Australian Convenience Store News & C-Store Exhibitions | Security

Security has become a buzzword given world events of the last few months, but it has always been an issue in the route trade. C-stores are seen as a 'soft' target by many criminals - but are C-store owners and operators doing enough to protect themselves and their staff, and if not, why not?

Australians are great subscribers to the 'it won't happen to me' philosophy. Sadly, it's an attitude that can leave them in peril.

No-one who works in the oil and/or convenience industry can pretend to be unaware of the risks associated with a register full of cash. Not only are C-stores vulnerable to a hard-core criminal element who will grab-and-run, but also to loss of cash or product (read: profit) from staff - but it's something very few people want to contemplate.

A Form of Insurance
Security experts say Australians have traditionally tended to be reactive, rather than proactive. It is only when something happens to them, or to someone they know, or someone in the same line of work, that they start to take action - and that can be too late.

"It's like the argument of not having car insurance because you haven't had an accident in 20 years," says Joseph Novak of Hitech CCTV, which specialises in tailoring closed-circuit TV systems for small to medium retail outlets.

"What happens when you do? Security is the same. It's a form of insurance just in case. You hope you don't need it but you should have something in place to protect you."

Vince D'Angelo is national marketing manager for Tank Security which makes time delay anti-holdup products, cash vending machines and safes. He says there is a gradual shift in attitude about security, for a very interesting reason.

"We're finding many operators are becoming more pro-active about security, but from the aspect of making the work environment safe for their staff. It just happens they're protecting cash too.

"Basically, if the store is held up and there was no protection for the staff, the operator can be held liable if that staff member is injured. People are slowly becoming much more aware of their responsibility to their staff as well as the need to protect their livelihood," Mr D'Angelo says.

"The big companies are well aware of the issues because they have to be and they're doing the right things. It's the smaller operators, independent family-run enterprises, that are probably not doing enough.

"They don't have big margins so they're often reluctant to spend money on security because they see themselves as safe, but in many ways they're more vulnerable if something does go wrong. Obviously good security is not cheap, but it might prove to be false economy if you don't invest in it," Mr D'Angelo says.

Protecting Your Products
Once an operator accepts the need to improve security, it's a matter of working out what's involved. There are issues of loss prevention relating to both cash and product, and from inside the business as well as outside, along with the actual protection of staff when they're handling money, on and off the site.

If the issue is protecting products, there could be a simple solution. CDs and cassettes are popular and profitable items for sale in C-stores - and they're popular with thieves too. Proloc Security Systems makes Proloc security cases which are a highly effective, locking plastic protection for CDs, cassettes, DVDs, videos and printer cartridges.

"Proloc was developed with retailers for retailers," says Proloc's national sales and marketing manager, Phil Potvin.

"Products like CDs are often stolen and with a cover price of $20-$30 each, if you're losing them regularly, you're losing a lot of revenue."

Once a customer has selected the product they want, they take the Proloc case containing that product to the counter. There the attendant releases the product from the case and the sale is finalised. There's no time lost trying to locate the CD or the cassette in a separate library under the counter or out the back.

"The case has to be opened by an operator. If someone tries to break it, they're more likely to damage the product inside. The beauty of Proloc from the operator's point of view, is that it's not a one-use product. Once that sale has been made, another product can be put in the Proloc case and go back on the shelf," Mr Potvin says.

"Retailers are always looking for ways of making more money, especially these days when they can make more from the sale of milk and other products, than for petrol. They need to be able to offer plenty of variety to their customers, but make sure the products and their profit is protected."

For a more widespread form of protection, many operators will decide on closed circuit television. It's an area that has become far more technical, and particularly for C-stores, far more specific because of the way the C-store is developing.

"CCTV should not be a one-size-fits-all concept," says Hitech's Joseph Novak.

"Especially now many C-stores have coffee shops and restaurants and other areas that need to be monitored as well as the forecourt. You need the right system and it needs to be installed properly."

Mr Novak says installation is a key, suggesting that crimes are more likely to be committed in areas where the perpetrators can't see a camera and don't know they're being recorded.

"CCTV works best as a deterrent, rather than as a device to catch someone pinching something. You want to prevent it happening, because the actual process of having someone charged and following through can be costly. If people can see themselves on monitors and know they are being recorded, most of the time that will deter them.

Keeping Your Staff Honest
"From the perspective of protecting staff and the site's takings, it's obviously better to stop the crime before it happens rather than catching someone who's already hurt one of your staff and taken the cash. Obviously if it does happen, you then also have the evidence. It's also important to make sure you are recording because you can't keep watching the monitors all the time."

That is particularly true when it comes to keeping an eye on staff. It's a sad fact of life that you can't trust everyone and CCTV helps keep staff honest. Australian Retail Association figures suggest that anything from 1.5 to 3 per cent of stock loss is due to staff. With a similar percentage of loss attributable to outsiders, it soon adds up and your profits disappear.

And profit is what this is all about - well, keeping an eye on the cash. Whether it be staff or outsiders, the money that customers are paying is supposed to end up in the bank, all accounted for, not in others' hands. The whole process of cash handling is becoming more sophisticated - or should be.

"From the owner's point of view, the less staff handle money the better, so it has to be managed from when it leaves the customer's hand to when it gets into the bank," says Tank Security's Vince D'Angelo.

"It's all about loss prevention - you want to prevent money being stolen by staff, as well as the chance of them being in a situation where they are held-up or burgled. And you don't want to be facing negligence charges if something does go wrong, because you haven't done enough to prevent it. The other aspect of that is that your insurance premiums will go up."

Service stations and C-stores have a very high cashflow, by comparison with other small retailers. They also have a large number of casual staff and a fairly high turnover of staff. This combination of factors are what contributes to them being identified by security experts as a 'soft' target, in terms of both (internal) theft and robbery (external).

Protecting Your Cash & Your Staff
Robert Deane is Manager - Corporate Accounts and Field sales for Mayne Logistics-Armaguard, which provides a range of cash handling services. He suggests all operators should be examining the way their cash is managed.

"In the old days, when most owners of a service station actually ran the site, he or his partner would take the money to the bank. These days, when so many owners have multiple sites, they can't be in more than one place at a time and they need to delegate the banking to someone else.

"That raises a couple of issues. One is internal control because they are relying on someone else to manage their cash. The other is that from an external point of view, they are putting employees at risk by sending them to the bank. That's where the occupational health and safety issues come into play if something was to happen to that staff member while they're doing your business."

Mayne Logistics-Armaguard can remove those risks by managing the cash flow, either through the use of its SmartSafe which electronically monitors and balances the accounts, or through its collection and banking services.

"There are still operators with the 'it won't happen to me' attitude, but there is a growing understanding that the risks associated with transporting money to the bank are increasing," Mr Deane says

"There are some who will still do that, but they really are doing it at their own peril, particularly if they're using an employee to do it. Not only because of the possibility of injury to the employee, but because the operator can be substantially penalised for putting employees in an unsafe situation."

Mayne Logistics-Armaguard will tailor a solution to suit the operator's needs, whether on a single or multiple site basis. To do this they will assess how much cash is being handled and how often it needs to be banked, and whether it needs to be an armoured, or non-armoured service.

"We can transfer monies collected electronically into their bank account, which is particularly useful for multi-franchise operations because we can then report the next day how much money went through what site and how often. It's cash management by any definition - and our core business is managing cash," Mr Deane says.

In the same sort of business is Chubb Security Australia, which provides a wide range of services including CCTV systems, cash handling, alarms and monitoring.

Terry Mealor, who is the company's national marketing manager, says while it makes sense to upgrade security, there are many things the smart operator can do to improve their own situation before they start spending a lot of money.

"A lot of places are cluttered up with point of sale material on the windows so it's not easy to see in from outside. It's probably more a deterrent to crime if you can be easily seen.

"So people should look at the layout of their site with a view to rearranging it so they can see what's going on, and can be seen. Extra lighting and drop-down screens are a good idea too, without costing a fortune."

Mr Mealor believes there's every chance we will eventually follow America's lead, and customers will have no access to the store during the night hours. In this situation, the customer remains outside and tells the operator what they want - the attendant finds the articles and delivers them to the customer via a chute.

"It does seem like an extreme case, but we have already had enquiries here about that type of system. I think the recent terrorist tragedy in America has had a dramatic impact on Australians - private individuals and people who are in business have taken note and are looking at their own situations and tightening up.

"The other aspect is what impact that situation may have on the economy - crime always rises when there is a downturn in the economy. There's more theft from outside and with staff, and store owners need to be ready to deal with that."

No matter what the scenario, the bottom line is that criminal information gets around. People have a way of finding things out and, as Tank Security's Vince D'Angelo says, there are still too many people who keep money in shoeboxes.

"They're easy targets and anyone who does that sort of thing should be aware of it and make the appropriate changes. I certainly wouldn't want a child of mine working in a situation where they're at risk of being held up, when there are ways of minimising or preventing that possibility."