Shrink doesn’t start in December. The controls you fix in October decide how November goes.
☕ The Afternoon Coffee Break Read
Shrink doesn’t start in December. By the time Black Friday arrives, seasonal staff are hired, the floor is reset, and whatever controls you fixed in October are the ones protecting your holiday numbers. The preparation window is open now — and it’s short.
Here are five moves LP teams should make before the holiday rush:
1. Audit your EAS and alarm systems now. Walk every exit. Don’t assume tag readers, door alarms, and panic hardware work — test them. An exit alarm that’s been silent for six months will fail silently again on the busiest week of the year. Log every fault and escalate repairs before the holiday maintenance queue fills up.
2. Train seasonal hires before their first shift. Seasonal employees are your highest-risk population for internal theft — not because they’re dishonest, but because they’re untrained and new to the rules. Schedule the LP orientation before day one, not after the first incident. Cover the refund policy, bag checks, discount rules, and exactly what happens when policy is violated.
3. Lock down receiving and the stockroom. Holiday inventory spikes mean your stockroom holds more value than at any other point in the year — and back doors get propped open more often in the rush. Enforce door discipline: no propped doors, badge-only access, and a written log of who holds stockroom keys.
4. Adjust your exception thresholds for the season. Holiday volume inflates every metric. If your exception-based reporting thresholds stay at October levels through December, you’ll drown in false positives and miss the real fraud. Set seasonal baselines now, and have a plan for who reviews exceptions when volume triples.
5. Do a perimeter and CCTV sweep. Holiday floor resets change sightlines. Check that cameras still cover high-value zones, that fitting rooms are properly staffed, and that sightline-blocking displays get a mirror or a camera added. A store reset that blocks your best camera angle is a gift to shoplifters.
One more thing: brief store managers on organized retail crime indicators before the season starts. Holiday traffic is cover — organized groups use the crowds to run booster operations. A one-meeting ORC refresher costs almost nothing and pays for itself with a single good apprehension.
October preparation is November profit protection. The teams that walk into Black Friday with tested alarms, trained seasonals, and tuned exceptions don’t just survive the holidays — they post the best shrink numbers of the year.
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