INSIGHTS

What 40-years in retail taught me about security and profit

April 4, 2025

Robert Oberosler
Experienced Retail Leader in Asset Protection/Safety
and Store Operations

Retail today feels like running a marathon with weights strapped to your ankles. Shrink is climbing, safety concerns are pushing good employees out the door, and insurance costs keep rising. While organized retail crime gets most of the attention (and rightly so) in many markets, the more routine, day-to-day issues like internal theft, store conditions, and operational blind spots and opportunities often go overlooked. And those are the ones quietly doing the most damage.

I’ve spent over 40 years in this business, and here’s what I know: some retailers are fighting battles they may not win and losing the war on shrink and overpaying for the solutions. I learned this one the hard way. With technology progressing at a pace we have never experienced, it’s the best time to reflect and explore how a company spends money smarter and best leverages the money already spent. Is it time to start investing in solutions that actually deliver better results and solutions that include participation of the entire enterprise?

So, what’s really driving retail shrink? What’s keeping stores from staying profitable? And, most importantly, how do you fix it? Let’s talk about it and prepare ourselves for the future with what we know now.

Table of Contents

The biggest challenges in retail today from a security perspective

If you’re running stores, you’re dealing with a perfect storm of security threats, some that you can control, and some that feel completely out of your hands and of course the online shopping which provide an alternative for customers not to come to your store to get what they want.

Here’s what’s keeping retailers up at night the most:

Internal theft is THE massive problem – Everyone’s focused on organized retail crime (ORC), and there’s value in that. But let’s be honest: internal theft has quietly been the bigger challenge for decades. It’s much harder to spot an assistant manager manipulating inventory or issuing fake refunds than it is to catch someone walking out with unpaid merchandise. In some cases, the focus on ORC has pulled a greater share of attention and resources away from addressing internal shrink – and that imbalance comes at a cost. With smart phones, the collaboration between employees and outside actors to commit theft requires better use of cameras as sensors, more data inputs like schedules, cycle counts, alerts with video, traffic counts etc to detect, prevent and predict.

External theft is still the main issue in some cities, but is it being handled properly? – Yes, in certain parts of the country organized retail crime and external retail theft isn’t just common, it’s potentially “business closing”. Law enforcement is stretched thin, prosecutors aren’t prioritizing cases, and repeat offenders know there are no real consequences. Whether it’s individuals stealing to resell or coordinated groups clearing shelves, the lack of deterrence is putting enormous pressure on stores, especially in urban areas.

Employee safety is a bigger factor than ever – It’s not just about loss prevention anymore. Retailers have an increasing obligation to create a safer environment for employees and customers, and if they don’t, people will leave. The best store managers (the ones who make the biggest difference in shrink and sales) aren’t going to stick around if they feel unsafe or not supported. And when good managers leave, sales go down and shrink gets worse. It’s a vicious cycle.

Retailers are struggling to stay profitable – Even beyond theft, brick-and-mortar stores are under financial pressure. Customers are shopping online more, operating costs are rising, and thousands of stores are closing. When some stores in a chain shut down, the remaining locations must absorb a larger share of headquarters, marketing, and other fixed costs, making profitability even harder to maintain. If a retailer doesn’t have strong controls and smart cost effective technology in place to manage shrink. keep stores safe, and improve operations, they won’t just lose money—they’ll lose stores.

None of these challenges are new, but they’re trending worse. Retailers that want to survive need to stop chasing symptoms and start fixing the root problems. And that starts with how they approach security, operations, and safety.

How retailers can stay profitable despite organized retail crime, shrink and safety risks

The biggest step a retailer can take? Focus on what they can control.

Staying profitable means focusing on those controllable areas first, where the right processes, technology, AI and tools can make a real impact to what has already been mentioned here as the core issues.

Here’s what that looks like:

Use technology that actually helps operators run the store

A security solution isn’t just about catching theft, it should make running a store easier. Operators don’t need more dashboards, more alerts, or more noise, they need clear, actionable insights that help them reduce shrink, improve efficiency, and keep the store profitable. Great technology should give district managers a ready-made case file, eliminating the need to hunt for the source of the problem.

From an internal theft perspective:

The right solution should connect transactional data with video to flag suspicious activity, like excessive refunds, no-sale register opens, no customer present, off hour activity, or voids during low-traffic hours. It should automatically surface these events, link them to the video footage, and package everything into a shareable report that’s trackable.

That means no digging through hours of video, no cross-referencing spreadsheets, and no guesswork. Just a clean, timestamped trail that gives managers and asset protection teams what they need to take action quickly, and with confidence.

The right solution should also make it easy to monitor store routines, like back door usage, delivery checks, or how long the safe is left open. If an employee props open a back door or bypasses a process meant to protect high-risk areas, managers should know right away. Smart alerts tied to camera activity can flag these kinds of policy violations without anyone having to sit and watch footage for hours.

It’s about visibility, seeing the patterns, the behaviors, and the exceptions that lead to loss, and stopping them before they become costly habits.

From an external theft perspective:

A strong solution should help identify repeat offenders, monitor known risk zones like entrances, exits, and high-theft aisles, and alert teams in real time when suspicious behavior happens, like loitering near high-value items or large group entries during off-peak hours.

It should also make it easy to pull and share footage with law enforcement or ORC partnerships, without the delay or complexity that usually slows things down. The faster you can respond, and the cleaner the evidence, the more likely you are to prevent the next incident, not just react to the last.

Cameras today should do more than just record, they should act like smart sensors. When movement is detected after hours, when someone enters a restricted area, or when a door is left open too long, that footage shouldn’t just sit in storage. It should trigger an alert, create a visual alarm, and send it directly to the people who need to see it without relying on outdated alarm panels or slow third-party monitoring. Video-backed alarms give context instantly, helping teams verify threats in real time and respond faster, with fewer false alarms and less wasted time.

From a staff and store safety perspective:

A good store manager is your best line of defense. They enforce controls, hire the right people, and know how to get the most out of the tools they’re given. But here’s the reality: great managers are leaving retail because they don’t feel supported. Safety, like shrink, is something they’re expected to manage, but without the right systems in place, it becomes an impossible task.

Safety isn’t just a liability concern anymore, it’s a major driver of employee retention. If staff don’t feel safe, they’ll find a workplace where they do. The right security solution should reinforce a culture of safety by providing visibility, real-time alerts, and tools that show employees someone’s always paying attention. That kind of environment doesn’t just reduce incidents, it helps retain the people who keep the store running.

The right platform should also play well with others. Integrations with tools like panic buttons, access control systems, and environmental sensors create a more connected, responsive safety net. When a panic button is pressed, it shouldn’t just trigger a generic alarm, it should instantly link to live video, notify the right people, and provide context so no time is wasted figuring out what’s happening.

Retailers that survive the next few years will be the ones who focus on what they can control. Drive profitable sales, retain customers, cut shrink, and keep employees safer. Invest in the right AI and tools, ones that actually help and are easy to understand and use. Remember, most store operators have an assistant store manager in charge of 60% of the open hours, all sales and shrink solutions need to be easy to use and intuitive if you expect them to be used.

The true ROI: What the right security platform should deliver

Too many security solutions promise the world but fail where it matters most: usability, flexibility, easy to understand, and deliver real results. Over the next few years, the retailers that thrive won’t be the ones that spend the most on security—they’ll be the ones that invest smartly.

So, what should you be looking for in a security platform to better fight against these monsters mentioned above?

It needs to be open and flexible

The biggest mistake you can make? Locking yourself into a proprietary system. I’ve been burned by that twice, and it’s a painful lesson. When you invest in technology that only works with one provider’s hardware, you lose all leverage. Worse, hardware depreciation will cost you in the long run, forcing expensive upgrades just to stay functional. A good security platform should be agnostic, it should work with the cameras and systems you already have. Open source vendors give you the flexibility to make smarter investments over time, rather than getting stuck with outdated, overpriced equipment.

It should make stores more profitable
Security technology shouldn’t just be about catching theft, it should help stores operate better. That means reducing shrink, improving efficiency, and even helping with compliance and safety. If a solution doesn’t have a clear, measurable impact on store performance, why are you paying for it?
It has to be easy to use and understand
Store managers don’t have time for complicated systems. They’re already buried under corporate emails, HR requests, compliance checklists, and everything else thrown their way. If a security platform isn’t simple and intuitive, it won’t get used. And if it doesn’t get used, it’s practically worthless.
It needs to provide actionable insights, not just data
The worst thing a security system can do? Overload you with information that doesn’t actually help. More data isn’t the answer, better trackable data is. With well defined dashboards that are easy to interpret, the right platform should highlight what needs attention, filter out the noise, and make it easy for operators to take action. AI takes this a step further by identifying patterns, detecting anomalies, and providing actionable insights, so you’re always focused on what matters most. AI will be what we have been waiting for, strong detective, preventive and yes PREDICTIVE controls.

The next few years will separate the companies that invest in great cost effective solutions that deliver the best results, from the ones that waste money on technology that never delivers. Choosing wisely has never proven to be more important than it is right now.. The customer now has a real choice, they are no longer restricted to geography and time in deciding where to shop, shopping comes to them, brick and mortar stores need to deliver well stocked, in stock, pleasant safe experience, with engaged employees everyday.

Why Solink can change the game for retailers

I decided to come out of a comfortable retirement because I realized, thankfully, I still “have gas in the tank” and I really believe in Solink and its capability to make a significant positive impact on many areas of the business with a low cost and best in class return on investment.

As a Solink consultant and having spent years in the industry – I can promise you Solink isn’t just another security platform. It’s a game changer because it doesn’t just focus on loss prevention, it helps run the store better. When I first saw what Solink was doing, it clicked immediately. They weren’t trying to sell another expensive camera system or a bloated analytics tool . They were taking the cameras retailers already had and turning them into real-time sensors for security, safety, and operations and delivering precise exception events with video.

That’s the key difference. Other companies give you data, Solink gives you actionable insights. Through POS data, AI-led technology and first-class people behind the scenes, instead of drowning in endless reports, operators get alerts that actually matter. Instead of expensive, locked-in hardware, Solink works with whatever system you already have. And most importantly, instead of being just another tool for the asset protection team, it’s a platform that field leaders and store managers actually want to use.

I’ve seen firsthand how operators react to Solink. When a regional director piloting Solink for us, walked into my office with his phone in hand, scrolling through real-time alerts and insights, he didn’t ask if he could have Solink in more stores—he demanded it. That’s how you know a tool is making a difference.

Solink isn’t just about security. It’s about helping stores stay profitable, keeping employees safer, and giving operators the tool they need to succeed. And in a retail environment where every penny profit counts, that’s exactly what retailers need.

Control what you can, fix what’s broken

Shrink, safety risks, and rising costs aren’t going away, but retailers can control how they respond. That means focusing on what actually moves the needle, strong store leadership, smart investments, and security solutions that do more than just record theft.

This is where Solink wins for you. Instead of piling on more expensive technology that adds complexity, Solink simplifies security and operations. It turns existing cameras into proactive tools that help operators run safer, more profitable stores. It doesn’t just provide data, it delivers the insights retailers need to act on. When I was in the industry, we started with a 10 store pilot, comparing other good solutions and Solink out performed our expectations. Before I retired we had Solink in hundreds of stores and I understand now in the thousands. The Solink team listens to the real needs and makes all the changes to deliver a superior solution.

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