Keeping Convenience Stores Safe from Physical Threats
Convenience stores come in many forms, from the mom-and-pop New York City bodega to the sleek Speedway on the side of a cross-country highway. They all serve millions of U.S. customers who run in for a drink, a snack, or a pack of cigarettes. With more than 152,200 convenience stores across the nation, various chains compete for customers’ dollars, with some dominating entire regions with a cult-like following.
Despite the competition and the variety, every store deals with are physical threats to staff, customers, and the facilities.
“With the convenience store world being very transient, it’s an industry where you don’t know who’s going to walk into your store at any time,” says Sean Sportun, national director of loss prevention and corporate security for Canadian supermarket chain Sobeys. Sportun was previously a loss prevention manager for Circle K convenience stores. Although these sites can present opportune stops for travelers, they are also relied upon by a surrounding community, an alternative to a larger grocery store with potentially longer lines when all a buyer needs is a quart of milk or a snack for the road.
The nature of these stores makes them convenient to patrons but also to criminals. Unsurprisingly, thieves often target these sites in the hopes of obtaining cash and goods. Thieves working for organized criminal groups will instead go for goods that can be resold on the black or gray market, such as cigarettes, alcohol, lottery tickets, or other popular merchandise.
But bad actors will also target other sources of cash kept in the stores: ATMs. There are several ways that a bad actor may try to tamper with an ATM, including skimming (where the thief may use one of a few different methods to steal the data embedded in the magnetic stripe on a credit or debit card), jackpotting (using malware to trick the ATM into dispensing cash), and more.
Thieves will also use more aggressive measures that endanger anyone in the store. With a smash and grab, thieves will either break into a store or use a vehicle to ram into the store, hook the ATM to the vehicle, and then drive away to rip the machine out. The ATM is then loaded into the vehicle and the thieves drive away, leaving behind significant damage.
Convenience stores also contend with accidental vehicle collisions. And whether intentional or accidental, vehicles can be as deadly or as destructive as most other weapons. In the United States, it is estimated that vehicles crash into storefronts more than 100 times per day, according to the Storefront Safety Council. Of that number, Rob Reiter, council co-founder, notes that convenience stores are the target 20 times per day.
Among all storefront collisions, roughly 46 percent involve a serious injury, 8 percent involve a fatality, and most of these collisions are preventable. Reiter notes that “the accidental terrorist, if you will, is far more dangerous than the intentional terrorists by an order of magnitude.”
It’s hard to argue against that statement when the data indicates that the accidental reasons for a vehicle crashing into a storefront carry the majority (operator error leads the way at 21 percent, pedal error at 20 percent, traffic accident at 12 percent, and medical emergency or issue at 9 percent) compared to criminal or intentional reasons for such crashes (DUI at 15 percent, ramraid or crash-and-grab at 6 percent, and all other causes at a collective 17 percent).
To be fair, it’s not just convenience stores that deal with vehicle collisions. In fact, convenience stores rank fifth on the list and make up 6.1 percent of all storefronts that have dealt with a vehicle crash, behind retail stores (23.5 percent), restaurants (19.4 percent), commercial buildings (11.2 percent), and offices (8.2 percent).
However, within the scope of the convenience store industry, the data is still less than rosy when it comes to vehicle-storefront collisions. “It’s a sobering thought that over a five-year span, 20 percent of all convenience stores are going to get hit,” Reiter says.
Convenience on the Edge
“It’s hard to be a convenience store in general,” Reiter says. “It’s a much harder life than people realize. Your margins aren’t that great. Your hours are long.”
Roughly 80 percent of convenience stores also sell gasoline, accounting for roughly 80 percent of all the fuel sold in the United States, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS). But the gross margins on fuel sales is slim, averaging 10.7 percent of the overall price for the past five years. To make a better profit, stores must lure in drivers with purchases on food, beverages, or other in-store items.
Meanwhile, roughly 55 percent of all stores selling fuel are run by a single-store operator instead of a larger company like 7-Eleven or Circle K.
“If you’re a mom-and-pop, your risk from theft is greater in terms of what effect it has on you compared to what it does for a major chain. They have 9,000 stores that aren’t going to be robbed and looted by a gang of teenagers that day, so they can make up the loss from the one that does,” Reiter explains.
This means that owners and operators have to constantly perform a balancing act between profits and solutions—especially when presented with a list of costs tied to security measures instead of traditional profit-generators like marketing or products.
“When you look at it from an operational perspective, it’s sales, sales, sales, which is the reason why a convenience store is there, right? They’re there to sell,” Sportun says. “But very close to that is the safety. The safety of the employees, the safety of the customers that are coming into the store, and the vendors, and so on and so forth.”
But it’s not only about the cost of some measures. Some owners are likely to think that while certain measures—like glass partitions or buzzer systems that control who enters and exits the stores—can protect employees from a violent attack, they can appear onerous to customers or can allow for easier shoplifting, likely resulting in diminished sales. Sometimes those smaller risks are accepted in favor of preventing or discouraging a more egregious attack.
Ultimately, however, it’s up to an organization’s security department to demonstrate how fewer criminal incidents can translate into profits and sales.
“Instead of security being a cost center, we need to show ourselves as a revenue generator,” Sportun adds. “That’s the pivotal moment between a security department showing that added value than just becoming a cost center to that environment.”
When the balancing act fails as an organization leans toward profits, the consequences can get expensive. Reiter has served as an expert witness in dozens of lawsuits against convenience stores, estimating that the payouts from these lawsuits have totaled about $400 million.
One of the more recent cases where he provided expert testimony resulted in 7-Eleven agreeing to a $91 million settlement. The incident that triggered the lawsuit occurred in 2017, when a man had to have both of his legs amputated above the knee after a driver accidentally pinned him under a vehicle outside one of 7-Eleven’s stores in Bensenville, Illinois. But it’s cases like that that are helping prove security’s case.
During the case, it was stressed by the court that the company should have installed bollards outside of the store to prevent drivers from crashing into customers, staff, or the store. Reiter notes that newer stores built by larger organizations will have bollards installed. The catch comes with retrofitting older sites, which he says goes back to a company’s culture.
Security should be seen as “the new green,” Reiter says. In recent years, and across sectors, some companies began investing in researching and developing how they could become more profitable by reducing the amount of energy required to run facilities. A 2017 study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Boston Consulting Group found that companies that focus on material issues—issues that have a direct or indirect impact on creating or maintaining value—reported up to 50 percent of additional profit from sustainability efforts.
If the culture towards safety and security adopts a similar approach to the one taken towards energy savings and environmentally responsible actions, then companies can expect greater savings through security.
“I can’t change driver behavior—people are still going to speed, people are still going to run into things. I can’t change shoplifting behavior—kids are still going to do what kids do. But knowing all these things, you can take measures,” Reiter says, noting that those measures can translate into dollars saved by preventing theft, accidents, and lawsuits. “…If you don’t keep people safe, what are you doing? You will eventually fail. It’s not sustainable to lose customers and lose $91 million and constantly be fighting it because your exposure is just too great.”
Beyond hefty settlements, Reiter adds that investing in security has the added benefit of helping a company’s brand reputation, fostering customer loyalty, and keeping insurance premiums low. Otherwise, “it’s a cumulative cost,” he says.
Change, Please
Previously, it was common to drive to a convenience store and not be able to see into the store because the front windows would be plastered over with ads.
“If something was happening in that store, nobody is going to know. …Natural surveillance is gone,” says Michael White, CPP, a risk assessment consultant. Similarly, if an incident is occurring at a gas pump or in the parking area, anyone inside the store is unable to clearly see what’s happening.
But that seems to be changing as more stores and their operators are made aware of the methods that can make a site safer.
Some owners or operators might assume that making a store safer requires the newest (and perhaps most expensive) surveillance system or lock. But it helps to first get an idea of the overall environment and understand the threats a store faces.
Larger companies with multiple stores throughout a region or nationwide will likely already have a security department in place to conduct a risk assessment. Relying on this department can help uncover local crime trends around a proposed site, as well as determine what local factors may impact an individual store. Sometimes, such assessments are as simple as exploring the area by foot or in a vehicle.
Schools, homeless shelters, halfway homes, and many other kinds of facilities can attract people that present potential issues for a store. “Kids and candy go together, so those kids will probably come by our store, meaning we’ll have youth issues,” Sportun says. Such issues can include shoplifting, illegal sale of alcohol or nicotine products to minors, and more. But knowing that these issues may arise can also mean an opportunity.
“If we know that information, then let’s build in those security measures and mechanisms as we’re building out the new site,” Sportun says. This can save money and time later as coordinating with a security expert at the design level can help diminish the need for changes after the site has been built or work into the budget the need for continuing elements, like security guards.
A risk assessment can also help a company determine if the best decision is to move the proposed site elsewhere. If an assessment indicates that a site is near areas with a higher number of violent crimes or car thefts, then the company may decide that the risk is too great.
“It’s going to be reputational risk because we’re now going to have these events,” White says. “And every time that a camera pans around, people are going to see our logo and believe that stuff happens around that convenience store, and it’s never good.”
Surveillance can also work inside the store in surprisingly low-cost ways, thanks to crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). “When we talk about CPTED, those are sometimes some lower cost solutions that have operators going, ‘Holy smokes. …I didn’t have to do all these crazy things that I thought were going to cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars,’” White says.
White likens convenience stores to libraries—keen to pack products onto shelves and utilize as much vertical space as possible. The reasoning makes sense from a sales perspective: the more options or products a customer sees, the more likely they are to buy products whether planned or on impulse, ultimately turning a profit for the stores.
“I have seen in so many of those where I had to step outside to change my mind because there was no room inside this thing,” he says. “I could not turn without knocking product off the shelves. I had to follow this little pathway to get back to the clerk because I feel like I’m Godzilla in Japan.”
The downside to overly crowded and tall stacks of products is that thieves and shoplifters know that staff likely can’t see if they tuck something into a pocket or bag and leave without paying for the product.
Instead, stores should keep shelves and products from getting stacked too high, creating natural sightlines so staff can monitor anyone in the store from behind the cash register. White also recommends angling the aisles and installing mirrors to prevent blind spots. If a store uses a surveillance system, it should be strategic in its camera placement, opting to cover any dead spots that are not easily naturally surveilled by staff.
Staff can also play a slightly more active role in surveillance by simply being welcoming. White calls this the “Blockbuster” method, named after the once-popular video rental store. “You walk in, and someone says hello. Now you’ve been identified. Whether they looked at you or not, you heard them say hello,” he says. If someone walked in with the intention of stealing from the store, he or she now knows they have to contend with being noticed and even identified, making it more likely that he or she will choose to steal from a store with less-attentive staff.
While knowledge and awareness are invaluable, physical solutions are still required to mitigate issues like crash-and-grabs. One of the most enduring measures are bollards—sturdy, vertical columns that are often made from tough materials, such as stainless steel or concrete. When a higher-rated bollard is strategically installed in front of a store, it allows pedestrians easy, frictionless entrance into and exit from a store while preventing vehicles from moving past the designated parking area.
“I regard bollards as low-cost solutions because it’s a fire-and-forget weapon. You put them in and for 25 years you don’t do anything to them, you’re just fine,” Reiter says. “Over 25 years, it’s pennies a day.”
Bollards also present an opportunity for security to reach out to another department: marketing. These posts could be painted to match a store’s colors or logo or dressed up to mimic soda or energy drinks, something Reiter says he has seen at his local grocery store. “They’re actually effective little billboards,” he says.
Smaller organizations and single-store owners may consider reaching out to security consultants that can provide a risk assessment or direct the owners to free and affordable resources. These are also experts who can help provide some perspective around security measures, especially as not all measures are made the same.
According to White, some businesses (regardless of size) might use heavy planters or bollards that may not be appropriately rated for the intended purpose, selected instead for its aesthetic appearance or affordability.
“The intent is there. The security theater happens and we’re showing that we’re doing things. They’re just not being done to the extent that they probably should be,” he adds.
Other solutions stem from elements of CPTED principles, which can help make a store seem more welcoming to customers and perhaps make thieves think twice before targeting that site.
One of those methods is the amount of space created between the front of a convenience store and the parking area or streets that provide access to the store. When designing new stores, increasing the space between these areas where possible, along with installing obstructions like gas pumps and bollards, can greatly reduce the risk of a vehicle colliding into a storefront whether accidentally or intentionally, according to Reiter.
And for existing stores there are simple methods, according to White, notably lighting and signage. Ensuring that the store is well-lit inside, as well as any external areas including parking and gas pumps, helps a site look well-maintained and welcoming. Proper lighting and few to no shadowed areas also means that store staff and customers can provide natural surveillance throughout the site, ultimately presenting less of an easy target to thieves or other bad actors.
Simple signage around the space, communicating with the public about which actions are not permitted, such as loitering, also help a store present reasonable expectations to customers and the community.
“If you educate the public and you have civil discourse, people will eventually, oblige,” White says. “If they don’t, that’s when you have those procedures and processes in place that support enforcement.”
Sara Mosqueda is associate editor for Security Management. Connect with her on LinkedIn or send an email to [email protected].
