LAS VEGAS -- On a large video screen, security camera footage showed the back half of a delivery truck slowly backing into the front sidewalk of a convenience store. A late model car idling behind it suddenly revs up and slams into the back to the truck.
The driver of the car claimed that the delivery truck backed into him, said Mark Wilson, director of store support for Altoona, Pa.-based Sheetz Inc. Before having this [security] system, we would have suspended the driver and would have had to wait for the video to come in before rescinding that suspension. But with the video, we could [image-nocss] immediately vindicate the driver and avoid the bad morale that the suspension would have caused.
Wilson spoke before roughly 200 retailers attending a workshop yesterday at the National Association of Convenience Stores' NACS Show 2005 in Las Vegas.
Wilson and two other retailers on the panel reviewed the systems they've installed and pointed out benefits and pitfalls in deploying digital security systems. Wilson says they've developed a sophisticated system for their 320 locations. Their setup includes a help center and staff dedicated to monitoring tapes and spotting predetermined criteria.
Besides Wilson, Michael Belles of Nella Oil Co., an Auburn, Calif., retailer, and Lyle Cusson of Butte, Mont.-based Town Pump, focused on benefits inclusive of reduced shrink, cutting Worker's Compensation claims and improved customer relations as benefits to such systems.
But they all agreed that researching the options, understanding the needs of a company from top to bottom, doing a cost-benefit analysis, obtaining executive-level support and continually monitoring the cameras are important factors for success.
Belles, who handles human resources for Nella Oil, said the system not only aids in security, but allows them to make sure the sites are clean, that employees are wearing the right uniform, that those same employees treat customers properly and that any incidents of shink, accident or customer complaint have video documentation.
Cusson said a majority of the lawsuits that are brought against his company have video documentation today, and he foresees every employee claim will also soon have such documentation.
Rollie Trayte, a security consultant from Scottsdale, Ariz., who moderated the day's session, said the uses for security systems are expanding beyond traditional paradigms.
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