JCPenney, Lord & Taylor and Abercrombie LP Work Together To Catch Thief
Written by Evan SchumanWith all of the bitter retail rivalries and customer-stealing efforts, I found this story out of Syracuse, NY, refreshing. Seems that an LP officer working for Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) noticed a shopper shoving jeans in a white bag. Fearing the worst, he reached out to his counterparts at neighbors JCPenney (NYSE:JCP) and Lord & Taylor and they then jointly subdued the thief.
Can you imagine IT workers at Walmart asking counterparts at Target for help with a programming challenge or Treasury people cooperating on a payroll snafu? Loss Prevention often gets the most dangerous duties and they always wonder if corporate will have their back in case things turn ugly. (You need not worry. The answer is almost certainly “nope, not for a second.”)And with all of this, they have enough focus on just getting the job done that petty corporate rivalries are irrelevant. I know it’s naïve and impractical, but it’s probably not time poorly spent to look at what these dedicated souls for JCPenney, Lord & Taylor and Abercrombie were able to accomplish one day in Syracuse and to think about it.
-Marc
July 17th, 2013 at 12:31 pm
When you’re talking about measures to reduce theft, every retailer stands alone. As long as the deterrents keep them from taking products off of my shelves, I’m happy. But when it comes to fighting criminals, competing retailers, even bitter rivals, often work together. It’s in nobody’s best interests to allow a thief to keep walking free.
July 17th, 2013 at 4:29 pm
Most of the major retailers work together on tough ones to catch … including feds if needed for large crime orgs.
July 17th, 2013 at 6:55 pm
I agree that it is not in the best interest of the stores to keep him walking freely so he can steal even more. I am glad that stores can work together on this and were able to catch him. It just goes to show you that even if you are rivals, you can still work together and do some good for the community.