CASE STUDY

R Mall is a 250000 sq feet four storied fully Air Condiitioned Mall developed by Runwal Group which stands tall at LBS Marg, Mulund West. R Mall marks the foray of Runwal Group into the Retail Industry. R Mall houses Big Retail brands like Big Bazaar, Westside, Lifestyle, Provogue Studio, Raymond's, Pizza Hut, Subway, Caf Coffee Day, 31 Baskin Robbins, Mongini's, Archies Gallery, Planet M, Weekender, Ruff Kids, Hakoba, Tanishq and many more. There are more than 55 Retail Brands in R Mall. These brands offer a wide range of products and services to cater to every taste, style, want and budget. R Mall offers everything one looks for from shoes to shirts, kid's wear to sarees, pins to pizzas, South Indian to Lebanese Cuisine, movies to dashing cars and the list goes on. Along with the wide range that R Mall offers, it also ensures that the Shopping experience of its Customers is positive and delightful and thus, the mall offers a Customer Service Desk, Escalators / Elevators, Public Restrooms, Public Telephones, ATMs, First Aid Facilities, Lost & Found Services, etc The immense popularity of R Mall among Mumbaikar families, within such a short time span is a testimony of the fact that several benefits and entertainment options are offered in the friendly environment and happening ambience of R Mall. Indeed, R Mall is a one-stop center where you can not only shop but also watch a movie, read a book, sip coffee and enjoy dining, all under one roof. R Mall makes shopping a Fun Activity.

Case 1 A pair was charged with stealing 4 items of merchandise valued at more than Rs 9,500 from R Mall a retail outlet, Mulund. A loss prevention officer observed a man and woman concealing merchandise in a booster bag and left the store and entered a white Chevrolet Malibu and then drove toward the main exit of the Outlet. They were taken into custody and police were called to the Outlet It was found that the merchandise was inside a number of trash bags, and most of it was on hangers and had security sensors attached. Police noted that the security tags "can be defeated when placed inside a "booster bag," which the pair had used. Additionally, police noted that along with the clothes small accessories such as earrings and bracelets were also found. The couples were each charged with counts of retail theft, unlawful possession of retail theft instruments, criminal conspiracy, possessing instruments of crime and receiving stolen property.

Now a days apparel retail suffers the most on the count of shrinkage as does confectionary. Shrinkage is related to the attitude of a society as well. In India, it will be a perennial disease we have to live with. It is the cost of doing retail business in India.
The current numbers (for inventory shrinkage) is ranging from 2.6 per cent upwards. Contributing factors The commonest causes of shrinkage are due to employee theft and customer shoplifting. Nearly 50% of the retail inventory shrinkage comes from employee theft. Other causes of shrinkage include: * Damage in transit or in the store. * Administrative errors such as shipping errors, warehouse discrepancies, and misplaced goods. * Cashier or price-check errors in customer's favour. * Vendor fraud. * Perishable goods not sold within their shelf life. Shrinkage in retail that is caused by employee actions typically occurs at the point of sale terminal. There are different ways to manipulate a POS system, such as a cashier giving customers unauthorized discounts, creating fraudulent returns, manually entering values in the system or making a no-sale, which means that the cashier opens the cash counter without registering a sale. These transactions that differ from normal transactions are called POS exceptions. Traditionally POS fraud is fought by surveillance staff monitoring a POS terminal or by manually searching in surveillance video recordings. Modern POS systems can have automatic alerts when specific exceptions are detected. Also exception reports and listings based on employees, refunds, terminals etc are possible to detect with modern systems. Modern networked based POS systems can also include network video to POS exception listings, giving quick access to detailed information of what has happened. Inventory shrinkage has two factors. One is internal employee related shrinkage and the other is external customer related shrinkage. The first is controllable more easily than the second.

Inventory shrinkage is a crucial retail issue which needs to be addressed before it proves to be damaging, especially to the low profit bearers!

QUESTIONS: 1. Reaction of retail manager on the theft issues. Comment on measures to eradicate shoplifting. 2. How can employee theft be reduced. Comment 3. Are Security systems in retail outlets are sufficient.