Winn-Dixie Sees Front-End Shrink Dropping

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

LOS ANGELES — Internal theft cases are down 39% at the front end of Winn-Dixie Stores and the amount of money per theft is down 59%, adding $7 million to the bottom line in the six months since the Jacksonville, Fla.-based chain installed a new anti-theft technology system and began educating its employees about it.

Speaking yesterday at a loss prevention conference here sponsored by the National Retail Federation, Dan Faketty, vice president of asset protection at Winn-Dixie, said he attributes some of the reductions to actually showing front-end employees where hidden cameras have been installed and how they are being watched and monitored.

Many of the front-end employees with whom the information is shared are part of Generation Y — aged 15 to 29 — who accounted for 85% of front-end shrink at Winn-Dixie, Faketty said.

“We felt we couldn't just go on catching people — we felt we had to come up with a front-end shrink strategy to eliminate the problem, which is why we installed the technology we did and let employees know how we were using it.”

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