Do you have control of your store or restaurant?  By that I mean everyone who has keys to the building, and storage areas, codes to the POS system, and combinations to the safe are authorized.  And by authorized, I mean they have been properly screened, vetted, and have shown the appropriate responsibility to run your business.  And for every management change all those keys, codes and combinations have been changed.  If you haven’t, you do not have control of your store or restaurant.

Have you ever paid cash for merchandise or food and observed the cashier place the bills into the register and there was so much cash in the till that the spring loaded clip wouldn’t close?  Or the cash drawer would hardly shut?

A headline in this week’s St. Pete Times sports section stated “The Times Forum floor is deemed too slick as officials cancel Magic-Heat game in Tampa.”  The NBA pre-season basketball game was canceled 30 minutes before game time because “playing conditions were not commensurate with NBA standards … While some felt the court was indeed playable, our sole focus was player safety and leaving nothing to risk.” 

The slip and fall claims for the fast food (QSR) restaurant had increased dramatically for both employees and customers.  The quarry tiles were in good condition and according to the management they were cleaned regularly and according to procedures.  My inspection of the tile surfaces did not show neglect or poor cleaning procedures usually indicated by a glossy sheen or greasy feel.  But when water was placed to the tiles they were indeed slippery.  So, what was going on?

“Pizza, pizza, pizza!  Everyday it’s pizza.  I get so tired of pizza that I eat free as a benefit of working here.  So, with a little ingenuity, our late night crew now gets a little variety in our diet.  We worked out a little trade with the other late night restaurants next door and across the street.  We exchange a few pizzas for chicken, tacos, burgers and fries.  Everybody’s happy!”  While investigating mysterious rising trends in food costs, I heard this kind of statement many times from employees, particularly those working the late night shifts.

You receive an email from a good friend lamenting about their misfortune of losing luggage and their phone while traveling in Europe.  They don’t want to bother you, but would you be willing to send them $940 so they can get home.   You know that they travel quite a bit, the request seems to be genuine, and you want to come to their rescue.

I could never quite figure the logic of capturing cash sales at the registers and then putting the cash into the store safe that was left vulnerable to theft in so many ways.

Credit card skimming in the restaurant industry is becoming more exposed as higher dollar theft cases are being made against restaurant workers.  This time in the Minneapolis – St. Paul area, seven were charged with stealing customer credit card information from those they served in the restaurant.

A customer denied helping steal a pricey exotic bird from a Naperville, IL pet store.  She said she didn’t know anything about stolen birds.  Just so happened, police inspected her purse and found several feathers that matched the bird and some bird seed.  “Ohhhhhhh, THAT bird!”  Now that’s what we in the loss prevention biz call - your evidence.  The incident was also captured on the store's security cameras.