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By Delia Paunescu: Assistant Editor

 
If all goes according to plan, the holiday shopping season will be a profitable one. So far, it’s going well. This year’s post-Thanksgiving weekend saw a 16 percent increase in general retail sales over last year, with the average consumer spending $398.62, according to the National Retail Federation. But a rise of customer traffic increases the chance that retail operations will become victim to shoplifting or theft, part of what the retail industry refers to as shrinkage.

VM reached out to optical retailers around the U.S. to see what their experience has been with shoplifting. Is it a problem in optical? While there are no hard numbers about the amount of theft and overall loss in the optical industry, ECPs said they are mindful of the risks, particularly for the higher-end, visible brand-name eyewear sold in their stores and dispensaries.

Stephen Franklin, president of Salisbury, Md.-based Accurate Optical, said he doesn’t usually see more than two shoplifting incidents in a quarter throughout the company’s 14 locations. “We’ll see the occasional setup in an office where a few guys walk in, distract the staff while some take a few high value pieces off the board. We’ve educated our staff on what to look for: instead of letting the patient wander unassisted, we’re helping the customers browse and also taking care of the product,” he said.

On the other end of the spectrum, Jack Schaeffer, OD, president of Schaeffer Eye Centers, told VM that theft is a real problem in high end boutiques. “With higher-end optical, it’s nice for patients to be able to touch the product. But because of the economy, we know that we have to prevent theft so we put them in a case or in a locked bar. It’s not something we want to do but we’ve had to,” he said. Schaeffer has replaced the frame bars with locked ones from Eye Designs in his 15 Alabama locations and, according to him, is now down to six incidents of shoplifting a year. “We catch one or two every quarter.” He added, “It’s very common.”

In the Big Apple, Brooklyn’s Luxeye Optical has experienced around two to three thefts a year, according to owner Jenny Ma. “It’s not very frequent, but it does happen,” she told VM. To combat the theft, Ma uses locking frame bars from Concept S in one location and the individual locking frame clips from Eye Designs at her second, even though she thinks both inconvenience the customer’s browsing experience. “Things get stolen even when they’re locked so imagine if they weren’t. My store would be gone in a month. I hope customers understand,” she said.

As an independent retailer, Camille Colaizzo, owner of Colaizzo Opticians, said that theft is “pretty nonexistent” at her Seattle boutique. “Knock on wood, it’s never been a problem. I’ll get a call from doctor’s offices in town now and then and they say, ‘There’s a band of thieves stealing all our Prada.’ Nine out of 10 times, it’s because they don’t have people watching the floor. It’s operator error, in my opinion,” she said. Her advice to boutiques? “If you carry stuff with a street label, you should lock it up,” she said, noting that thieves go after frames with brand power they can resell online. “I don’t sell those brands,” Colaizzo said, “But if I did, those would be under lock and key and you’d have to take them out of the case. That should pretty much stop it.”

Proving Colaizzo’s point, Franklin and Schaeffer agree that it’s the well-known brands shoplifters go after most. They named labels like Gucci, Versace, Polo Ralph Lauren, Fendi and Dolce and Gabbana as those that are most often targeted, in their experience.

Schaeffer said that after locking up product (a decision he makes based on price point), staff training really cuts down on his practice’s loss. “We’ve trained our staff to be on the lookout for theft and not leave anyone alone with exposed products. We talk about it every month, especially with front office staff.” He insists that someone always observe the actions of a customer or multiple customers, cutting down on the possibility of thieves “splitting a room” and distracting the staff. “It hasn’t stopped, we still have theft, but it’s a lot better. In today’s economy, you cannot stop a thief. I believe they’re smarter than we are. The key is to keep the amount to a controllable level,” Schaeffer added.

 
 One of the locking display cabinets offered by Eye Designs.
For those occasions where a thief does slip past a staff’s watchful eye, walking out with a pair of designer frames, Franklin installed security cameras from ADT in three locations—those he perceived to be most problematic. “It’s a group of cameras controlled by software,” he explained. “The video is funneled through the internet and recorded to a hard drive. The minute you have an incident, you can go back and see what happened.” Though Franklin said he hasn’t used the camera very much lately (they were installed in 2004 and 2005), he does like the ability to log in remotely. “It’s easy because I can just log on and watch what’s going on in an office. I don’t usually look at video feeds more than once a week though,” he said.

Contrary to Franklin’s method, Colaizzo doesn’t think cameras are the way to go. “Surveillance cameras don’t work because they’re very off-putting. You’re starting with a negative; might as well just fingerprint [customers]. If you want cameras, you don’t have to advertise them.” She added, “A store has to be tailored for an area. If you have a store in a new and trendy neighborhood, have a buzzer. Where’s your alarm system? All of these measures are breaking up the steps and the urge to steal. So if it looks tempting to someone who might think of doing it, this is stopping them.”

Luxeye does use security cameras and Ma shows the video footage to police after every incident of theft. “What’s most frustrating is how difficult it is to catch these people. Every time it happens, we call the police. They respond right away and patrol the block but that’s about it. We’ve never caught anyone who’s stolen from the store,” she said.

Whether the loss is retrieved or not, according to Franklin, “The unspoken concern is what if you have theft and you don’t really know? At some point, businesses need to make the investment in the technology whether or not they perceive there’s a problem.”