with officials from the RCMP, the Security Manager for Richmond Centre mall, the head of Loss Prevention (LP) at the Gap, and LP representatives from several local merchants including Sears, The Bay, Home Depot, and Best Buy. There was no shortage of issues for the specialists to address -- identity theft; credit card fraud; preventative measures to stop shop theft; personal safety; and increased communication between mall security and stores.

"The seminar was highly informative," says Barry, who has been working at Roots stores in BC since 1999. "It was also a great opportunity to build on our relationship with our mall security and learn from the best in the industry. Other related seminars are planned for the future."

Such crime-prevention issues are an inescapable part of running a major retail business today, and it obviously helps for store employees to be as informed as possible.

"I encourage participation in these kinds of seminars," says Julie McCahon, Director of LP at Roots. "They're usually held through a local community policing centre or mall security office. I have attended several such seminars myself and have always come back with something new to help prevent losses. It's important to stress that we always need to be safe and act in accordance with both the law and Roots policies and procedures."

Julie adds that if any retail staff attend such seminars and have questions on how the information relates to Roots, they are encouraged to contact the LP Department at the Head Office.