Trends and Threats in Today’s Domestic Retail Landscape

Retailers today face a complex landscape of evolving threats, including rising organized retail crime, insider theft, and shifting consumer behaviors. The article explores how security strategies must adapt, emphasizing the need for cross-functional collaboration between operations, LP, and IT. With increasing pressure from both economic uncertainty and criminal sophistication, a proactive and data-driven approach is more crucial than ever.

Security Info Watch

What You Should Know About Computer Vision In The Retail Industry

Computer vision is transforming retail operations, enabling stores to track inventory, monitor behavior, and enhance customer experience in real time. This article breaks down the technology’s applications—from theft detection to checkout optimization—and urges retailers to invest wisely in scalable, AI-powered systems. As the tech becomes more mainstream, retailers who harness it strategically will gain a competitive edge.

Forbes

Resilience by Design: A Retailer’s Playbook for Cyber Survival

With cyberattacks on the rise, retailers must rethink cybersecurity as a core element of operational resilience. This playbook outlines how layered defenses, employee training, and business continuity planning can protect against ransomware and data breaches. It’s not just about defense—it’s about designing organizations that can recover and thrive amid digital disruption.

The Retail Bulletin

Cracking Down on Retail Fraud: How Ambient IoT Can Secure the Supply Chain

Ambient IoT offers real-time visibility across the supply chain, giving retailers a new tool to detect fraud and shrink. By embedding intelligence into items and packaging, businesses can track goods throughout their journey—from warehouse to store shelf. The article argues that this level of transparency isn’t a luxury—it’s becoming a necessity in the fight against retail crime.

My Total Retail

Proven Mitigation Strategies Can Help Secure the Future of U.S. Retail from Emerging Risks

Retailers face a surge in emerging risks, from civil unrest to cyber threats, that require more than reactive tactics. This article highlights tried-and-true mitigation strategies such as risk assessments, incident simulations, and stakeholder engagement. Future-proofing retail isn’t about predicting the next crisis—it’s about building agility to withstand whatever comes.

Security Info Watch

Not Sponsored. Just Impressed.

You heard it here first... Craig Greenberg shared how a Gatekeeper solution recently helped a retailer shut down an injury fraud attempt before it could spiral. That’s the kind of real-world impact Gatekeeper is built for. Their suite of smart technologies doesn’t just stop theft, it protects People, Product, and Profits.

Add in FaceFirst facial recognition for enhanced insights, and retailers get a full-circle solution that prevents pushouts, deters repeat offenders, and keeps associates safer at the front lines.

When you kick off an interview in front of a cash cab, you know it's about to get serious - seriously smart, that is. Tom Meehan joined Amber to unpack how CONTROLTEK is laser-focused on protecting cash, protecting product, and RFID solutions. From tamper-evident security to EAS and RFID tech that actually works in the wild, CONTROLTEK delivers practical solutions without the complexity.

Built on speed, service, and simplicity, their approach helps retailers lock in loss prevention while unlocking operational wins.

Straight from the UK and sharper than a proper cup of tea, SAI is bringing next-level visual AI to the retail floor. Helen Wilde gave us the inside scoop on how their platform transforms basic CCTV into a smart, learning system that sees more, knows more, and acts faster. SAI doesn’t just detect—it interprets, giving retailers real-time insight into behavior patterns, suspicious activity, and operational blind spots.

Whether it's monitoring dwell time in high-theft zones or triggering alerts based on custom rules, SAI gives retailers the edge to respond smarter and faster. It's intelligence, made visual.

Store manager shoots and kills teen robber at gas station, authorities say

A gas station clerk shot and killed a teenager who was attempting to rob the store early Saturday morning, according to police.

The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office said a 17-year-old boy was shot while attempting to rob a Lucky Seven gas station in Prichard, Alabama.

The teenager was shot in the right side of his chest and ran away from the scene.

He was later pronounced dead by medical personnel, according to police.

The 17-year-old was found wearing a hoodie, mask and orange gloves. He also had a 9mm Taurus pistol next to his body, according to police.

WSFA 12

Not Your Father’s Retail Crime Landscape

I remember conversations with loss prevention directors in the 1980s and throughout the 90s where stories were shared of bizarre methods for stealing merchandise, gaming POS systems, insider threats and daring flashmob shoplifting attacks on high-end jewelry and electronic stores.

For decades, retail crime was a brick-and-mortar challenge—shoplifting, internal theft, smash-and-grabs—tackled with cameras, EAS tags, guards, and locked cases. Shrink—inventory loss—was measured by what could be seen or carried out the door, with success defined by catching thieves or lowering annual shrinkage.

Today, as e-commerce integration expands attack surfaces, the battlefield has moved online.

SIW

He sprayed bug spray on Walmart produce as a social media 'prank.' He was sentenced to a year in prison.

 NBC 12 News

Reflections on the First 100 Days

It’s been just over 100 days since Gatekeeper Systems and FaceFirst came together in a merger that brings together two companies with a shared mission: making retail environments safer, smarter, and more secure. As with any meaningful transition, much has happened in a short time—and I’d like to take a moment to reflect on our progress and what lies ahead.

CT Lawmaker Accused Of Shoplifting; Takes Responsibility For Self-Checkout ‘Error’

State Rep. Raghib Allie-Brennan (D-Bethel) has been accused of shoplifting at the Target store in Bethel.

Allie-Brennan attributed the incident to a self-checkout “error” as he was rushing to visit his hospitalized grandmother.

Allie-Brennan, who is Chief Majority Whip in the legislature, was arrested on Monday, according to the Hartford Courant blog Daily Ructions, which was first to report on the arrest.

Patch

“I would have just went somewhere else”: CVS shopper heads to freezer aisle for some ice cream. Then she finds it locked up

A CVS shopper is going viral for calling out an unlikely item now under lock and key: ice cream.

TikTok user @queendotugc, who lives in Jacksonville, Florida, said she was stunned to find that grabbing a pint at her local CVS wasn’t as easy as opening a freezer door.

Instead, she had to push a “customer service” button to summon an employee, who unlocked the case after confirming her selection.

Daily Dot

Four women arrested, nearly $15k in stolen goods seized after coordinated retail thefts in Douglas County

The Douglas County Sheriff's Office said four people are now in custody linked to a coordinated retail theft effort involving nearly $15,000 in stolen merchandise.

According to DCSO deputies responded to a report of a theft in progress at a grocery store on South Quebec Street in Highlands Ranch.

The sheriff's office said the theft involved four female suspects – two adults and two juveniles – who were connected to another felony theft that had just occurred at a separate grocery store in Centennial.

KRDO

Immersive Technologies Help Retailers Boost Conversions and Reduce Returns

Total Retail

Target Testing Factory-Direct Shipping of Low-Cost Products

Target is testing a factory-direct shipping model that would enable it to offer lower-cost products to customers, per Bloomberg.

The model, which lets suppliers ship products directly to shoppers, closely resembles the strategy used by Temu and Shein to keep prices low.

The rationale: Target is struggling to make its case to shoppers, many of whom are either losing interest in the retailer’s largely discretionary assortment or turning away entirely in protest of its about-face on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

eMarketer